HARARE – A Zanu PF youth leader and aspiring councillor is battling for his life at Harare Central Hospital after he suffered serious burns following a petrol bomb attack by his ruling party comrades during violent clashes over housing stands in the capital’s Kuwadzana high density suburb.
This comes as the warring ruling party is still to hear a disciplinary case involving its brawling supporters who clubbed each other viciously in an orgy of violence in Bulawayo last month.
Eyewitnesses told the Daily News yesterday that Zanu PF youth chairperson for Ward 37 in Kuwadzana, Paradazai Masase — who is popularly known as Mombo — was seriously burnt when his rivals waged a violent campaign against him, following a dispute over the “ownership” of residential stands which they said belonged to them.
The rival group claimed that the stands in the Tynwald area along High Glen Road did not belong to Magamba Co-operative, whose secretary is Masase.
“Way into the night, as we were sleeping, I woke up to terrible noise outside, followed by a massive explosion.
“When I peeped through the window, I saw smoke and people gathered outside,” a young woman who lives close to Masase said yesterday.
When the Daily News crew visited the Masase home yesterday, his one-roomed house was deserted and its door was burnt black from the petrol bomb attack.
Friends of Masase — who operates a precast wall business in the area — claimed in interviews with the Daily News that his attack was “political”.
“He knows the people who did this to him because they had a conversation before they attacked him. If you visit him in hospital he will tell you, but we heard he said it was (names withheld on legal advice),” one of the friends told the Daily News.
Harare police spokesperson Simon Chazovachii said yesterday that he had not received a report of the incident, but would check with his colleagues at Kuwadzana Police Station.
Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo also said he was not aware of the incident.
“I’m hearing it for the first time from you. But maybe the (Harare) province might have details on it,” he said.
Two weeks ago, Zanu PF supporters in Bulawayo engaged in an unprecedented orgy of intra-party violence which left several people seriously injured, including a senior official who needed hospitalisation after he was stabbed in the head.
The chaos occurred after angry youths stormed the provincial co-ordinating committee meeting (PCC) which was being held at Davies Hall and demanded the ouster of provincial chairperson Dennis Ndlovu and two other senior officials.-Dailynews
