Zanu-PF will not allow imposition of candidates in harmonised elections expected this year, the party's national political commissar Cde Webster Shamu has said. Cde Shamu said this yesterday while speaking to the party's Goromonzi South leadership that visited him at his Borrowdale house to pay their condolences following the death of his mother Ambuya Mary Shamu last week.

Ambuya Shamu was buried on Saturday in Musengezi last week.

"We have learnt the mistakes that we have made as a party in the 2008 elections especially the imposition of candidates," he said.

He said Zanu-PF came up with a new strategy known as "Bhora Mugedhi" designed to reclaim all seats lost during the 2008 elections.

He said Zanu-PF under the visionary leadership of President Mugabe wanted people to have control over industries, mines, banks and other sectors of the economy.

"We call it beneficiation. Instead of sending our resources in their raw form to other countries we should add value to our diamonds, gold and other resources," he said.

ZRP Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri and Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu and their wives also paid their condolences yesterday.

Comm-General Chihuri said: "Even if you do wrong, your mother will always stand for you because they have hearts that forgive. I really feel for Cde Shamu for the loss of his mother."

Minister Mpofu shared the same sentiments.

"It is something shocking whenever you come across it and your mother is always your mother no matter her status in the society.

"Death is something that comes any time and it is so painful to lose a mother because you will never get used to it."

Sisters from the Gospel of God International also visited the Shamu family to pay their condolences.

Sister Oripah Kaviza said God should take care of the family left by Ambuya Shamu.

"We are just saying may her soul rest in eternal peace and God should look after the family she has left behind.

"As sisters we are committed to pray for peace and stability in the country. We want Zimbabwe to prosper and its people should enjoy its fruits," she said.

Meanwhile, villagers in Musengezi community have described the death of Ambuya Shamu as a great loss to them.

"She was a renowned preacher who turned the hearts of many to God and a preserver of the old time Christianity, through song. She often times travelled long distances on a bicycle spreading the gospel to others," Reverend Munetsi Hokonya of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe where Gogo Shamu attended church said.

Her friend Mrs Stella Gwanzura said Gogo Shamu was a pacifier playing a pivotal role in the moulding of young women through her leadership of the Girls Christian Union of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe.

"She was a mighty preacher who taught us to work hard to build our marriages despite the presence of challenges. If it were not for her I wouldn't have lived long with my husband," she said.