Angry MDC Alliance youths reportedly barred Zanu PF councillors from addressing mourners at Councillor Lavender Chiwaya’s burial on Wednesday, The Herald reports.
According to the publication, Karoi Town Council, chairperson, Cllr Abel Matsika and 6 other Zanu PF councillors were forced to follow proceedings from a distance as the youths reportedly threatened to beat them up.
The MDC-A supporters are alleging that Chiwaya, the party’s Hurungwe Central chairperson, who was found dead last Friday four houses away from his home, was murdered by state security agents.
Cllr Matsika told The Herald that they were forced to leave midway through the burial since the situation was degenerating into a rally and that the behaviour of the youths was totally at variance with the late Chiwaya’s character.
Zanu PF’s Karoi Council Chairperson Abel Matsika:
The youths barred us from accessing the grave site. I then asked to be given a chance to speak on behalf of the council before we leave and they refused. Chiwaya was a civic leader who belonged to MDC-A but he never took his political affiliation to work and endeared himself with people from different social classes, which explains why a lot of people and not only from his party, turned up to bury him.
The MDC Alliance alleged that state agents killed Chiwaya who was found dead a few houses from his house last Friday and the ZRP refuted the claims and even went on to caution the party for making such claims.
Chiwaya was elected councillor in 2008 when he was 22. He is survived by his wife and five children.
More: The Herald
