KARIBA Ten MDC-T officials were arrested here on Easter Monday as they tried to have a drink in the ZESA social club. (Pictured: ZESA Club in Kariba were 10 MDC-T members were arrested
Overzealous ZPC security approached the group and said the Zanu (PF) district Chairman, Moses Mupukuta, who was also at the club was not happy with the presence of the known MDC-T members.
As some of the group were trying to pay $6.70 for the drinks which they had ordered, the Dispol stormed in and arrested them for public gathering. When More Mudondo, the MDC-T youth Chairman insisted that they were just having drinks, the police ordered the five officials to get into the police Mitsubishi Pick Up truck and to answer all charges at Kariba Police Station.
It was shocking to see a high ranking police official of the rank of Dispol arresting innocent civilians at a public place simply because they support MDC-T. At the police station he instructed that they be locked away for a night, said an eye witness.
Those arrested included Greenwich Ndanga, the Mashonaland West Provincial Secretary, together with Director of Elections Chafu, Councillors Musemburi and Chatora, District Youth Chairman More Mudondo, District Youth Organising Secretary Tafadzwa, District Secretary George Masendu, Ward Chairperson Robby Tigere, District Youth Treasurer Whachi and Provincial Youth member Opa Makwenya.
The local ZESA manager was forced to come up with flimsy charges against the activists and they were locked away and the cells heavily guarded by police with guns. The following morning the other five MDC-T activists who had left the Club before the Dispol ordered the arrest of their fellows, were dragged from their homes and locked up with the others at the Kariba Police Station cells.
Even though Kariba has a court in which these detainees could be tried, investigating officers had to be summoned from Chinhoyi Law and Order Section as a delaying tactic. After a whole nights interrogation they were bundled the following day into a Mitsubishi Pick Up and transferred to appear in Chinhoyi – some 200kms away, said the witness.
Detentions are now an antiquated system of repression against us and can no longer crush our spirits. So many heroes of the struggle have survived incarceration before, to an extent that being detained in Zimbabwe for political reasons is now so ordinary, Zanu (PF) should desist from this old tactic as it no longer works, said Ndonga. Zanu (PF) was rejected in Kariba and the people of Kariba will continue to reject them, he added.
The Kariba MDC-T Youth Chairman said Zanu (PF) was behaving as if there was no inclusive government. They are treating all ZESA assets as Zanu (PF) property to the extent that the ZESA Power Company buses are sometimes abused by party officials to ferry their members to various functions. One wonders if the Minister of Energy, Elton Mangoma, is aware of this abuse of ZESA assets, he said.
Post published in: News