Harare - Zimbabwe's controversial war veterans leader and one of President Robert Mugabe's staunchest supporters, Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, died on Monday morning at a hospital in the capital, state radio reported.
The condition of Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, 51, Zimbabwe's war veterans' leader and member of parliament, deteriorated to the point where he was placed on a life-support system in the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) at Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital. The CCU is a special unit for critically ill patients who need life support.
Hunzvi, one of President Robert Mugabe's staunchest supporters, was admitted into the hospital on Wednesday - a day after he was released from the same institution. Last week Hunzvi collapsed and spent several days in hospital in the city of Bulawayo, reportedly suffering from cerebral malaria.
Medical sources dismissed the malaria claims, saying Hunzvi has a history of ailments linked to a "lesion on the lung and insufficient bone marrow activity", both of which are usually Aids-related. "While it is normally in bad taste to discuss the medical records of our patients, Hunzvi's case is different. He was a public figure, a very public figure. People need to know about the nature of his illness," said a doctor close to his medical team.
Hunzvi's illness comes as a major blow to the ruling Zanu PF party's campaign programme for the Presidential election next year. It is a week after the death of another Zanu-PF stalwart, defence minister Moven Mahachi. Mahachi was killed less than a month after gender and employment minister Border Gezi. Both died in car crashes.
The party seems to believe that it is facing a fresh, unnatural crisis arising from a myth among the ageing Mugabe followers that their opponents were using black magic to attack them. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of Parliament and an unwavering Mugabe loyalist, appeared on national television visibly shaken by the recent spate of misfortunes. "We don't know what is hitting us," he said. "It's not natural. Something else must be happening."
On Friday, Hunzvi's relatives were said to have called his lawyer, Aston Musunga of Musunga and Associates to draft a will, but the lawyer refused to confirm this. On the same day, top politicians, including the two vice-presidents Simon Muzenda, Joseph Msika and top officers in the army, visited Hunzvi in his private ward.
Hunzvi, the MP for Chikomba, was the chairman of a faction of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association. Last year, he led the ex-combatants and Zanu PF supporters in seizing mainly white-owned commercial farms for resettlement. Thirty-five people - mainly opposition supporters - died in the campaign.
Zanu PF won 62 seats, most of them in the rural areas. It lost 58 seats to the opposition, most of them urban constituencies. Two weeks ago, Hunzvi collapsed at a Bulawayo hotel and was rushed to a clinic in the city. Hunzvi was discharged from Parirenyatwa Hospital on Tuesday, only to be re-admitted the following day
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