BY FARAI MARUZANI
HARARE
A couple of weeks ago I reported the brutal assault on Sekuru Jaison. His fate is unknown. He disappeared the second night after he was brutally beaten up by ZANU (PF) thugs in Buhera South Constituency. Nobody knows where he was taken to or weather he is dead or alive. However there are disturbing reports from the same reliable people, the ZANU (PF) thugs are now taking away their dead victims and disposing of them quickly in order to destroy evidence.
I was reliably told that some MDC activists who are murdered are being put into extra large aluminium coffins and they are covered by concrete before they are tossed into deep dams and lakes around the country by the ruthless ZANU (PF) killing operatives.
There are many political activists who have been thrown into the Kariba Dam in concrete filled aluminium coffins. The Mugabe regime is also alleged to have a tank full of highly concentrated and corrosive sulphuric acid where their opponents are submerged and they are simply corroded by the acid and vanish without a trace.
Former justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, who lost his seat in the elections, said that those who allege violence in Zimbabwe must give names of ZANU (PF) victims of political violence. I want to give Chinamasa a very simple task. I will give him everything he needs and more, for him to check, and I will be happy if he responds to the following:
The following murder took place 15 kilometres from Rusape on the Rusape to Hwedza Road at Marume homestead under Headman Hera. This place is not far from Chinamasa’s mother’s home. Chinamasa’s mother is from the Mandeya family and he was actually contesting in a constituency of his maternal clan area. It should be easy for Chinamasa to investigate this one. In this case the murdered victim is actually his maternal cousin (mainini vake) – a very close relative, but who supported a different political party. A widow named Thabitha Marume (Mandeya) woke up in the morning last Saturday 26 April on a bright but windy morning to sweep around her homestead. Thabitha was an effective Organising Secretary and she led an effective campaign against ZANU (PF), leading to Chinamasa losing the seat in a stunning MDC victory in that constituency. The victory was largely credited to the bravery and hard work of this MDC widow Thabitha Marume(46).
After sweeping around her yard she took a 20 litre tin used to fetch water and walked to her vegetables garden some one and half kilometres away to water her vegetables. Some 30 minutes after she left her 20-year-old son John woke up after hearing a commotion of over 30 men running through their homestead. John saw his friends being chased through the homestead but did not know who was chasing them and for what reason, so he did not run away.
He later saw that the people who were chasing his friends were eight heavily armed people in civilian clothes, some of them in white long sleeved shirts. The men were armed with AK 47 rifles and machine guns. Their weapons looked new and it was clear from the way the armed men were dressed that they were not local peasant farmers. They looked like civil servants or most likely off duty soldiers. They were accompanied by local Green Bombers (Zanu militia) who had recently graduated from the nearby Border Gezi College. These youths are the people he knew very well. It seems that they were directing these men on where to go. The youths were campaigning for ZANU (PF) in the last elections.
Two soldiers and three youths went to John and shouted where is your mother? Over and over again. John said he did not know. Without any provocation the men and the youths became more and more agitated and angry and shouted asking ‘Who did you vote for?’ dozens of times. They had now surrounded John who was less than one metre away but the shouts could be heard a kilometre away. John said he voted for MDC. He was brutally beaten and collapsed three times, but he was asked to rise up and run towards Gunda Village where a large meeting was being addressed by ZANU (PF) people who looked restless and angry.
On arrival at the meeting the armed men produced a long list of people they accused of causing ZANU (PF) to lose the elections and on top of the list was Thabitha Marume. After reading the 10 names on the list they started singing this song: Ndiro gidi vakomana,richatonga Zimbabwe,richatonga nyika yedu nyika yedu vakomana.’
As this happened Thabitha arrived at the meeting looking for her son. John was there but she never got to him. She was asked to identify herself when she was 15 metres away as she approached the meeting and to declare her position in MDC. She answered bravely that she was Thabitha Marume and an organising secretary for the MDC in this constituency.
One of the armed men immediately picked up his AK 47 and emptied the AK 47 magazine into her chest….31 bullets. Thabitha collapsed and died immediately in front of about 200 fear rocked villagers and her son. They continued to sing the above song for the next hour after Thabitha has been killed and she lay there uncovered. Nobody was allowed to cry or attend the funeral. It’s unclear how they intend to dispose of the body.
I would like Patrick Chinamasa to prove me wrong on this murder. It should be easy as this is his own cousin (mainini vake).
Zimbabweans are at risk and vulnerable. Mugabe is also giving a space for criminals who mount attacks for revenge purposes under cover of this murderous political environment.
Some are taking the opportunity to settle non-political vendettas to kill innocent people in the name of politics. Jealous people are also at work and some people are being forced to pay huge sums of money in protection fees’ especially those with children who work abroad.
What does Chinamasa say about all this madness?
Post published in: News