Missing activist car spotted two months ago in Beitbridge

SW Radio Africa

By Tererai Karimakwenda

7 August 2012

A car belonging to the human rights activist Paul Chizuze, who has been missing for six months now, was spotted by a relative in the border town of Beitbridge four months after he disappeared, according to reports.

South Africa’s Cape Times newspaper reported that Chizuze’s “dusty” Nissan Hardbody, with registration number ACJ 3446,was seen parked “in a prominent position” outside the government tax offices by a relative passing through to South Africa. A security guard working nearby said it had been there for several weeks.

Chizuze was last seen driving the car on the day he went missing back in February. For unknown reasons, the Zimbabwe Republic Police did not investigate or perform any forensic tests on the vehicle.

It is widely believed Chizuze was targetted because of his work documenting the Gukurahundi massacres of the late eighties. Zimbabwean troops loyal to Robert Mugabe murdered thousands of innocent civilians in Matabeleland, after claiming arms of war were found hidden on ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo’s farm.

There is also speculation that Chizuze may have been abducted and killed after discovering more recent information that could be damaging to senior chefs within ZANU PF. It is still not known what business he might have been pursuing that led him to park outside the tax building in Beitbridge.

One unnamed relative is quoted as saying: “I now suspect he was murdered and we should all accept that we will never find him alive.”

Education Minister David Coltart, who worked closely with Chizuze, told SW Radio Africa earlier this year that Chizuze had “too much information on Gukurahundi”.

Chizuze’s friends and colleagues launched a campaign on social media sites Facebook and Twitter, in an effort to try and find out what happened to him and spread information about his disappearance.