Tsvangirais choice saved my family

It was one fateful night in June 2008 when a group of identified local Zanu (PF) youths besieged the Marawanyika family home and forced their way in through a broken window. The suspected MDC-supporting family had gone to sleep when Zanu (PF) revolutionary songs broke the silence.

After gaining entry into the house, Zanu (PF) militia force marched my family to a pick up truck near-by. A man who appeared like the gang leader phoned a known Zanu (PF) official popularly identified as Masikati, advising him about their successful hunt. From the conversation, Masikati indicated he was out of town but his wife was at home. He suggested we be taken to one Masimbas house, narrated a family member.

It was at Masimbas house where our ordeal started. Zanu (PF) youths and adult supporters beat us randomly. They said they would eliminate us since we were sell-outs reversing the gains of the liberation struggle. Beatings lasted some three hours before we were transported to a secret torture camp at Igava Farm, some 25km out of Marondera.

Known by name

At Igava base we were handed over to female Zanu (PF) torture agents who recognized us by names. We also identified them. They told us we had reached the highest political orientation centre where MDC hardliners would be whipped into line. We were ordered to undress and lie on the ground facing down. The female thugs beat us heavily with sticks and barbed wire until blood gushed freely from wounds inflicted over the bodies.

When they got tired of beating us, we were ordered to beat each other with barbed wire and electrical cables. It was the most painful ordeal of our lives.

Two days later we were transferred to a nearby base for advanced political orientation lessons. The base was manned by rag-tagged male militia from surrounding farms. The commander at the base told us after two week lessons, we would be transferred elsewhere for determination of our fate. We were put in a room with 17 other captives. There were 11 females and six males.

In the presence of my husband and other males, the militia gang raped abducted females. The rape took several days at intervals averaging three times per day. The base was code-named Love Camp. We were so humiliated and abused that I wished they could finish me off. Male abductees were subjected to torture on their genitals. They would be forced naked and get thorough beatings on their private parts. On one occasion, I witnessed my husbands head immersed in a bucket filled with used oil. He was later forced to frog jump with a brick tied to his genitals. We experienced hell on earth. One evening the base commander announced his juniors had enjoyed enough of sell-out ladies and we were to relocate to headquarters.

We walked throughout the night to Gabriel Base Camp. On arrival, men were separated from women. The Base Commander, who was heavily built and wielded a gun and a spear, welcomed us and said he would facilitate our meeting with God. He would interrogate each one of us by piercing the tip of the spear in our chests to force out confessions. Most abductees looked MDC hardliners as no one gave truthful confessions.

Spear interrogations

We witnessed some abductees beaten to death at the base. Everyday we were joined by new arrivals abducted from places as far away as Macheke, Hwedza and Headlands. Spear interrogations were conducted regularly and on a daily basis. Each one of us was booked on what the Base Commander called a death roll register. The register indicated place of abduction, MDC party post, age and expected date to be killed. We were shown the register and asked to update details were necessary. My group was due for killing the following Monday, a day after Tsvangirai pulled out of Presidential Elections re-run.

I asked everybody to pray quietly from their hearts. Sunday evening, there was sudden commotion outside the building we were held hostage. The door was kicked open as the base commander suggested we be poured with paraffin and the building set on fire. One of the militia shouted there was not enough time for that, as they had to get into hiding before international observers caught up with them. Tsvangirai had indicated he would prove to the international community that Mugabe had established torture bases to cow the electorate into voting Zanu (PF), hence frantic efforts to dismantle torture camps by the militia. Torture camps were destroyed in a flash throughout the country.

The spear-wielding commander disappeared into thin air living juniors to clear the base of captives. We were driven on a tractor trailer to Masomera-Marondera road. A commuter omnibus arrived shortly and the driver was forced to transport some of us to Marondera for free. The driver realized we had been released from a torture base and obliged.

On arriving home, we were taken to hospital for medication by well-wishers. We later made reports to the police since we could identify our captors. As usual, no police action was taken and perpetrators of violence continue to roam around scot-free. Some remain in council and government employment and continue to intimidate people during the ongoing constitution making.

Marawanyika said the withdrawal of Tsvangirai from the discredited June 27, 2008 shame re-run of the Presidential election, saved her family and thousands of other lives from imminent death at the hands of Zanu (PF).

She said the international community should help level the political field, as she was raring to cast her vote in next elections and bring about regime change. The majority of the electorate concur with Marawanyika as they look forward to free and fair elections which would usher in a new political dispensation in the country. People have had enough of tyranny.