UPDATE: Patson Dzamara to be buried in Mutoko, says MDC Alliance

As of late Wednesday, the Nelson Chamisa-led main opposition MDC Alliance had been indicating that the burial of its national executive member Patson Dzamara could be held in the deceased activist’s native Mutoko district.

Dzamara, who lost his battle with colon cancer at the age of 34, was due to undergo an operation at an estimated cost of a whopping US$27,000.

An online fund mobilisation initiative by his friends had thus far netted about US$14,000 before Dzamara breathed his last.

“May I please advise all our members that the late Dr Patson Dzamara’ s funeral is in Glenview 7. It’s being suggested that burial will be in Mutoko tomorrow,” the opposition party’s Organ Madzore said in an announcement.

“He was our National Executive member in the MDC Alliance. Solidarity is one of our key pillars on our values as a party,” Madzore said.

The party also called upon its members who reside in areas proxy to Glenview 7, where the deceased stayed, to throng Dzamara’s funeral wake and subsequent interment in Mutoko.

The singled out areas include Glennorah, Highfield West, Highfield East, Glenview North, Budiriro, Glenview South and Harare South.

The late Dzamara, whose rise in political activism can hardly be divorced from his five-year call for the ‘release’ of his allegedly abducted elder brother Itai, was a member of Chamisa’s communications team during the disputed 2018 polls controversially won by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling Zanu PF.

Itai Dzamara, a journalist-cum-activist was abducted in 2015 while at a barber shop in his Glen View neighborhood.

In the aftermath of his alleged abduction by suspected hired state captors,  vicious finger-wagging directed at Zanu PF, then under the leadership of deposed late despot Robert Mugabe who was succeeded by Mnangagwa in a November 2017 military coup, has failed to bear any fruit.

His death has resulted in the outpouring of grief from various organisations and prominent figures who include Chamisa and businessman Nigel Chanakira.

“I am personally devasted,” Chanakira who was part of the group mobilising funds for the late Dzamara’s operation said.

Chamisa, who apparently broke out the news of the late Dzamara’s demise also expressed devastation at his death.

“I am so devastated. Just received bad news from the Dzamaras. The young Dr Patson Dzamara gone too soon. This has been a terrible 2020,” said Chamisa in comments posted on his Twitter handle Wednesday.

more details to follow…
Zwnews