Two #mugabe henchmen pass on

via Two Mugabe henchmen pass on | The Zimbabwean 05.06.14

Two of President Robert Mugabe’s trusted lieutenants, former cabinet minister and Zanu (PF) spindoctor as well as politburo member, Nathan Shamuyarira, and Lovemore Chipunza Sekeramayi, a senior election strategist, have died.

Shamuyarira, who was Zimbabwe’s third Foreign Affairs minister, passed on at West End Clinic in Harare.

Webster Shamu, the Zanu (PF) national commissar and Minister of ICT, who hails from the late Shamuyarira’s province—Mashonaland West—confirmed the death.

Health Minister, David Parirenyatwa, said: “He passed on at around 22:30 after having been admitted on and off for some time. In the end, he had problems with a chest infection; he had been unwell for a while.”

Born in 1929, Shamuyarira, a trained journalist, was the first black editor of an African publication, the Daily News in 1956.

Between 1959 and 1962, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the African Newspapers, after which he left to join the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) but later ventured into university teaching in the then Rhodesia and Nyasaland before moving to Tanzania.

At independence in 1980, he joined the government as part of the information portfolio and was later appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 2000, he resigned from government, saying he needed to concentrate on party affairs, but he had started experiencing health problems. He then led the information department of Zanu (PF) as its chief spindoctor.

Considered a godfather in Mashonaland West, Shamuyarira however left active politics in 2010, saying he needed to concentrate on writing Mugabe’s biography, but he did not complete the task.

Sekeramayi, who had been Chief Election Officer at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) since 2007, yesterday died from an undisclosed illness in Lesotho where he had gone for a meeting of chief elections officers in the southern African region.

He was 67.

ZEC chairperson, Rita Makarau confirmed the death in a statement yesterday.

Sekeramayi had worked as civil servant from 1982 as a District Administrator, Provincial Administrator, Deputy Registrar General and Deputy Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet.

He presided over the controversial 2008 elections in which his commission delayed releasing results of the first presidential poll by about a month, in a move that critics say was meant to rig the election that MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won.

Both Shamuyarira and Sekeramayi are likely to be made national heroes.

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