CIO officer commandeers bus with 60 church women in Mutoko

By Lance Guma
29 November 2006

Over 60 churchwomen travelling to a prayer convention in the Kotwa area of Mutoko endured harassment from a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) who commandeered their bus to a police station. The officer identified only as Nyagura picked a fight with the women in the bus Friday afternoon and accused them of singing opposition songs. One of the women told Newsreel they were all travelling to the convention organised by their church and that they were only singing Christian songs.

Nyagura, who was a passenger in the 75-seater bus owned by Maisiri Transport, is alleged to have shouted at the women telling them to stop singing. When they ignored him he told them they were all under arrest. The bus was ordered to go to a nearby police station with the women made to sit down on the ground outside the station. Several hours of interrogation and harassment culminated in Nyagura telling the police to get ‘youths’ to beat up the women. Newsreel was told by one of the witnesses that ‘youths’ in this case meant Zanu PF youths who were asked to ‘discipline’ the women.

What incensed the women further was the fact that the police asked them to apologise to the CIO officer in order to secure their freedom. ‘Instead of getting protection from the police, we were surprised they were actually on this guys side,’ Newsreel was told. Nyagura even labelled the wife of the church pastor a prostitute and said the CIO would ensure the church is stopped from operating altogether. After about 3 hours the women were finally released following intervention from senior leaders in the church.

Members of the CIO have built a reputation for becoming a law unto themselves and the latest incident demonstrates how even members of the police force fear taking them on. Joseph Mwale, also a member of the CIO, has still not been arrested for his part in the murder of two MDC activists Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya who were petrol bombed in the run up to the 2000 parliamentary. This is in spite of a request from the Attorney Generals office dated 23 September this year demanding Mwale’s arrest by the 6th October.