Six MDC Alliance Activists Acquitted for Political Violence
Kwekwe Magistrate Florence Nago has acquitted six MDC Alliance youth activists who were facing public violence charges.
MDC Alliance Midlands spokesperson Takavafira Zhou confirmed the acquittal of the six who were arrested last year.
“As the Midlands provincial leadership, we are happy that our colleagues were acquitted over long-standing allegations of political violence at the Kwekwe Magistrate Court,” Zhou said.
The six are: Sekai Marashe, youth provincial chairperson Joseph Madyagwayi, provincial administrator Jubilee Mutyanda, Lazarus Moyo, Norman Mhungu, and Berita Mpansi.
The six were accused of causing violence at the MDC party offices in Newtown, Kwekwe.
“We reiterate our long-held view that the police must investigate in order to arrest, rather than arrest in order to investigate,” Zhou told NewZimbabwe.com.
“The MDC Alliance remains disturbed at the routine arrests and harassment of our leaders, and members, let alone the psychological torture perpetrated on us.
“We interpret the hexad’s (six) arrest and protracted placement on remand when it was clear that they were innocent, as a well the calculated move to keep the MDC Alliance leaders pre-occupied with court cases, is meant to militate against the judicious execution of their responsibilities in the party and nation at large.”
However, Zhou said the opposition movement would not be deterred by the continued arrests.
“No amount of political diversion, court machinations and false allegations will stop an idea whose moment is up. In our despair at unlawful arrests and abuse of the courts, we are also happy that history and the truth have absolved them,” he said.
Currently, the MDC-T led by Douglas Mwonzora and Nelson Chamisa’s MDC Alliance are locked in a bitter fight over the control of MDC offices in Newtown, Kwekwe.
Last year, Chamisa was kicked out of the MDC head office, Harvest House also known as Morgan Richard Tsvangirai after the Supreme Court ruled, he was not the lawful leader of the MDC-T. Mwonzora’s faction is now occupying the iconic building known for the past two decades as the home for opposition politics.
By New Zimbabwe.
