Freed political detainee suspended by employer

By Violet Gonda
29 August 2007

An MDC senior official who spent 174 days in prison on trumped up charges of terrorism is facing another battle as a free man. Morgan Komichi was released on the 9th August but when he reported for work on the 15th he was told that he had been suspended on allegations of absenteeism. This is despite his lawyers having written to his employer, the Zimbabwe Power Company, a subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, informing them about the arrest.

Komichi told us: “Management said that when I was in prison there was an attempted disciplinary hearing that I had not come to work and so at the moment I should stay at home.” The MDC official believes he is being victimized because of his work with the opposition. He said he should not be on suspension because of the dramatic collapse of the state case in courts, where it emerged the police had fabricated evidence.

We could not get a comment from the ZESA management.

But despite the collapse of the case it appears the regime is still harassing the opposition official. Komichi said: “We don’t rule out the possibility that external force is being put on them (Power utility management). And I think the idea is that I should be fired, that is what other people would want.” He said prior to his arrest he had several encounters in Matebeleland North where senior ZANU PF officials confronted him saying they wanted him out of the province.

Komichi is a technician at the Hwange Power Station but had been working at Munyati Power Station in the Midlands Province before his arrest. He is part of a group of MDC members who were arrested shortly after the government embarked on a vicious campaign against the opposition in March. He spent over five months battling for life in a prison hospital.

Narrating his ordeal at the hands of the police, the MDC official said: “ I was put in a torture house from 3pm and tortured by many young men and women from 3pm to 9 pm non stop. The boys and girls were hitting me like I was a dead donkey.”

He said the weapons used included empty coca cola bottles and baton sticks “suffocating me using hands and holding on to my throat, using their fists to hit me on the head – poking AK47 rifles and pistols into my head and sometimes even using a baton stick to choke me.”

He added; “I fainted several times. I cried for my life. They continued to hit me. Every time I fainted they would stop, as soon as I woke up they’d continue.”
Morgan Komichi said he suffered so much that he could not eat for 6 days when he was sent to remand prison. He said he could not breathe properly and could not walk and was admitted into a prison hospital. “When I went into the hospital the blood tests that were done on me showed I had lost blood by 50%. From a normal (Haemoglobin) Hb level of 16 the test showed that I had 8Hb level.”