I was shocked. Me – a terrorist bomber?

part in the series.
FACED with the prospect of releasing us on the basis of the court order, a grim-faced officer called the seven of us into a room and read out the charges against us. We were being charged with carrying out a spate of petrol-bombings in Harare and other cities. We were charged under section 24 of the Criminal Law (Reform) Codification Act and were specifically being accused of “resisting the government and seeking to remove the government through acts of sabotage, banditry and terrorism”. I was shocked. Me – a terrorist bomber?
The real terrorists I knew were the State security agents who had pumped six bullets into the groin of opposition activist Patrick Kombayi in 1990. Even though the culprits, Kizito Chivamba and Elias Kanengoni, were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, Mugabe had pardoned them. The real terror bombers I knew were those who had blown The Daily News’ printing press to smithereens in the early hours of 27 January 2001. They have never been arrested. The real terrorists were those who had just murdered an MDC activist, Gift Tandare, in cold blood in Harare’s Highfield suburb on 11 March 2007. The real terrorists were ruling Zanu (PF) activist Tom Kainos Kitsiyatota Zimunya and state agent Joseph Mwale, who petrol-bombed and killed MDC activists Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya in broad daylight on April 26, 2000 at Murambinda service centre in rural Buhera district.
Some of these real terrorists have never been arrested and Mwale remains an employee of the State despite a High Court order that he be apprehended and prosecuted for the murders.
In any case, the real terrorism was the one that had just been meted out on us at the Law and Order section offices where these strange charges had been concocted.
It is the most misnamed office … where neither law nor order prevailed. We were taken to court under heavy security. This drama, of course, was meant for the State media. The State-controlled Herald newspaper went on to gleefully report the arrest of the MDC terror-bombers, including the “journalist-cum-activist” Luke Tamborinyoka. (When the State’s case eventually collapsed like a house of cards three months later, the same State media thought it not a story worth reporting – so much for professional journalism).
There was no magistrate when we arrived. We were almost collapsing due to hunger and the injuries sustained after three days of torture. Someone must have summoned ambulances to the Magistrates Court but the police ordered that we not be allowed medical attention.
One of my colleagues, Shame Wakatama, collapsed and we all thought he had died. It was then that the police panicked and allowed the ambulance crew to drive us to Harare’s Avenues clinic. The court later convened at the clinic and magistrate Gloria Takundwa remanded us in hospital under prison guard until the following Monday. We were put on intravenous tubes by hospital staff eager to nourish and boost our wasted bodies.
But the worst was yet to come! I am not ordinarily given to fear. But when about 10 gun-toting agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation, backed by prison officers, burst into the clinic at around midnight and demanded ‘our people’, I went jelly-kneed. They scared the hell out of an adamant sister-in-charge, violently plucked out our intravenous tubes, and frog-marched us via the emergency exit to a nearby van.
The sight of AK rifles in the van was frightening but the thought of driving in the deathly quiet, early morning hours with armed CIO agents to an unknown destination was enough to almost paralyse one with fear. The eight of us were later dumped at Harare Remand prison at around 1:30hrs, breaking the prison’s own record of ‘check-in’ time.
My colleagues, Zebediah Juaba and Brighton Matimba, who had come out worst from the torture, were immediately taken to the ill-equipped prison hospital to await the attention of a government doctor. The ‘doctor’ was to pitch up after two months and orally interviewed 30 of us in about 20 minutes. The oral interview took place long after my two colleagues had been discharged to the cells, even though they were still in critical condition.
Matibiri and I were allocated cell C6, where I carved out a place for myself near the corner. That corner was later to be referred to as the ‘MDC’s Information Corner’, after it emerged it was in that same corner where the late party spokesperson Learnmore Jongwe met his mysterious death in 2002.
Later, more MDC activists were to join us in remand prison and more were to be detained at the prison hospital where they never saw a doctor. These include Ian Makone, Paul Madzore, Morgan Komichi, Phillip Katsande and Dennis Murira.
Life in prison was an ordeal on its own. Remand prison is supposed to be temporary but some inmates had stayed at the prison for years, seemingly abandoned by the State that brought them to the jailhouse, and by relatives.
Rations of soap and toilet paper were last seen in the 1980s, we were told. The ‘MDC team’, as we were known, became famous for donating some of its food to other inmates, including Fungai Murisa, one of the Zanu (PF) activists who is facing a murder charge after he and others allegedly murdered an MDC activist in Makoni East in Manicaland province.
The cells are overcrowded, with between 45 and 70 prisoners sharing a single cell and battling the night away in the usual pastime of fighting away the cold and killing lice.
The MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai, left his own mark at remand prison. On Monday, 13 May 2007, he came to visit us, and when he went to see Morgan Komichi in the prison hospital there was chaos when both inmates and prison officers went into a frenzy, shouting “President” as they stampeded to catch a glimpse of the man who has given Mugabe nightmares.
By mid-April, there were 30 MDC activists in prison, some shot and abducted from their homes while others were arrested in the streets of Harare to face the same charges of terrorism. What kept us going was the inspiring presence of Ian Makone, the simplicity of Zebedia Juaba, the comforting singing from Paul Madzore and Shame Wakatama, and the gospel teachings of Kenneth Nhemachena.
In June, the State case began to crumble after it emerged that it had created fictitious witnesses. The State consented on 7 June that it had no evidence and we were eventually removed from remand.
But another reality struck as I walked out of the prison complex – that, in fact, the whole country was one big prison. Harare Remand was simply a microcosm of what the whole country has become. – ZimOnline
Luke Tamborinyoka is the technical head of the MDC’s information and publicity department. He is currently writing a book on his experiences and his stint in prison.