Political killings and abductions of MDC activists escalate

By Tichaona Sibanda
15 May 2008

The brutal murder of MDC activist Beta Chokururama in Murehwa on Sunday and the abduction of Tonderai Ndira from Mabvuku on Wednesday highlight the country’s spiralling crisis of political killings and kidnappings.

Chokururama was abducted with three other activists’ 10km after Juru growth point on his way to Ngwerume village in Murehwa, to say goodbye to his mother. The group had planned to flee the country the following day and seek refuge in South Africa.

The four activists were driving in a car when it was sandwiched by two twin cabs carrying about eight men, believed to be state agents. They were forced to stop and in a desperate bid, locked themselves in the vehicle.

Wise Mayengeza, an MDC activist who decided at the last minute not to travel with the group to Murehwa, said the state agents smashed the windscreen and windows and pulled them out of the car.

‘They were blindfolded and taken to different places. One of them who managed to escape under the cover of darkness, was taken to a torture camp. He only managed to get to Harare Tuesday where he explained what had happened,’ Mayengeza said.

Chokururama’s body was discovered not too far away from where they were abducted. He had a gunshot and four deep stab wounds to his back. The other two activists are still missing and believed dead.

‘We understand there are two bodies that fit their descriptions at a hospital mortuary in Murehwa. We’re making plans to travel there and investigate if the bodies are that of our friends,’ Mayengeza said.

Shockingly Chokururama was abducted and tortured and left for dead, three weeks ago. State agents told him then that he was number 17 on their hit-list of influential activists from Harare and Mashonaland East province. At the time of his murder he was still trying to recover from this serious attack.

He had also spent four months in prison during the 2007 government crackdown on the MDC.

On Wednesday heavily armed and masked men abducted the MDC’s security secretary for Harare province, Tonderai Ndira, from his Mabvuku home.

Ndira, who has been arrested 35 times and badly beaten on countless occasions, was abducted from his home in Chizhanje, Mabvuku by nine armed men. The group included a policeman based in Goromonzi identified by an eyewitness.

He was assaulted, then driven away naked in a white Toyota single cab truck, Registration number 772-224T. Ndira was number 34 on the hit list, according to Mayengeza. His colleagues and family said they are very concerned about his safety.

The MDC has said the attacks on it’s activists and supporters are mostly carried out by known state agents, militias and soldiers, who shoot or stab the victims before escaping in cars. No one has been arrested or prosecuted for the over 33 deaths reported so far.