FORMER Zanu PF commissar Webster Shamu and his wife Constance were publicly humiliated after they were kicked out of a tent reserved for ministers, top government officials and other Zanu PF bigwigs during Heroes Day commemorations at the National Heroes Acre on Monday.
by EVERSON MUSHAVA/XOLISANI NCUBE
The former ICT minister together with his wife had taken seats in the VIP tent before State security agents ordered them off, saying Shamu was no longer a government minister and therefore did not deserve a place at the high table.
The couple immediately moved across to the next tent usually reserved for diplomats and senior military personnel where they sat dejectedly.
The incident happened in full view of journalists, diplomats, top Zanu PF and government officials.
The Chegutu East MP lost his Cabinet and party posts in December last year and was in May this year given a five-year suspension from Zanu PF alongside over 140 other party stalwarts on allegations of conniving with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru in an alleged plot to oust President Robert Mugabe.
The purge also claimed the scalps of Mujuru, former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa, former party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo and former Transport minister Nicholas Goche, among others.
As for Shamu, his bootlicking of Mugabe failed to save him.
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Renowned for his sycophantic antics, Shamu in 2011 set new records when he described Mugabe as “Cremora” (the trade name of a coffee creamer) and the world’s “most educated and feared President”.
He shocked many by saying: “Gushungo, people say you have Cremora . . . the whole body.”
In 2012, Shamu said if he had a choice, he would have chosen to become one of Mugabe’s children.
“If I was given the option to choose my father before birth, where would I go? I would have been Chatunga’s elder brother. I would have been number one at First House, at President Mugabe’s house.
“I would have said that’s where I want to be born,” Shamu said while officiating at the Harare International Festival of the Arts Press conference in 2012.
Since his fallout with fellow comrades in both government and the party, Shamu has nonetheless religiously attended major Zanu PF and State functions where he normally cuts a lone figure.
At the party’s December congress where members of the Mujuru camp were officially booted out, Shamu showed up and was captured on camera sitting alone and looking dejected.
Known for his unrestrained language especially when giving platitudes to Mugabe, Shamu’s political career can be traced to the 1970s liberation war that brought majority rule in 1980.
Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo yesterday he was unaware of the incident, which was witnessed by journalists from the private and public media.
Shamu’s phone went unanswered yesterday
