By Everson Mushava/Blessed Mhlanga
Doctors treating Harare West MP Joana Mamombe and two other MDC Alliance activists yesterday said the trio was still too traumatised to speak to the police about their ordeal.
Mamombe together with two youth leaders, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, went missing last Wednesday after police initially confirmed detaining them for allegedly leading an illegal demonstration in Harare.
They were found in Bindura the following day “badly beaten and tortured” amid claims by the MDC Alliance that state security agents were behind their abduction.
Norman Matara from the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said the trio was still in a bad shape.
“We are working with the police,” Matara said. “I cannot disclose anything about the extent of injury on the ladies because they are still not physically and emotionally fit to give a statement to the police.”
Their lawyer Jeremiah Bhamu from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said they would only know the next step for the women after they had recovered.
“I will know of the next course of action once the three are in a stable condition,” Bhamu said.
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“But first, we want to know the truth about what happened to them.”
He said it was difficult to expect the police to carry out professional investigations into the matter.
“There are already indications that the police are compromised,” Bhamu said.
“Hoping them to be fair would be asking for too much from them. Some of them might want, but there might be superior forces blocking them from acting impartially.”
The MDC Alliance yesterday demanded an independent inquiry to investigate human rights abuses, torture and degrading treatment of the three female youth leaders.
“The MDC Alliance demands that a prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigation into this criminal act be launched by the United Nations,” party secretary for social welfare Maureen Kademaunga said in a statement.
On Friday night President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba accused the MDC Alliance of faking abductions and warned that police would soon arrest the party’s leaders.
Charamba claimed the MDC Alliance was trying to pre-empt a move by the MDC-T to recall seven of the Nelson Chamisa-led group, including Mamombe.
Charlton Hwende, the MDC Alliance secretary-general, said the presidential spokesperson’s disclosures on Twitter had exposed MDC-T’s alleged links with Zanu PF.
“How does Zanu PF know that Mwonzora plans to withdraw seven more of our members from Parliament if they are not planning together?
“To us, it is news coming from the chief spokesperson of Zanu PF,” Hwende said.
“When we say our former colleagues are a Zanu PF project, this is what informs our position.”
Charamba was not picking calls yesterday, but MDC-T chairman Morgen Komichi distanced his party from Charamba’s comments saying he was unaware of the planned recall.
