Missing Activist triggers fears of Nabanyama-fate

ZimEye

28 February 2012

There are fears that missing activist Paul Chizuze who is a colleague of Education minister David Coltart, may have been abducted in the same way Coltart’s election agent Paul Nabanyama who was abducted by state security agents and killed 12 years ago.

Chizuze has been missing for the past 20 days since the 8th February 2012, and this week, Coltart launched a international call for his whereabouts.

Nabanyama was twelve years ago abducted by 10 armed state operatives and never seen again and Coltart, now Education Minister, has used his Twitter page to say he was “distressed by disappearance of friend and human rights activist Paul Chizuze”.

A senior MDC member who declined to be named told ZimEye that Chizuze the party is increasing becoming worried over the disappearance: “This guy, because of the organisations he has worked for, people are now getting worried. ..He participated in actually breaking the silence on Gukurahundi,” she said.

Coltart (pictured) has known Chizuze for over 20 years and he was quoted stating Chizuze “was one of the first paralegals I employed as Director of the Bulawayo Legal Projects Centre in the late 1980’s.”

Coltart said Chizuze also worked with the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and was one of the researchers into the ‘Breaking the Silence’ report into the Gukurahundi Massacres.

Last year the wife of murdered MDC activist Patrick Nabanyama began suing the Attorney-General Johannes Tomana for refusing to prosecute the six war veterans and Zanu PF members who allegedly kidnapped and killed her husband 11 years before.

Pressure group Sokwanele posted an alert on its website saying Chizuze “Allegedly left his home around 8 pm on 8th February, and what happened after this remains a mystery. He may have been murdered, hijacked or abducted by parties unknown.” His car, a white twin cab Nissan Hardbody (registration ACJ 3446) is also missing.

“Over the last three decades, Paul has been either employed by, or active with, the Legal Resources Foundation, Amani Trust Matabeleland, The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, ZimRights, Churches in Bulawayo, CivNet, and Masakhaneni Trust,” a statement from his friends said.

His friends say he has worked tirelessly as a paralegal to track activists in jail and offer them support. Chizuze was part of the campaign to uncover the truth of what happened to Patrick Nabanyama, after his abduction and disappearance in 2000, and “has selflessly worked to expose human rights abuses in the last decade.”