Police still detaining MDC activist after Monday’s chaos

By Tichaona Sibanda
16 July 2009

MDC activist Patrick Danga, who was arrested by the police while restraining ZANU PF MP Patrick Zhuwawo from manhandling an MDC MP, is still detained at Harare Central police station. Zhuwawo is also Robert Mugabe’s nephew.

The MDC MP for Mutare Central, Innocent Gonese, told us on Thursday that Danga has not been taken to court and is still detained, and yet the real criminals, who threw bottles and disrupted proceedings at the All-Stakeholders constitutional conference, remain free.

‘In spite of there being video footage of the perpetrators of the chaos, to date, no arrests have been made. Instead, an innocent young man, Patrick Danga, whose only crime was trying to restrain Patrick Zhuwawo who was manhandling Amos Chibaya (MDC) a member of the select committee, got arrested,’ Gonese said.

Gonese, who is the MDC chief whip in Parliament, blasted the police and the attorney general’s office for applying the law selectively. He said the MDC believes all people must be equal before the law, adding ‘these values must be enshrined in a new people–driven constitution and inculcated in all our law enforcement agents whose loyalty must be to the constitution and the laws of the land and not to a political party.

‘Just on Monday…in full view of television cameras, rogue elements of ZANU PF, including legislators and war veterans, caused mayhem at the Harare International Conference Centre but the police simply folded their arms and took no action,’ he said.

Equally disturbing he said, is the failure to prosecute various ZANU PF luminaries who have been implicated in cases of the illegal mining and smuggling of diamonds, gold and other precious minerals. Others have been implicated in various shady deals but again nothing has happened, complained the MP.

Commenting on the suspension of Chipinge West MP Mathias Mlambo from attending Parliamentary sessions, the Mutare central legislator said this was a calculated objective of achieving sinister political ends.
Mlambo was suspended from Parliament on Wednesday after he was recently sentenced to 10 months in prison on trumped up charges of public violence by a Chipinge magistrate.
The MP maintains his innocence and claims the charges he faced were concocted by ZANU PF with the help of the police. The MP said he was working with lawyers in the capital to lodge an appeal at the High court against the suspension.

‘In this instance one does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the intention of the politically motivated prosecution of members of Parliament of the MDC is to reduce its numbers in Parliament,’ Gonese added

He said the exuberance with which these cases have been pursued contrasts sharply with the failure of the police to arrest the thousands of criminals who were responsible for the madness that characterized last year’s presidential run-off.

‘Police have been given reports of names of people who committed various crimes such as murder, arson, public violence and rape but significantly, virtually no arrests have been made,’ he said