Chief refuses permission to bury Gift Tandare

By Tichaona Sibanda
15 March 2007

The MDC has reacted with shock to reports that a local Chief has refused to allow the family of Gift Tandare, the late MDC activist shot by police Sunday, to bury him in his home area of Mount Darwin.

This has triggered a major political row between the MDC and the Chief, whom the opposition party believe is getting his orders from Zanu (PF).
MDC MP for Glen View Paul Madzore said despite the chief’s ‘stupid’ orders they will go ahead with funeral plans to bury him in Mount Darwin on Saturday. Thousands of MDC supporters are expected to attend the funeral.

‘People are saying if the chief refuses let’s leave his body at Mount Darwin police station because he was killed by the police. We wouldn’t want that, we wouldn’t want to dump our hero at the doorsteps of people who murdered him. We will take him to his final resting place with or without the chief’s permission,’ Madzore said.

As relatives and friends in Glen View continue to pay their tributes to one of the MDC’s leading activists, Madzore explained that at the time of the fatal shooting, Tandare was actually scurrying for cover, contrary to police reports that he was threatening one of the officers.

‘When Gift was shot, his colleagues say he was running towards an alley to avoid the volley of bullets from the police. We’ve heard the police say they fired 18 warning shots. That’s a lie, all the shots fired that day were aimed at unarmed civilians—there was never any warning shot,’ said Madzore. His family was also waiting for post-mortem results.

Madzore who has worked with Tandare since 1999 in the constituency praised him for his ‘incisive wit’ and said he was a ‘master of detail’ when it came to party activities. A well-known figure in Glen View, Tandare has been described a remarkable activist, a man of rare vision, integrity and courage.

He was tragically shot in Highfields on Sunday after riot police started firing indiscriminately at people walking towards the venue of a planned prayer meeting convened by The Save Zimbabwe Campaign. A wife and three children survive Tandare.