MDC activist attacked with machete

By Tichaona Sibanda
25 October 2007

The MDC ward chairman for Mutare central, Tobias Gundavakura, on Thursday told of his terror after his head was sliced open by a machete-wielding attacker believed to be a Zanu-PF youth.

Gundavakura 35, suffered serious injuries to his head and hand and was treated at Mutare general hospital. He told Newsreel he was undergoing scans at a private surgery to determine the extent of his head injury.
The attack on Gundavakura happened as he was walking home with his brother from watching a football match in Dangamvura just after 7pm Wednesday. The brothers were near their home when they walked into an ambush.
‘My brother and I were wearing MDC t-shirts and we were so close to reaching home when a group of four men approached us and started swearing and telling us that we were selling out the country to the whites. We tried to ignore them but they became more aggressive and abusive,’ Gundavakura said.
The ward chairman said his young brother got into a big confrontation with the group and there was a verbal confrontation which almost turned into a fistfight. When he tried to pull his brother away, one of the men drew a machete from under his shirt and struck Gundavakura with brute force on the head.
‘I momentarily lost consciousness because of the intense pain. I must have cried out loud in pain because a lot of people who heard my screams came rushing to our aid as the attackers fled from the scene. I lost a lot of blood but I was rushed to hospital were I received sixteen stitches,’ Gundavakura said.
They were attempts to chase the attackers but they disappeared into the night. The attack on Gundavakura came just a few hours after Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi promised an MDC delegation that the government would investigate all cases of violence against the opposition.
‘The attack on me has fuelled my resolve to support the MDC to the hilt. From today when ever I go into town I will put on my MDC t-shirt or even walk into a police station dressed in party regalia. I want to be the first to test the government’s sincerity to tackle violence against the MDC,’ he said.