HARARE – Deputy finance minister David Mnangagwa’s driver died suddenly at his hotel room on Sunday, hours after the Zanu PF annual conference ended in Bulawayo, ZimLive can reveal.
It is the latest mishap to befall President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son whose Harare home, which is guarded by police, was broken into twice and eventually set on fire by unknown individuals in June this year.
Police were called to the Greys Inn hotel in the early hours of Sunday, October 27, where they found Ishmael Maburisa already dead.
Hotel sources said they suspected that he died from diabetic shock.
Before his death, Maburisa had appeared at the hotel’s reception shouting “get me food please” several times. It is thought he was having an episode of hypoglycemia or low blood glucose levels which can be reversed by eating or drinking carbohydrates.
“They gave him porridge, the only food that was there. He went back to his room but after a short period he started twitching and convulsing as though he was having an epileptic episode and he unfortunately died,” the source said.
Police attended the scene and found diabetes medication in his room.
An internal police memo of the incident, seen by ZimLive, identified Maburisa as David Mnangagwa’s driver.
It is not clear if the deputy minister was still in Bulawayo when Maburisa died, or had flown back to Harare at the end of the Zanu PF conference on Saturday.
Police declined to comment.
Unknown individuals broke into the Borrowdale home of the president’s son on June 23 and again on June 25. In the second incident, three bullets were left outside his bedroom door and three more outside the house.
Then, on June 28, the house caught fire under unclear circumstances.
