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Former Zanu PF Stalwart Amos Midzi Linked to Mujuru Faction Dies in Suspicious Car Incident


FILE: Zanu-PF supporters seen outside parliament during the official opening ceremony Tuesday.
FILE: Zanu-PF supporters seen outside parliament during the official opening ceremony Tuesday.

Former Energy Minister and deposed Zanu PF provincial chairman for Harare, Amos Midzi, who has been linked to a faction of the party said to be led by former Vice President Joice Mujuru, was on Tuesday morning found dead in a vehicle.

According to state-controlled and independent newspapers, Midzi died in the vehicle at his Marirangwe Farm in Beatrice, outside the capital, Harare.

Police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, was quoted as saying police are carrying out investigations.

Midzi and other several senior Zanu PF officials were accused in the run up to the party’s elective congress last December to have allegedly hatched a plan to topple 91 year-old President Robert Mugabe.

But in a turn of events, the officials, who included former party spokesman Rugare Gumbo, and former secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa, were sidelined, attacked by Mr. Mugabe and his wife, Grace, and other party leaders for fanning factionalism in an attempt to get rid of the president.

They have all denied any wrong doing, saying this was a scheme hatched by another faction of the party allegedly led by now Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to take control of Zanu PF in a succession battle pitting him and the deposed vice president.

Mr. Mugabe has been ruling Zimbabwe for more than 35 years since the country attained independence from British rule.

A member of the Midzi family, Cornelious Bwanya, said they have been devasted by the former ambassador's death.

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Political commentator Dr. Nkululeko Sibanda of Huddersfield University in Britain said foul play cannot be ruled out in Midzi's death.

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But Morris Ngwenya, a Zanu PF activist and political commentator, said such thinking is retrogressive and misleading.

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