By A Correspondent | A former Zimbabwe Republic Police officer has died not long after announcing on video that any Muslim can get COVID 19.

Mustafa Pateya warned the members of his religion that any one of them can get this so they need to take care.

In the video, recorded at his bedside, he said he has “fallen down with COVID, this is a reality, any muslim can also get this, so they must take heed…”

The Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Zimbabwe, has since issued the below announcement saying:

Bismillahi rahmani raheem

Inna lillahi wa ina ilaihi raajiun

Zimbabwean Muslims woke up today to the sad news of the passing on of our brother and leader, Sheikh Mustapha Ajida John Pateya, popularly known as the Ambassador of Islam on Call.

He succumbed to the Coronavirus less than 24 hours after testing positive. True to his character as soon as he tested positive and while being taken to the Ambulance he issued a short video message to all Muslims telling them to take care. He warned that Covid is real. In his own words ‘a giant has fallen’. This is the truth.

We have lost a pioneer of black Muslim activism in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. The landscape is not going to be the same again.

He was instrumental in the formations of major black Muslim organisations such as the Zimbabwe Muslim Youth Organization, the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Zimbabwe (of which he was a Secretary General), as well as the Islamic Voice of Zimbabwe among many others.

His legacy should spur us on to working harder for the marginalized and poor in our communities and to be a united people.

Sheikh Ismail Duwa

Sheikh Saeed Mdelemani