[Very fishy. I think there is a good chance that Mugabe had this guy knocked off. Jan]

Harare – Police are investigating the sudden death of former transport minister who has been declared a national hero by President Robert Mugabe’s government, state radio said on Thursday.

State radio said Enos Chikowore, 69, was found dead in his bedroom on Tuesday and that he may have died of a drug overdose, but that had yet to be confirmed.

He had been watching a television broadcast of Mugabe announcing his choice of ruling Zanu-PF party politicians for nominated posts in parliament. Chikowore was omitted from the appointments.

Mugabe is expected to deliver a lengthy eulogy when Chikowore receives a state funeral at the national shrine “Heroes’ Acre” on Friday.

Chikowore resigned in 2000 over a multibillion Zimbabwe dollar (multimillion US dollar) scandal at the national oil company.

State radio said people at Chikowore’s house said he had not shown any signs of illness and appeared to be in good spirits earlier in the day.

Although outside parliament and the cabinet, Chikowore remained one of the 40 members of Mugabe’s elite policy-making body, the Politburo.

Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation that police were investigating the death.

An autopsy had been ordered.

Paying tribute to the veteran politician, Mugabe recalled that before Zimbabwe’s 1980 independence, when it was the breakaway British colony of Rhodesia, Chikowore “organised the burning of the white man’s tobacco barns and stone throwing incidents.”

Chikowore resigned amid the first of a series of fuel crises to hit this landlocked country. Motorists formed queues up to 5km long and waited for days to obtain supplies from filling stations as the state oil monopoly failed to obtain imports.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been in free fall since 1998.

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/…/p>