Chindori-Chininga denied national hero status

HARARE – Zanu PF has declared Guruve South MP and former Mines Minister Edward Chindori-Chininga (58) a liberation hero.  The Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa confirmed that the party had accorded Chindori-Chininga liberation hero status. 

“There are three status in Zanu-PF the highest being the national hero, which we have not granted. The second one is the liberation hero, which is what we have granted to Chindori-Chininga.  This is almost similar to the liberation war hero status given to those who fought in the liberation war,” Mutasa said.

Mutasa said the Zanu PF Mashonaland Central province had requested that the party grant him national hero status, but he could not qualify. “When we considered and consulted we agreed he could not qualify for national hero status,” he said.

Family spokesperson Mr Victor Chininga said they had been informed that his brother had been granted liberation hero status. “Mashonaland Central provincial chairperson (Dickson Mafios) told us about the decision made and we are finalising burial arrangements,” he said.

He said Chindori-Chininga would be buried tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon at the Chininga homestead in Guruve.

The official version is that Chindori Chininga 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 last Wednesday.

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. This is also 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.