Four ZEC officials die in 3 months

HARARE – Tongues are wagging after a fourth Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) official died in under 3 months. Director of Administration Juba Chekenyere (54) died yesterday morning from a reported heart failure. 

Stephen Goneso, Zec acting chief executive officer, confirmed the death and said they were still planning the burial arrangements.

He did confirm that Chekenyere would be buried in Gweru. “We are still not sure of the exact place where he will be laid to rest but the burial will be on Thursday,” Gonese said.

Only last week Zec acting director for public relations Tendayi Pamire died at B.S Leon Medical Centre in Harare. According to family spokesperson Silent Pamire, the Zec official succumbed to renal failure.

In June, Zec chief executive officer Lovemore Sekeramayi, 67, died while attending a Sadc elections meeting in Lesotho. He was found dead in his hotel room of heart and lung failure.

Sekeramayi’s death came barely two months after the election commission lost another top-ranking official, Shupikai Mashereni, who was director of public relations.

In 2008, Ignatius Mushangwe, a ZEC official who disappeared after leaking information on how Mugabe had planned to rig the 2008 elections, was abducted and later found dead. His partially burnt body was dumped in a bush near Norton.

Evidence which later emerged suggested Mushangwe was murdered by a hit-squad from the military intelligence allegedly led by one Staff Sergeant Makwande to silence him in an operation approved by the Joint Operations Command (JOC).

A senior intelligence source at the time claimed the murder was “a dry operation, a dry disposal,” which he described as an assassination carried out in a hurry.