MP held as Mabvuku violence saga intensifies

By Tererai Karimakwenda
11 July 2006

The police have arrested the MDC MP for Tafara and Mabvuku Timothy Mubhawu in connection with last week’s attack on Harare North MP Trudy Stevenson and 4 other Mutambara MDC officials. State television announced that Mubhawu handed himself in Monday after the police announced they were looking for him. They claim Mubhawu, an MP with the Tsvangirai MDC, is the owner of a blue truck that was used by thugs who assaulted Stevenson and 4 officials from the Mutambara MDC as they were leaving Mabvuku after holding a meeting on July 2nd. At least 9 people alleged to be MDC members have been arrested so far in connection with this case.
Nelson Chamisa, the information secretary for the Tsvangirai MDC told us Tuesday that the police are “dilly-dallying” and are having difficulty charging Mubhawu. He said Mubhawu does not have a blue truck and was not in Mabvuku at the time of the assault. Chamisa also told us the police have indicated they are under pressure to implicate more senior officials in the MDC in order to paint a violent picture of the party. He blamed ZANU-PF for the violence and accused the police of failing to protect innocent citizens like Trudy and the others. Since the group was attacked as they left a meeting, Chamisa said the police were fully aware of their presence since they had given clearance for the affair and they monitor all meetings in Zimbabwe. He said Mubhawu had no knowledge that a meeting was taking place in Mabvuku.

As for the other MDC members who were arrested last week in the case, Chamisa said they were released on Saturday and were not even questioned about the attack on Stevenson. He said the police used the arrests to try and get more information about the mass action that the MDC announced it would organise. Chamisa added that the questions centred around the nature of the action they were planning and had nothing to do with the attack on Stevenson.

Asked if any of their party officials had been in touch with the Mutambara MDC to discuss the situation created by this incident, Chamisa said the other MDC party exists only in the press. He told us there is only one MDC and MP Stevenson is a member of that MDC and has never resigned from it. He said: “We have no time for peripheral issues here.”