ZIMBABWE’S state security service Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) Director-General Isaac Moyo’s daughter Shumirai Sandra Moyo, who died in Dublin, Ireland, from a brain cancer ailment early this month, was buried on Sunday in Rutenga, Mwenezi district.
BRENNA MATENDERE
Shumirai had a dream to remove main opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change Harare West MP Joana Mamombe from her seat.
This emerged when President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and other top government officials paid their respects to the Moyo family in Harare over the passing away of their daughter.
Shumirai’s mother is Priscilla Zindari-Moyo, Zanu PF MP for Mwenezi West. Zindari-Moyo recently visited her daughter in Dublin while she was bed-ridden, but she died when she had returned home to arrange for more time to be with her.
Shumirai will be buried in Rutenga, Mwenezi, on Sunday. Co-Vice-President Kembo Mohadi will attend the burial.
At the funeral service yesterday, Mnangagwa said: “She (Shumirai) was engaged in politics which shows how patriotic she was. A lot of kids are not engaged directly in politics. We are assembled here to give our last respects to a patriot of our nation. She had passion to remove Joanna Mamombe from her constituency, so sad she couldn’t get to finish her journey.”
Moyo, CIO boss and Shumirai’s father, said: “Shumirai was a political activist; Vice-President Cde C.G.D.N Chiwenga is well aware of that. Her ambition was to remove Joana Mamombe from her post as MP for Harare West constituency.”
Narrating what happened to his daughter, Moyo added: “She went to work as usual and got sick and was sent home. On the second day she was taken to hospital and was suspected of meningitis and was tested for cancer of the brain. She was swelling in the brain and she spent six weeks in intensive care without eating. Her mother spent a month with her and she couldn’t talk. She passed on when the mother was trying to get back to her again.
“She was drilled in the head and a tube was put in her head, that is the last picture we saw of her before she passed on. I thank you Cde President for coming. Everyone is happy and comforted that the Head of State has come, also the First Lady was here, we thank her a lot. We are happy you are here, Your Excellency. Tomorrow we are taking the body to Rutenga. All those who can come are welcome. On Sunday we then bury her.”
Shumirai’s father, Isaac Moyo, serves the government as the head of Mnangagwa’s critical spy agency and the two are close allies. The CIO has kept Mnangagwa’s power ambitions alive after its deputy director, Walter Tapfumanei, led the Zanu PF affiliate group Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz) to grind a second term for him.
The CIO consists of key branches which include internal, external, counter-intelligence, close security, technical and administration.
The function of the organisation is to provide high-level security to the state from threats both within and outside Zimbabwe. The organisation also offers high-level security to top government officials like the President, ministers and diplomats working in and outside Zimbabwe.
Regionally, the organisation works with other intelligence organisations from other African countries under a body called the Central Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA) to tackle problems that threaten the stability of the continent and hamper development, such as terrorism and extremism.
