Independence war hero Dumiso Dabengwa has died in Kenya while returning from medical treatment in India.
Dabengwa died on Thursday morning at the age of 79. He was in the company of his wife, Zodwa.
Dabengwa had been suffering from a liver ailment for some time. He was admitted to a South African hospital for a few months before he was airlifted to India late last month.
A spokesman for the Dabengwa Foundation said that they are going to respond to the circulating rumours at a press conference at 1 PM this afternoon.
Dabengwa actively supported MDC president Nelson Chamisa in last year’s presidential election after his party, ZAPU joined the MDC Alliance.
During the War of Independence, Dabengwa was intelligence chief of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Party (ZIPRA0.
In 2009, he announced that he was withdrawing PF ZAPU from a 1987 Unity Accord with ZANU PF after differences with former president Robert Mugabe.
Dabengwa was at one point detained at Chikurubi Maximum Prison. This was between 1982 and 1986, at the height of the Gukurahundi massacres which claimed the lives of 20 000 people mainly from the Ndebele ethnic group.
He was accused of planning to overthrow the government of the then Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
Dabengwa was imprisoned alongside another ZIPRA commander Lookout Masuku, who died in prison.