Two MDC-T members murdered in one week

Posted by on Monday, February 13, 2012 in MDC-T, Violence, Zimbabwe politics | 2 comments
Douglas Mwonzora

Douglas Mwonzora

By Alex Bell
13 February 2012

Two members of the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai have been murdered in less than a week, amid fears that serious violence along political lines is once again on the rise.

Last Tuesday an MDC-T activist in Masvingo was brutally murdered, allegedly by ZANU PF supporters at his Zaka East home. According to provincial party structures, Sharukai Mukwena woke up on Tuesday night to discover that his granary had been set alight. It’s believed that when he went to investigate what was happening he was confronted by ZANU PF youths who attacked him.

The MDC-T’s spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora told SW Radio Africa on Monday that Mukwena’s hands were chopped off in the attack, calling it “a truly gruesome murder incident.”

“He was murdered apparently for showing the MDC party symbol which is an open palm. So they severed both palms from his body before they murdered him,” Mwonzora said.

Mwonzora said the motive for the death is “clearly political,” explaining how the “very partisan police have not done anything about this murder.”

On Friday, less than a week later, the party’s branch treasurer in Mbare, Shepherd Bandau, was murdered by members of the notorious Chipangano gang, a ZANU PF loyal youth gang.

The MDC-T said that Bandau had been on his way home on Friday when 10 Chipangano members approached and started assaulting him. The party spoke to a witness who said that the gang “challenged anyone who tried to intervene with the same fate and we became scared that no-one could even stop the assault.”

Police were eventually called in and Bandau was transported to hospital. But according to the MDC-T he lost consciousness while on the way and was declared dead on arrival.

Four of the 10 ZANU PF youths have been arrested and are detained at Mbare Police Station. The witness told the MDC-T that the youths who have been arrested are known under their Chipangano operational names of ‘Zesa’, ‘Paraffin’, ‘Marko’ and ‘Isaac’ but he did not know their real names.

Mourners for Bandau have gathered at Kaseke Village in Domboshava and burial arrangements are being finalised.

According to the MDC-T, Chipangano is part sponsored by two losing ZANU PF parliamentary candidates in the 2008 elections, Tendai Savanhu and ZANU PF Harare provincial chairperson Amos Midzi. Another sponsor is Hubert Nyanhongo, the MP for Harare South and the Deputy Minister for Energy and Power Development.

“The three are paying and oiling the ZANU PF youths who operate under the rogue outfit Chipangano to unleash violence on suspected MDC supporters,” the MDC-T said.

Incidences of violence against the MDC have continued despite the party now being a part of government. The leaders in the government meanwhile have all repeated calls for violence to end, but observers have said it is clearly an insincere call on ZANU PF’s part. Other observers meanwhile have said that if the party under Robert Mugabe’s leadership really wanted violence to end, all Mugabe would need to do is give the order.

Mwonzora said on Monday that these murder cases are just the ones that have been reported, adding that “we suspect that there are more that have not been reported yet.”

“We are very worried because political violence is on the rise. We are also filled with a sense of hopelessness on the part of the MDC in government, because we are unable to protect our supporters,” Mwonzora said.

  • Never moyo

    its a waste of time to have agreements with a mafia outfit on ‘ending violence’> they are certainly insencere.

  • http://twitter.com/WMukori Wilbert Mukori

    We all know that the Police do nothing to investigate and punish all Zanu PF inspired violence including murder and has happened here. But has MDC itself done enough to pressure the Police to do their work?

    Did MDC gather all the necessary evidence; a doctor to certify the cause of death, get sworn statements from the witnesses, take the photos of the victim and scene, the name of the Police Officer(s) to whom the murder was reported, what follow up has been carried out locally and with other relevant authorities, etc. It is not enough to say that the Police are not doing anything to end political violence; we need documentary evidence to prove it beyond all reasonable doubt.

    Although hundreds of Zimbabweans have been murdered in cold blood in the last three years and those responsible are known it will be no surprise if even a handful of the Zanu PF thugs will ever be convicted in the future for lack of evidence. Indeed, MDC does not even have an accurate record of the number of MDC supporters who have been murdered let alone evidence to convict those responsible. Mwonzora admitted “we suspect that there are more that have not been reported yet.”
    “We are very worried because political violence is on the rise. We are also filled with a sense of hopelessness on the part of the MDC in government, because we are unable to protect our supporters,” Mwonzora said. Typical!
    Mugabe and Zanu PF are brutal tyrants and murderers. Tsvangirai and MDC on the other hand are both naïve and incompetent. Of course an incompetent leader is infinitely better than a murderous one but this is not a beauty contest and to view it as such is to miss the point. Tsvangirai and MDC were elected on the ticket of ending the Mugabe and Zanu PF dictatorship and they have singularly failed in that task because they are incompetent!