NCA’s Nyikadzino recounts torture by military intelligence officers

By Lance Guma

15 June 2006

Coverage on incidents of violence and torture in Zimbabwe are sometimes purely statistical and people often lose sight of the experiences of the victims. Nixon Nyikadzino, a National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) field officer, recounted to SWRA how military intelligence officers tortured him after an NCA demonstration for a new constitution held on the 14 th April. His narration could have easily found a place in a movie script set in Nazi Germany, but the reality of the matter was that it happened in Zimbabwe.

He says he was bundled into a white B1800 truck by military intelligence officials led by a Major Kembo. The truck kept driving around Harare while the officers took turns to assault him. They constantly struck him on the head and eyes using clenched fists while one of the officers took a burning cigarette and started burning different parts of his body. Nyikadzino had dreadlocks at the time and says they started to pull them out and wherever they were uprooted he was bleeding. At this juncture the truck started moving outside Harare heading towards the mining town of Bindura.

Nyikadzino was then forced to play with his private parts and a female officer also inside the truck joined in and started molesting him. Meanwhile they constantly warned him against writing negative articles and taking part in NCA demonstrations. About 40km outside Harare they threw him out of the truck and started urinating on him. He says at this point they started arguing amongst themselves about what to do with him. One of his assailants brandished a broken bottle and started shouting that he wanted to stab him in the chest while the others suggested they dump him near the Mazoe dam.

Fortunately for Nyikadzino he was left at that same spot but not before they took his three mobile phones and Z$10 million. He says he had to walk for 17 km towards Harare before he encountered a police roadblock. He says ‘I had to lie to them about what had happened so that they could help me, I just said I had been robbed.’ He got the transport he was seeking and was admitted to Harare’s Avenue Clinic on the same day. Nyikadzino is currently recuperating in South Africa and says he is going back to Zimbabwe soon after he has ‘recharged his batteries.’