Patrick Kombayi (2 November 1938 – 20 June 2009[1]) was a Zimbabwean businessman, a former mayor of Gweru and an active member of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai faction in the Midlands Province.
The men responsible for the shooting were convicted of the crime but never spent a day in prison, as they were pardoned by Mugabe.
The MDC faction under Tsvangirai tried to advocate for him to be granted hero status for the role he played during the liberation struggle.
He later defected from the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) to join the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), a political party which was formed by Edgar Tekere who was also an ex-ZANU PF senior member.
He was a staunch member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and was aligned to Morgan Tsvangirai's faction until the time of his death.
Kombayi was a member of ZANU PF during the liberation struggle and he aided the party's military wing financially.
Mugabe is said to have blocked Kombayi's ascendancy to power as he was also alleged to be harbouring ambitions of being at the helm of the party.
[5] It was alleged that the assassins, Elias Kanengoni who was said to be the Gweru Central Intelligence Organisation's leader, was Muzenda's body guard as well as Kizito Chivamba.
[7] Kombayi brushed this, arguing that it was only a pretext for justifying a somewhat heinous crime committed by Kanengoni and Chivamba which left him permanently disabled.
He went to the United States of America to seek treatment something which costed him a fortune as a result of an unexpected 'barbaric' event.
Prior to that, Kombayi had assisted students from the Midlands State University (MSU) who had been expelled from the institution under undisclosed offences which were however suspected to be political.