NEWLY FORMED opposition, The Patriotic Front (TPF) has called for thorough investigation and prosecution on those who abducted and subjected an MDC MP and her party colleagues to both physical torture and sexual abuse.
Harare West legislator Joanna Mamombe, youth leaders Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marowa were Wednesday reportedly seized from the custody of police officers in Harare by suspected state agents who drove them for kilomitres outside the capital to subject them to the abuses.
They were later dumped in Bindura heavily traumatised and relating horror tales in the hands of their captors.
The activists were being accused of a plot to topple the Zanu PF led government after they had joined other party youths stage a flash anti-government demonstration in Harare’s Warren Park suburb.
In a statement Saturday, TPF joined growing calls for investigations and prosecutions on the abductors.
“It is with consternation and alarm that The Patriotic Front notes the increasing numbers of abductions and torture being carried out on the people of Zimbabwe,” said the party.
“We call on the government of Zimbabwe to do all in its power, under the name of justice and rule of law to search for, detain and prosecute those responsible for the heinous acts perpetrated on three of its citizens recently.”
Added the party, “If the abduction and torture of three Zimbabwean women, notably one who is a Member of Parliament can go unpunished or is found to be the work of state security agents, or the work of the parties concerned, then we The Patriotic Front condemn these actions with the utmost outrage on behalf of our constituents.
“The Patriotic Front calls for immediate action from the judiciary as this case will form jurisprudence for future incidences of this kind, and should be treated with the severity it justly deserves to stop an escalation in an already tense theatre that is Zimbabwe today.”
The fledgling opposition also condemned other incidences of police brutality and the partisan participation of the security sector which have been witnessed since the beginning of the year.
The party pledged to work tirelessly for a free, just and economically sound Zimbabwe while also monitoring “very closely, events of this nature”.
TPF said it will “continue to condemn and disagree with all deviation from the Constitution as well as national and international laws concerning to a government’s duty to serve and protect her people”.
The newly formed party says it believes in “equal rights, freedom and justice for all of Zimbabwe’s people, regardless of race, creed or denomination and reiterates the need for firm, independent and robust legal institutions”. – Newzimbabwe
