THE late MDC national executive member and Glen View South MP Vimbai Tsvangirai-Java will be buried at Glen Forest Cemetery in Harare tomorrow, family spokesperson Manase Tsvangirai has said.<\/p>\n
Addressing mourners at the late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai\u2019s Strathaven home where funeral proceedings are taking place, Manase said Vimbai\u2019s body will today be taken to her Glen View South constituency and party headquarters before being taken home to lie in state ahead of burial.<\/p>\n
Manase described the death of his late brother\u2019s daughter as a huge blow to the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very saddened by this. We didn\u2019t plan for this thing and we are still in shock. There was good progress in hospital for Mrs Java. Words fail us to explain the shock that we are in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vimbai, who was recently voted MDC women\u2019s assembly secretary, died at a private hospital in Harare on Monday where she had been admitted since last month after she was involved in a horrific road accident in Kwekwe.<\/p>\n
Batsirai Java, Vimbai\u2019s husband, urged mourners to honour his wife in a special way and to dress immaculately during the funeral as part of respecting the departed.<\/p>\n
Addressing mourners, MDC leader Nelson Chamisa reiterated his call for unity of purpose for the good of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no one who can succeed while working alone, but we succeed through unity,\u201d said Chamisa, who has, however, refused to enter into a national dialogue initiated by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, demanding that the Zanu PF leader recuse himself from leading the process.<\/p>\n
Chamisa described Vimbai\u2019s death as a heavy blow to both the party and the Tsvangirai family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here to celebrate a life of a legend, of an apostle, of an honourable member, a life of a politician whose life has been cut short. She was a budding politician,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zanu PF political commissar Victor Matemadanda and MDC-T deputy president Obert Gutu also visited the Tsvangirai home to pay their condolences. Tsvangirai\u2019s widow, Elizabeth was also among the mourners.<\/p>\n
MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume said the party had suspended its national council meeting slated for today to focus on the funeral.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn honour of Vimbai, the national council that was there tomorrow (today) has been cancelled. We need time to mourn; we need time to send her off. The party leadership felt that it was important to respect her and make sure that we mourn her,\u201d Mafume said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe national council was meant to conclude congress business. As you know, the national council sits as congress to finish any loose ends that would have been left out during the congress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE late MDC national executive member and Glen View South MP Vimbai Tsvangirai-Java will be buried at Glen Forest Cemetery in Harare tomorrow, family spokesperson Manase Tsvangirai has said. Addressing mourners at the late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai\u2019s Strathaven home where funeral proceedings are taking place, Manase said Vimbai\u2019s body will today be taken to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[88,31,149,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-9986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-mdc","10":"tag-mnangagwa","11":"tag-president","12":"tag-tsvangirai"},"yoast_head":"\n