Zanu PF dithers on Chininga hero status

By Lance Guma

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HARARE – Could the same men who allegedly had Zanu PF MP Edward Chindori-Chininga killed in a suspicious car accident be the same individuals making a request to the Zanu PF Politburo for him to be granted national hero status?

The official version is that Chindori Chininga (58) died in a car accident when a Jeep Cherokee he was driving allegedly failed to stop at a T-junction on the Raffingora-Mvurwi Road and rammed into a tree.

According to the state owned Herald newspaper, Youth and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Zanu PF provincial chairperson Dickson Mafios visited the Chininga homestead.

The two are said to have briefed Chindori-Chininga’s widow “on the position taken by the Mashonaland Central provincial committee to write to the Politburo to recommend Chindori-Chininga for national hero status.”

But Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa said the Zanu PF Politburo is yet to receive official communication from the Mashonaland Central provincial committee on the request to declare the former Mines Minister a national hero.

“We have not yet received a letter from them. If we receive we will act accordingly. At the moment I am in Manicaland and will check tomorrow,” Mutasa said. Mafios meanwhile claims they wrote the letter last Friday.

“We have made our recommendation and things will begin to take picture tomorrow (Monday) as we will be coming from the weekend,” he said.

There are doubts over what killed Chindori-Chininga given that pictures of the car prove the windscreen was intact and the airbags were not deployed.

Facebook activist Baba Jukwa, had previously warned that Chininga had been marked for assassination by Mugabe’s regime with suspicion in Zanu PF that he was in fact Baba Jukwa and leaking sensitive Zanu PF secrets.

Writing on Facebook a few hours after the accident Baba Jukwa blamed what he called the Zanu PF “Mashonaland Central mafia.”

“Chindori Chininga openly told them that he will join the Vapanduki (rebellion) crew if they continued with their attempt to nail him down and l wonder why he didn’t listen when l was all along warning him of the impending danger.”

Baba Jukwa went on to issue another warning to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono saying “I wonder still as well why Gideon Gono is not heeding my warning. Funeral wake is going to visit his family very soon if he doesn’t take drastic measures to save his precious life.”

“They want your head in the platter. Saviour Kasukuwere, Nicholas Goche, Sydney Sekeramayi, Dick Mafios and the evil crew are responsible for Hon Chindori Chininga’s death and are also responsible for an attempt on the life of Mashonaland Central Governor Martin Dinha,” Baba Jukwa alleged.

According to Baba Jukwa “Gift Chininga the brother to the late hero led the family team that has visited the scene and the party and the government have not indicated how they will assist the family or the hero status of Chindori.”

Baba Jukwa contradicted the state media claims saying “The Mashonaland Central leadership is seen by its absence at the funeral wake were all those who are mourning Chindori are gathered at his Christon Bank house.”

“There is no burial of an individual that has taken so long like Edward Chindori Chininga’s. Today the family is saying if the decision is not made, they will go and do their rituals at their Guruve home and bury him there.”

This is not the first accident involving Chininga.

Only last year one person died while seven others, including Chindori-Chininga were injured when their vehicles collided in Concession. That accident occurred near the 5km peg along Mazowe-Centenary Road involving Chininga’s Mercedes Benz and a Nissan pickup truck.

Two years ago ZANU PF expelled Chininga from the constitution making committee (COPAC) on allegations that he leaked secret documents to the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The MP took to facebook and launched an astonishing attack on Didymus Mutasa, the party’s Secretary for Administration.

Only last week a parliamentary portfolio committee chaired by Chininga exposed serious discrepancies between what government receives from the diamond mining sector and remittances claims by producers.

“In January 2010 Mbada Diamonds attempted to auction its diamonds, in violation of both national and international law. The aborted diamond auction sale opened a Pandora’s box, revealing several irregularities and loopholes in the entire diamond value chain,” the committee said.

Chindori-Chininga is survived by a wife and three children.

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