The family of a man who died after being severely stabbed by suspected ZANU PF members at a Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) rally in Kwekwe last Sunday has denied reports that the deceased was a member of the opposition party led by Nelson Chamisa.
Mbongeni Ncube who is leaving behind a two-year-old daughter was reportedly stabbed with a sharp object and died upon admission to Kwekwe General Hospital.
Seventeen other people were injured while several vehicles were damaged.
Police arrested 16 suspects, five of which have since appeared before the courts, while the remainder was released.
A Chronicle news crew visited the deceased’s family residence in Mbizo 9 and observed family members requesting CCC party members to stop turning the funeral into a rally. The state-run paper quotes one family member as saying:
We want to mourn our son in peace and we cannot allow you to turn this funeral into a rally. We have already lost our son and there is no going back, so do not add more pain. Kindly leave this place and leave us to mourn one of our own.
In an interview with Chronicle, the deceased’s brother Future Ncube said Ncube was caught in a crossfire. Said Ncube:
He was not someone who followed politics as far as we knew him. He did not follow CCC or any other party. He was just a quiet person who did not talk to anyone.
He loved his beer, that is what I know. When we were told about this, we knew that he might have been drinking when the commotion started and he was caught in the cross fire.
Another relative, Khulani Ncube said the family was now awaiting postmortem results.
He said the family was still in shock and was finding it hard to accept that Mbonge has gone, “but it is God’s plan and it has no appeal.”
Ncube will be buried in Lower Gweru on Friday.
More: Chronicle