The late Zanu PF spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo, has been declared a national hero.
According to the state-controlled Herald newspaper, the Zanu PF Politburo overwhelmingly agreed to grant Khaya Moyo the national hero status.
Khaya Moyo will be laid to rest alongside his mentor, the late Zapu leader, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo.
In his condolence message, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said, "The tragic demise yesterday of Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo after a long battle with cancer came as a profound shock to our nation, to our party Zanu PF and to me personally."
He said Khaya Moyo distinguished himself "as a patriot, freedom fighter and a resourceful, versatile cadre beyond the onerous and risky chores of the liberation struggle which he embraced with selfless courage ... He was and remains our hero and true son of the soil."
In another condolence message, Zapu secretary general, Mthulisi Hanana, described Khaya Moyo as a nationalist, who fought for the liberation of the country.
But some critics like Mqondisi Moyo of Mthwakazi Republic Party expressed discontent over the manner in which the late hero worked with local people.
Khaya Moyo, who was a guest on VOA Zimbabwe Service's prime show, Livetalk, said, "He did almost nothing for his own people in Bulilima. It's really sad that he remained in Zanu PF that deployed Gukurahundi which killed thousands of people in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. That's very said."
The late national hero joined the liberation struggle in the last 1980s and underwent military training in Russia and Cuba.
In the 1980s, he was appointed a senior state official before the late former President Robert Mugabe sacked Joshua Nkomo and his Zapu colleagues, claiming that they were planning to topple him.
Khaya Moyo once served as Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa.