Own Correspondent|A fierce war is building up between hardline Matabeleland activists and politicians against the ruling ZANU PF party over who should be in charge of the burial of late National Hero Dumiso Dabengwa.

Led by the opposition ZAPU, the party which Dabengwa led out of ZANU PF, and the Mthwakazi Republic Party, accusations immediately arose that ZANU PF a party Matabeleland accuses of tormenting Dabengwa in much of his post independence life was hijacking his burial.

Tensions arose on Sunday when Vice President Kembo Mohadi declared that Dabengwa has been accorded the National Hero status an announcement that immediately ignited state systems to take over charge of the body of the deceased and all proceedings.

Immediately after it was announced that Dabengwa’s body was not in the flight that brought his wife, accusations immediately kicked off that ZANU PF had a hand in the mix up with the MRP declaring resistance against ZANU PF and government in handling Dabengwa’s burial.

The full Statement released by the radical regional party on Sunday reads:

Zanu-PF must back off

We are at the residence of the late Dr Dumiso Dabengwa’s house. The official position is that the body of the late national and international hero was left in SA because of lack of space in the cargo. His body is now expected to come tomorrow and uMthwakazi is expected to come in numbers as we did today.

But information obtained here is that ZANU PF is trying to highjack the proceedings and silence ZAPU which is evil and satanic to say the least.

I personally overheard ZANU PF members who have been brought here in buses saying that “ngavayimbe ava ve ZAPU asi chituna tatora, chinhu ndechedu ichi”. Literally declaring that ZAPU can sing and make noise but they have no power or authority; they even say ZAPU is poor so they should shut up and allow the government to take over. Asifuni Bumbulu la.

Dr Dabengwa’s wishes must be respected; we stand with the Dabengwa family, Zipra and ZAPU if Dr Dabengwa wanted to identify with ZANU he could have simple rejoined it. Respect our Comander. Just like white settler government, Zanu pf is so cunning and oppressive even to our customs and norms. We are against any attempts to silence ZAPU in times we stand with our Cdes in ZAPU.