As Dr Magombeyi resurfaces, the third force debate rages on, as Job Sikhala narrates torture story

Bulawayo News 24

24th September 2019

By Thomas Mukandi

The acting president of Zimbabwe Hospital Doctor Associations Peter Magombeyi, who was allegedly abducted on Friday last week in Budiriro, was on last week Thursday night confirmed to have been released from the hands of his abductors in the evening.

Magombeyi’s release comes after doctors had embarked on a national wide strike demanding the release of Magombeyi, as his alleged abduction was concluded to be linked to his adamant and vocal stance in demanding fair remuneration and working conditions for doctors from the government.

Magombeyi was confirmed found in Nyabira, 33km north west of Harare along Chinhoyi Road, he had his cell phone and wallet but no ID.
A plethora of speculations, allegations, accusations and hypothesis have been awash in Zimbabwe from different perspectives, the government, media, opposition political parties , human rights groups and the general populace since Magombeyi’s return.
The golden question now is; who is behind a spate of abductions in Zimbabwe. 

The government officials have pointed that there is a third force working with opposition political parties, while the opposition points the state as a regime that intimidates citizens through abduction and brutality.

Deputy Minister of Information Publicity and Broadcasting Energy Mutodi, affirmed that opposition political parties were behind the disappearance of Magombeyi, with the aim of intending to dent the image of the government, he further dismissed a spate of abductions which was witnessed recently as fake.

 “Dr Peter Magombeyi’s disappearance is a desperate attempt by opposition parties working with other forces to tarnish the government ahead of the UN General Assembly. Like I have said before, I still maintain only fools can be fooled by these fake abductions,” said Mutodi.

 The ruling party ZANU-PF described the alleged abduction of Magombeyi as a stage managed performance which had many flaws which are evidently visible and far from being true.

“So after the alleged abductors dropped Dr Magombeyi, they had the kindness to return to him his phone they apparently had kept fully charged for the whole week. Generous abductors or is it a case of a badly written script with a bad ending?  Game Of Thrones,” pointed ZANU-PF on its official twitter handle.

Popular media personal Blessing Mhlanga dismissed one of the claims by ZANU-PF of stage managing the abduction and as to why Magombeyi had a charged phone 5 days after his abduction.

“If the phone was off for since Saturday how would the battery be down,” said Mhlanga.

State owned newspaper Herald had recently published an article were it linked the abduction cases be to perpetuated by the opposition party MDC. President of the MDC dismissed the Herald story as false and factious.
“A Herald of falsehoods, lies and fiction!!,” said Chamisa.

The MDC released a statement refusing the government’s third force assertion saying Zimbabwe had a history of state abductions.

“In light of the disappearance of the acting president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, Dr. Peter Magombeyi, the State has sought to cast aspersions and blame other organizations, including the MDC. Yet Zimbabweans have suffered massive violence, abductions and murders at the hands of the State and Zanu PF,” read a statement by the MDC.

The MDC went on to outline different abduction cases that happened in the past that targeted opposition members like Morgan Tsvangirai and  Tonderai Ndira, and civil organisation activists like Jestina Mukoko and Itai Dzamara, and said the MDC has always been a victim of state sponsored violence and abductions.

“It is trite to state that the State’s hand is conspicuous in all these murders and abductions that have taken place since 1980.The MDC is a legitimate political player in the country and throughout its 20 year-existence, the party has always been a victim and never a perpetrator of violence,” added the MDC statement.

Obert Gutu who broke away from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the alleged abduction and release of Magombeyi has many aspects that are not adding up as to whether the incident was authentic or not and who is behind.

“Was Dr. Peter Magombeyi really abducted or he’s up to some funny tricks? It’s not adding up. There are more questions than answers. A lot of loose ends. We want to get the story behind the story,” said Gutu.

During the reign of the late president Robert Mugabe, one of the political activist Itai Dzamara, was also abducted and was never found up to this day, his brother Patson Dzamara noted that the release of Magombeyi from the abductors was as a result of the pressure that the doctors had mounted to the state, ‘No Peter no work’. Patson said if the same pressure had been applied to Itai Dzamara could have been released from the adductors.

“Of course, we betrayed Itai Dzamara by not pilling enough pressure but I am happy we learnt an important lesson. The solidarity and pressure I saw around the disappearance of Peter is commendable. Well done Zimbabwe. Never again shall we have another Itai Dzamara,” said Patson Dzamara.

MDC Treasury David Coltart further concurred with the view that the release of Magombeyi was as a result of the pressure that the doctors had mounted to the government of Zimbabwe led by Emmerson Mnagagwa.

“Congratulations  to his fellow doctors, legal team, the general public and the international community for the massive pressure placed on the regime to release him said,” said Coltart.

David Coltart further noted that the state knew where Magombeyi was being held at, deducing from the comment that was made by the Deputy Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Energy Mutodi.

“Our very own dear deputy minister of propaganda appears to have known that Dr Magombeyi was alive well before Dr Magombeyi was able to get hold of his colleagues. The good Minister tweeted at 16.20 and I quote “We hope Dr Peter Magombeyi will sober up and find his way home,” highlighted Coltart.

When Magombeyi was released from the hands of the abductors, he made contact with Studio 7, a news platform that operates outside the borders of Zimbabwe in America Washington DC, he highlighted that he could not recall what had happened to him while he was in the hands of the abductors.

Over the weekend reports are that Magombeyi was tortured and electrocuted on his testicles and chances for him to sire children are now slim.

“I might be having retrograde amnesia, I am not sure about that,” said Magombeyi

Amnesia is a period where you can’t recall what happened.

“Dr Magombeyi is a fraudster. He faked his abduction. The authorities must dig deeper into his alleged abduction,” said Razaro Chimombe.

Minister of State Security Owen Ncube, in a statement on Tuesday said the third force matrix cannot be ruled out, especially as these abductions are occurring at a time when the president is supposed to be attending high profile meetings.

“I am cognisant that such reports usually come ahead of major international conferences. I have also instructed the security forces to investigate whether or not a third force is involved. I have however, directed the security services to approach this investigation with an objective and open mind,” he said.
Veteran radio DJ Ezra Sibanda, said the resurfacing of Magombeyi must be taken seriously and an investigation must be carried out to find out how he got out of the hands of his abductors.

The debate now continues to rage as the third force matrix and the state matrix questions remain in play. The nation now awaits how the police will lead in exposing the abductors.

Over the weekend MDC deputy chairperson, Job Sikhala said he feels for Magombeyi’s traumatic situation as he recalled how he himself was once abducted and tortured by state agents in 2003 during Mugabe’s era.

“There is no single doubt both in my conscience and my heart that Dr. Peter Magomeyi was savagely tortured by societal outcasts in our country this 21st century. Having listened to the telephone conversation between Dr Mugomeyi and the Studio 7 reporter after reports that he has been dumped in Nyabira, the traits of a tormented soul as manifested to me after my torture on the 13th of January 2003 together with Advocate Gabriel Shumba, Taurai Magaya and Charles Mutama was clear,” revealed Sikhala.

“After having been dropped back at the Harare Central Police Station, I found Charles Mutama already back in the cells, Advocate Gabriel Shumba and Taurai Magaya were also in and told me that they were shifted from Mbare and Matapi holding cells to Harare Central after their torture. I found them groaning in pain squashed on a corner and quickly suspected that they were done what was done to me and Charles Mutama. When they saw me they started crying. This trauma has affected Magaya up to this present day. He just cries without provocation despite medical treatment he obtained after the torture. Anongotanga kungovovora kana zvamubata without anything done to him,” narrated Sikhala.

“The truth of the matter is that Dr Mugomeyi was severely tortured and needs a strong support for him to be able to get over it and start to open up….My experience of torture is that it needs someone with a strong character to come out in the  open. Torture kills all the human feelings someone might have. It needs serious counseling and rehabilitation,” added Sikhala.

The state abduction matrix, is a thinking that suggests that the state has always been involved in the torture and abduction of individuals, groups and organisations that oppose government.

The thinking suggest that Magombeyi was abducted by state agents, who wanted to silence him against leading the doctors in their call for improved salaries and working conditions. This is evidenced by the threats the members of the ZHDA received in the past, including other workers union leaders who were harassed and tortured in the past.

The state abduction group blames the government for gross human abuse and believes only through pressure and demonstrations can the government listen to their call.

The third force matrix suggests that there is a hidden hand with a lethal agenda to force regime change agenda on an elected government. To achieve this agenda some local organisations, individuals, pressure groups and civil organisations are financially sponsored by outside western countries, (especially those countries that has put economic sanctions on Zimbabwe) to carry out subversive demonstrations, strikes, including fake abductions to get international attention.

The agenda, says the third force group, is to project Zimbabwe as a bedrock of human rights abuses, which will cause the western countries to add more sanctions on the country, and withdraw international economic support, thus cause more pain to the suffering citizens who will in turn revolt against an elected government.
The third force group even suggest countries like America and its allies are heavily involved in the planning and execution of abductions together with the opposition MDC.

ZANU PF Secretary of Youth Pupurai Togarepi, said the MDC has been exposed through its third force theatrics, and says the Magombeyi abduction only further exposed that the third force group was in play and wanted to harm Zimbabwe’s image during the United Nations General Assembly.

“I wouldn’t know whether the desperate third force that is desperately stage managing abductions has achieved its evil goals and objectives through these infantile pranks, but I know the MDC Alliance and its handlers have been exposed as the purveyors of these so-called abductions. They thought that they could hide the doctor and inflict maximum harm on Zimbabwe during the UN General Assembly, but when the net was closing in on them, when exposure was inevitable, they decided to release their colleague, now they are clutching on straws, exposed, and cannot hide. In shame, quislings can never ever claim victory, narrated Togarepi in an interview with SADC News.

Lawyer Alex Magaisa says above everything else, it was the return of Magombeyi that must be celebrated.

“I’m glad that Dr Magombeyi is alive. All else is secondary. It was his family I worried for. I hope they will have some peace of mind as they retire tonight even though he’s still in the hands of the state. My joy is only qualified by the fact that Itai Dzamara is still missing,” said Magaisa.

As the nation celebrate Magombeyi’s return, many questions are now being asked and the answers lie within the two contending ideas. Was the third force behind, or was the state behind the abduction?

%d bloggers like this: