ZAPU supremo and liberation war hero, Dumiso Dabengwa has died, he was 79.
Dabengwa, who had been in and out the hospital, died on his way from India where he was seeking medical attention, a family member confirmed.
Reports claim he was suffering from liver disease.
Dabengwa had not been active in ZAPU politics and had revealed plans to step down from the leadership at the party’s upcoming congress.
Dabengwa actively supported MDC leader Nelson Chamisa’s campaign in the run-up to elections last July, after ZAPU joined the MDC Alliance.
A former intelligence chief of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Party (ZIPRA) during the bush war for independence in the 1970s, Dabengwa announced in 2009 that he was leaving Zanu PF and withdrawing ZAPU from a unifying pact signed in 1987.
In July 2017, he unveiled the Dumiso Dabengwa Foundation, a non-profit organisation that seeks to, among other things, push for restorative justice for the Gukurahundi and political violence victims in the country since 1980, in what he said were his first steps of moving away from active politics.
The foundation also seeks to carry out a number of developmental and humanitarian projects to help mitigate shortcomings in areas of human capital development, promotion of democracy and constitutionalism, leadership, governance and the welfare of ex-combatants.
more details to follow
