Mutize allegedly made the remarks at the funeral held at Chinake Village, ward 16, early last year. He suggested traumatic effects could have caused the untimely death Mrs Sanyangare as she suffered from high blood pressure and visible stress following the murder of her politician husband 2009.
“People who murdered Sanyangare were the same culprits who caused the death of his wife. Since the wife died as a result of stress related illnesses following the assassination of her husband, the assassins have blood on their hands regarding the untimely passing on of this innocent woman,” Mutize reportedly told mourners.
Sanyangare was found dead at his homestead. His hands were tied with a rope while a woman’s inner clothing, petticoat, was stuffed in his mouth. He had reportedly previously escaped several attempts at his life by Zanu (PF) thugs.
Though Mutize admitted having addressed mourners at the said funeral, he denied ever mentioning any individual person as the murderer.
According to police documents, a notorious Zanu (PF) official and Murewa council chairperson, Lisbon Chinani, is the complainant in the court case. Chinyani was the Zanu (PF) militia torture base commander at Chinake village during the 2008-2009 political violence. He is accusing Mutize of pin-pointing him as the assailant who caused the death of Sanyangare’s wife. Charges denied by Mutize.
Villagers here suspect Zanu (PF) wants to silence Mutize since he was a critic of dictatorship and fiercely contested the Murewa North parliamentary seat against David Parirenyatwa.
“MDC politics in Murewa North revolves around Mutize and we were not surprised that Zanu (PF) was initiating his arrest on trumped up charges. At the funeral in question, he openly urged mourners to freely participate in the constitution making process without fear. He urged them to be brave and make their views heard as the constitution making process was an apolitical exercise. This did not go down well with Zanu (PF), which wanted to cow villagers into taking instructions and remaining silent in the making of the country’s supreme law. Mutize simply did as he usually does – call a spade a spade,” said one resident, Maringire Vheremu.
Villagers also said the charges preferred against Mutize took too long to be brought before the courts. “This suggested there could be some hidden political hands behind the accusations since Mutize narrowly lost parliamentary polls against Zanu (PF) Parirenyatwa. He lost the vote by less than 200 votes after MDC-T split its ballot. An MDC-T official, Joshua Siwela, decided to stand as an independent candidate at the eleventh hour and grabbed 500 votes”.
Post published in: News