HARARE – Police are investigating after a man was killed outside a constituency office of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Kwekwe on Friday.
Officers responded after reports of a man lying dead just meters from the MDC office, which the local MP says was illegally seized by Zanu PF youths who have been using it as a “terror base”.
The identity of the victim was yet to be established but Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya told ZimLive that he believed the incident was politically-motivated.
“They have literally besieged my office since I was in prison and I have failed to take it back. The suspects so far apprehended are the ones staying at that office using it as a base and are known Zanu PF youths,” said Chikwinya, one of over two dozen opposition leaders, trade unionists and human rights campaigners facing treason charges.
Chikwinya said when he attempted to take over the office, the Zanu PF youths – known locally as al-Shabaab after the Somali terror group – called the police and said he was “behaving in a manner that is likely to cause breach of peace.”
“Now, being on stringent bail conditions, I decided to let go of the office in the meantime but this has become the consequence, that the known Zanu PF base has now become a slaughter centre.”
The MDC has complained of a renewed crackdown on its members by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s security forces since it announced plans for nationwide protests last week and this week which were banned by the police.
On Thursday morning, the party said gunmen fired at the home of its Marondera Central MP Caston Matewu.
Days earlier, the party’s national chairperson Thabitha Khumalo was arrested with eight others, accused of distributing pamphlets stating that Mnangagwa “stole” elections last year.
The MDC says its deputy mayor for Bulawayo was abducted by armed men who cut off his dreadlocks with broken glass.
Rights organisations report similar abductions in Harare, the latest victim being comedian Samatha Kureya who says masked gunmen stormed her home and drove away with her on Wednesday night. She was stripped and badly beaten before being dumped. Her kidnappers accused her of undermining the government with her skits which are popular online.
