He stood as a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate in parliamentary elections held in March 2008 and was widowed and nearly lost his own life soon after he lost the poll to his Zanu-PF rival.
Now a destitute political refugee at the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg, where he arrived last July, Muguti struggles to survive.
Muguti contested in the March 29 parliamentary elections in the Gokwe-Nembudziya Constituency. He won only 1 071 votes, coming out third after the incumbent, Flora Bhuka, the Zanu-PF candidate, and Kizito Mbiriza representing the MDC’s smaller faction led by Arthur Mutambara, who polled 8 650 and
1 396 votes, respectively.
Bhuka the former Minister of State for State Enterprises became Minister of State in Vice-President Joseph Msika’s Office in the government of national unity.
Meanwhile, Muguti, now dejected and frail-looking, told The Zimbabwe Times in an interview in Braamfontein, central Johannesburg, Friday that he now rues the day he decided to run for a seat in the august House. Political violence at the hands of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party has left
him not only widowed, but also semi-disabled as well as a homeless destitute living on alms in a foreign land.
"Since my participation in that election, my life has been ruined," said Muguti, a victim of both Zanu-PF violence and apparent neglect by the party he campaigned to represent in Parliament.
Muguti was one of the worst affected victims of the political violence that rocked rural Zimbabwe in the wake of the announcement of the March 29 election results. Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC defeated Zanu-PF, while Tsvangirai himself defeated Mugabe in the presidential election.
Zanu-PF responded to the humiliating defeat – the party’s and Mugabe’s first since independence in 1980 – by unleashing an orgy of retributive violence against the opposition. They dubbed it "Operation Mavhotera Papi? (For whom did you vote?). By the time the widespred violence subsided after the June
27 poll, which Mugabe won without challenge after Tsvangirai withdrew, citing violence, the MDC says almost 200 of its supporters had been killed nationwide. Thousands more were maimed or rendered homeless, or both as in the case of Muguti.
"Gokwe-Nembudziya was among the first area it "Operation Mavhotera Papi? (For whom did you vote?). By the time it subsided after Mugabe claimed victory in the June 27 poll, which Mugabe won without challenge after Tsvangirai withdrew, citing violence, the MDC says almost 200 of its supporters had been killed nationwide. Thousands more were maimed or rendered homeless, or both as in the case of Muguti.
"Gokwe-Nembudziya was among the first areas to witness the violence," says Muguti. "Many houses were burnt and several people were abducted and tortured."
On April 26 his then 21-year-old wife, Nashawu Mpofu, was abducted from their homestead in the Tiki area of the constituency. She was also an active member of the MDC. Witnesses said her abductors were six armed men who were driving a white Mitsubishi pick-up truck bearing no number plates.
Mpofu has not been seen ever since. Muguti believes that she was killed, probably in cold blood, by her abductors.
"I was away, campaigning in Tenda, about 35 km from my home, for the MDC president in the run-off," said Muguti. "I was only told of the abduction by a party youth member about three days later
"The youth said that she was taken away at about 3 pm and everyone in the village saw the abductors, who were in the company of known Zanu-PF members in our area.
"When I arrived home, I found that my whole homestead had been razed to the ground. My two children, then aged 9 and six years, were staying with neighbours. They had been left alone after their mother’s abduction."
The former MDC candidate says that he reported his wife as missing at Nembudziya Police Station on April 29.
"That report yielded nothing," says Muguti. "The police did not even quiz the known Zanu-PF supporters who pointed my wife out to the abductors."
Muguti says as he conducted what turned out to be a vain search for his wife, he was himself abducted on more than three occasions. He says he was tortured at various bases by suspected state security agents, war veterans and Zanu-PF supporters.
"I was ambushed, abducted and tortured at various places on more than three occasions, being left for dead on once occasion," he said.
"The worst was to come on June 22, when I was ambushed by about 40 people during the night in the Made area. I was assaulted with clenched fists and sticks until I lost consciousness.
"When I gained consciousness, I discovered that I had been dragged into the bush, where I was left for dead."
The elections were held five days later. By then Muguti had been taken to Harare where he was admitted to hospital. It was discovered that he had sustained broken ribs and serious head injuries.
When he was well enough to do so, Muguti says he fled Zimbabwe for Johannesburg in July 2008, with the assistance of the MDC. Both his life and his health have continued to deteriorate, however.
"I lost all my documents when my homestead was burned, meaning that I cannot be employed in any meaningful job," he said.
"In any case, after all that torture, I cannot do any demanding work like in construction."
Many Zimbabweans are now employed in the construction industry in South Africa.
Muguti says the MDC helped him to move to South Africa.
"They assisted me to come here, and on arrival I was given R1000 by party treasurer, Roy Bennett, and that was it," he said.
Due to the high number of desperate Zimbabweans seeking help, the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg is said to have begun to limit the amount of food that is allocated to established refugees, to focus mainly on new arrivals.
"That means that some of us who have been here for long have to look elsewhere for food," said Muguti. "I also suffer from diabetes, and in my condition I am not supposed to miss a meal.
"At times I go out with some of my colleagues to the busy Park Station, where we eat from the dust bins. The recent outbreak of cholera has left us with very limited choices, however."
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