This year alone police have arrested a cabinet minister for calling Mugabe a liar, a police officer for using Mugabe’s official mobile toilet at a Trade Fair, and a group of activists for watching video footage of protests in Egypt and Tunisia. But a group of well known ZANU PF thugs who murdered Abigail in 2008 remain free. Not only are they said to be boasting about it, one of them is still using the mobile phone stolen from their victim.
On the 16th of June 2008, a ZANU PF mob from Hatcliffe that included Justin Zvandasara, a lady called Judy, another man called Zulu and several other militants, descended on the Chiroto house in Hatcliffe on the outskirts of Harare. On seeing Chiroto was not there they destroyed the house using a petrol bomb. The mob then abducted his 26 year old wife Abigail and their four-year-old son Ashley.
Fortunately for Ashley the mob decided to dump him outside a police station but his mother was not as lucky as they took her to a nearby farm. Two days later on the 18th June Abigail was found brutally murdered. She was discovered with a gunshot wound to the head and a deep cut on her stomach. A post-mortem report showed she had been savagely assaulted and her limbs broken.
The absurdity and tragedy of the situation is that the killers are all known in the community, as well as by the police and it’s understood they regularly boast about carrying out the murder. On Tuesday, Chiroto told us the police have shown no desire to arrest anyone or even carry out an investigation despite one of the killers still using a mobile phone they took from his wife on the day of the murder.
Chiroto is pinning his hope of justice on a change of government and said it was only a matter of time before the killers will be brought to book. Already one of the killers has died and another is seriously ill and has been admitted at Parirenyatwa General Hospital. He has already confessed to being the one who tied up Abigail’s mouth before they killed her.
The levels of impunity are so high that in September last year, the killers even had the temerity to taunt Chiroto during disturbances that marred the constitutional outreach meetings in Hatcliffe. Four of the killers taunted Chiroto about the murder and said they would finish him off.
“They were armed with iron bars, sticks and stones and at one time wanted to smash my car because they could not stomach my presence at the meeting. But what struck me most was their audacity to refer to my wife’s murder and their boisterous threats to do the same with me,” Chiroto told SW Radio Africa.
Post published in: News