His love for cricket and Zimbabwe drew him back to both time and again. It would also be his undoing

BY FIRDOSE MOONDA  

www.thecricketmonthly.com

 JANUARY 12, 2022

Heath Streak had never heard a silence so loud. It was March 2018 and Zimbabwe had failed to qualify for the 2019 World Cup. Missing out was a matter of both pride and money.

It would be the first time in Zimbabwe’s history that they would not be at the tournament. It doesn’t matter that they have never been expected to win; World Cups are a rare chance for them to test themselves against the best – and occasionally to beat them. It is also one of the few opportunities to add to Zimbabwe Cricket’s bank balance, which otherwise runs close to empty in a flailing economy. For the World Cup, the participation fee was US$100,000 and for every match won, teams earned an extra $40,000. Zimbabwe could have lost every match they played and still returned home with enough money to, for example, pay the salaries of the coaching staff for a year.

Streak, who was head coach at the time, and his support staff, which included Lance Klusener (batting), Douglas Hondo (bowling), Walter Chawaguta (fielding), Stanley Chiwoza (analyst) and Sean Bell (strength and conditioning), voluntarily gave up their salaries for more than a year leading in to the qualifiers, in an attempt to mitigate against pay cuts for players. They figured that if the cricketers were not worrying entirely about money – there was still some concern because they were on reduced pay – they would be able to fully focus on their performance. If that happened, Zimbabwe would give themselves the best chance of qualifying, and if that happened, everyone would eventually get back what was owed to them. The incentive to get there was strong. Even though there were a lot of ifs, it was a reasonable plan; it could even be viewed as a case of deferred payments. In reality, it backfired badly.

“It was just really terrible when we realised we would not qualify, especially because it had been a tough tournament in so many ways,” Streak says from his home in Bulawayo in June 2021. “There was no DRS and we had a horrendous decision against West Indies: [Sikandar] Raza was bowled off a no-ball. That defeat made it difficult for us, but we weren’t the only team to struggle without the reviews. Scotland were also on the receiving end of a few bad decisions.

“Then we got to playing against the UAE. They scored 235, which was going to be tough to chase anyway. There was a major storm at lunch and our target was revised to 230 from 40 overs. The ball was swinging and it was tough batting and we fell short. We just couldn’t believe it. Afterwards, in the change room, it was the longest bit of silence I’ve heard.”

A week later, Streak and his entire staff were sacked, in what he claimed were unfair dismissals. “When I was hired, one of the things that came up in my interview was how I would be judged. I asked how the board would deem success because I needed what I was asked to do to be realistic and achievable.

Before Streak and his coaching staff were dismissed in 2018, Zimbabwe’s win percentage under them had climbed to 37.5% in a year and a half, from 22.6% before then © Getty Images

“Zimbabwe had a 20% win ratio in the two years before I took over, and I was told that if I could double that, it would be unbelievable. Most top teams work on a win ratio of 50-60%”

Streak was hired in October 2016, and took over from Makhaya Ntini, who served in an interim role after Dav Whatmore was sacked that June. According to Streak, the ZC board chair, Tavengwa Mukuhlani, and the managing director, Faisal Hasnain, did not specify any other performance criteria.

“We also spoke about the World Cup qualifiers and we understood that the World Cup had moved from 14 to ten teams and that there would be some really good teams in the qualifiers, but there was never a stipulation of qualification being the requirement to continue. Up to the World Cup qualifiers, our win percentage was 37 and we won an ODI series in Sri Lanka after 17 years, so I felt I had done what was expected of me.”

Still, Hasnain sent Streak an email on a Friday at the end of that March, giving him and his staff an ultimatum to resign by 3pm that day or be sacked. Hasnain himself resigned less than a month later, citing the team’s inability to qualify for the World Cup. By then, Streak had launched a court case against ZC, demanded the board be dissolved to pay debts, including the money he was owed, and lodged a defamation claim against Mukuhlani, who had accused Streak of being a racist. Although it was the last of those allegations that stung Streak the most, it transpired that the absence of funds was also a significant issue. Three years later, he would be banned for eight years after admitting to accepting two bitcoins worth $70,000 and an iPhone from a man the ICC recognised as a corruptor, and multiple breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption code. Streak said he had provided information on, among other tournaments, the 2018 Afghanistan Premier League, which took place six months after the World Cup qualifiers. By then, he was without permanent employment, still unpaid by his former employers and embroiled in legal proceedings against them.

Streak hasn’t said it and neither has anyone else, but it’s not difficult to see a connection between the dysfunction of this last coaching stint and his transgressions thereafter, which have not only scarred his reputation but also changed the nature of his relationship with cricket.

How did it come to this? Had it been building from back in 2004, when he stepped down as captain of Zimbabwe and walked out amid a transformation storm, only to return a year later? Or were the roots laid a decade later, when Streak was overlooked in succeeding Alan Butcher as the men’s head coach, despite a successful tenure under Butcher as bowling coach? Was it because he was then compelled to take temporary posts and start an academy in Bulawayo, rather than, as many of his contemporaries had done, look for more permanent employment abroad? And, most complicatedly, did it get to this point because of his devotion to the land of his birth and the soil of his soul?

Swapping turf for surf in happier times, in Sydney in 1994 Tim Clayton / © Fairfax Media/Getty Images

Streak is fluent in Ndebele, the language spoken by nearly four million people, mostly black Africans across Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. That may not seem like a remarkable thing to say about a Zimbabwean, even a white Zimbabwean, but it is. It’s not just that Streak can speak and listen, or ask and answer but he is fully fluent in the language. He jokes in Ndebele and knows its nuances.

He is unusual, says Chris Mpofu, because he speaks Ndebele more than he does English. “When we [the team] would go to his farm, we would find him speaking Ndebele to his dad,” says Mpofu, who played five internationals alongside Streak in 2005 and was coached by him. “It was actually pleasing to see white people love something that is part of us and our culture.”

Streak’s paternal great-grandfather, originally from England, bought land in the Turk Mine area, 60 kilometres north of Bulawayo, in 1896. Over four generations, the Streaks’ have farmed cattle and founded a safari company, with zebra, wildebeest, kudu and giraffe roaming their terrain. As white people on African soil, the Streaks recognise the privilege they hold in their title deed and the fact that most of Zimbabwe’s majority black African population do not own any land at all.

That’s a legacy of the country’s colonial past, but things have changed over the last 40-odd years. The war of liberation that led to independence in 1980 brought Robert Mugabe to power as Zimbabwe’s first black president. Initially he led over some of the country’s most fruitful years, which saw it prosper agriculturally (Zimbabwe was once known as “the breadbasket of Africa”). Eventually, though, Mugabe also oversaw the country’s decline, as he slowly transformed into a cruel despot. Under him, in 2000, the government introduced its first land-reform programme to appropriate white-owned farmland and redistribute it among the black population. The Streaks’ farm was among those affected. More than 70% of their land was seized, and though the family protested initially, they have since come to reflect on their own positions and accept that some of their wealth had to be given up.

“We had some of our land taken but we were still left with some,” Streak says. “I believe we are very lucky to have a farm, so we will just crack on with what we have left. My dad and I are very committed to the farm and community.”

There remain some cattle, a safari park, and a primary school that the Streaks built with the help of some donors from New Zealand.

Denis Streak is 72, played 14 first-class matches for Rhodesia, and currently represents Zimbabwe in lawn bowls. He continues to take care of much of the day-to-day running of the farm, in circumstances that vary in the degrees of difficulty they impose. For the last two decades, Zimbabwe’s economy has been ravaged by hyperinflation and economic sanctions. In the last 20 months, the coronavirus pandemic has further depleted what little foreign currency was coming in. “Things are tough,” the younger Streak admits. “It’s really not easy. With Covid-19, tourism has been almost non-existent.”

Home-town hero: Streak greets fans in Bulawayo in 2004 Clive Rose / © Getty Images

Streak, though, is famously apolitical. He’s not going to blame the post-independence regimes of Mugabe, and now Emmerson Mnangagwa, for the country’s struggles. He played no part in Andy Flower and Henry Olonga’s black-armband protest against the death of democracy at the 2003 World Cup, and didn’t even know of their intentions until the morning of the match, when the game had already begun.

In an interview to the Independent that same summer, when he was leading Zimbabwe on a tour of England, Streak maintained that sport and politics should not mix.

“I do have opinions, and I have been affected both politically and economically by what is going on,” he said in that interview. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea to make a big song and dance over cricket because of what is happening politically. People may not like that, but it doesn’t mean I’m insensitive to the issues. And I know that there are a lot of people in my country who only have cricket to look forward to. They like seeing the national team playing against England or Australia. It gives them pride in their country, and they get some relief from watching sport.”

It was a remarkable line, given the history of his own team and country, and the stance doesn’t seem to have changed since.

Streak could be accused of simply being naïve. Critics might argue his is a perspective born of white privilege, that he is able to ignore the politics in the personal. Or it could be a strategic pose, the fine line Streak walks between cricket and the corridors of power.

David Coltart, Zimbabwe’s former sports minister and a close friend of Streak’s, says there is no basis for this latter speculation. “He is not political at all. He would never think of running for office, for example,” Coltart says. “But he wants to get the job done and realised that to get the job done, he had to have people on both sides.”

Coltart speaks of Streak’s ability to connect “people who loved cricket but also people who are politically connected”, though he notes that Streak’s straddling of those divides extends further than that.

“The most important thing about Streak, and it sets him apart from every other white player in Zimbabwe, is his ability to span the racial, and to a lesser extent the ethnic, divide [between the Ndebele and Shona tribes – Zimbabwe’s two largest indigenous groups]. He is fluent in Ndebele. That has been a huge benefit for him. It’s not just that he is fluent but he understands Ndebele culture and it’s given him a remarkable opportunity to reach out to black players in particular. To that extent, he has been one of the greatest unifiers.

“You know, if you get a group of white men together in a change room, when they don’t have to be politically correct, you quickly get to understand who the real racists are. Heath is not a racist. Look at his ideas around land [on losing land in the reforms].

No one has taken even half as many Test wickets for Zimbabwe as Streak, who finished with 216 from 65 matches Stu Forster / © Getty Images

“He exudes warmth, and through that, he has managed to reach out, particularly to black and other minority players in a way that, with the best intentions in the world, someone like Andy Flower or Grant Flower was never able to do.”

Mpofu is a good example. He was still a schoolboy when he met Streak in 1999. He had always admired Streak, and in 2003, when he bowled to the national team in the nets, he got to know Streak better. It was an interesting time for the two to be forming a bond, not least because Zimbabwe cricket was pulling apart at the seams, along racial lines.

Although plans to push affirmative action had been afoot since Zimbabwe gained independence, they only really crept into cricket in the late 1990s. In his paper “No-ball! When Transformation, Indigenization and Politicking Overstepped Into Zimbabwean Cricket”, independent researcher and academic Admire Thonje, who works on social issues in Zimbabwe, argues that former ZC chair Peter Chingoka and former managing director Ozias Bvute were “partisan officials” who drove transformation but believed their methods were motivated by a particular political agenda. Although Thonje recognises that because the racial mix in Zimbabwe’s national cricket side had hardly changed from its all-white composition between 1982 and 1999, which made affirmative action necessary, he concludes that Chingoka and Bvute’s methods were “problematic,” that they divided players into two camps, for and against inclusion. Streak, these administrators decided, fell into the latter category because he expressed serious concerns with the running of Zimbabwe cricket – those concerns, however, were about the dysfunctional nature of the board rather than being racially motivated.

On April 2, 2004, reports emerged that Streak had threatened to resign as captain unless ZC met certain demands, including a review of the national selection panel. By April 4, it was unclear whether Streak had stepped down or been sacked, and what followed were ten days of high drama. Denis Streak denied that Streak gave ZC an ultimatum, ZC claimed Streak had retired, and replaced him as captain with Tatenda Taibu. Denis then hit back with an accusation that ZC had unlawfully terminated Streak’s contract. On April 14, 2004, 13 Zimbabwe players, all white, including Streak, issued a lengthy statement, explaining why they were effectively walking away from Zimbabwe cricket. Later that month Zimbabwe hosted Sri Lanka. Taibu captained, and in the third ODI the side was bowled out for 35. If Streak needed a sign that he need not look back, this was it.

Cricket in Zimbabwe was in free fall with the exodus of white players and their experience, leaving behind a gap that was filled by poor results and prejudice. Most who left had access to, or had already obtained, British passports and could end their careers on the county circuit. That option was open to Streak too, and he signed a deal with Warwickshire, where he took 13 for 158 on debut, won the county title in his maiden season, and returned for three more years.

Chris Mpofu (right) on what made Streak unusual: “We would find him speaking Ndebele to his dad. It was pleasing to see white people love something that is part of us and our culture” Lakruwan Wanniarachchi / © AFP/Getty Images

And yet that life wasn’t enough for him.

He returned to Zimbabwe less than a year later. None of the others who left with him came back, which says as much about how they had moved on with their lives as it does about Streak having not done so. Willingly, though a wealth of other opportunities was available to him, he chose to play for the demoralised national side; a team that had been hollowed-out, stripped of its core, and one that would spend most of the next decade trying to rebuild. That was the team Mpofu made his debut in.

Streak played the final ODI in a series Zimbabwe had already lost, and the only ODI he and Mpofu would play in together. “It was in Port Elizabeth and I had never been to a place that windy,” Mpofu remembers. “We opened the bowling together and I was bowling into the wind and it was blowing me backwards. Streaky said we should switch ends because he was a heavy guy and could push the wind away.”

When Deepak Agarwal, identified as Mr X by the ICC in various anti-corruption cases over the last few years, first made contact with Streak in September 2017, he did so under the pretence of wanting to start a T20 league in Zimbabwe. He asked if Streak would be interested in a joint business venture. As it happens, Streak had been thinking of a T20 league for Zimbabwe for years, and he jumped at the chance.

“There hadn’t been any form of T20 tournament in Zimbabwe for over three years, which is actually a stipulation by ICC for countries to access full funding,” Streak says. “I ran a T20 competition at my academy in Bulawayo, which drew in some Harare guys, but we wanted something bigger. We didn’t necessarily want it to be the same as the IPL, BPL or CPL but something that would have allowed domestic players to be seen and play alongside emerging international players. And it could have made ZC and Zimbabwean players money in the right environment”

For a short period in the years leading up to that offer, the environment looked right. In the first half of the 2010s, the country and its cricket went through a wave of relative stability. The 2008-09 power-sharing agreement between Mugabe’s ZANU PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, promised, if not democracy, then stability. One of the key features of these years was the dollarisation of the Zimbabwean economy, which, in short, meant slightly more money, which meant slightly more opportunity for everyone, including ZC.

Tatenda Taibu (right) was instated as captain in 2004, after Streak led a rebellion against Zimbabwe Cricket Hamish Blair / © Getty Images

In August 2009, Streak was appointed Zimbabwe’s bowling coach and was thought to be the preferred candidate to take over the main job. But in February 2010, ZC appointed Alan Butcher, with Streak remaining in his role. As Zimbabwe prepared to end their self-imposed isolation from Test cricket and further professionalise the domestic game, this constituted what ESPNcricinfo called, at the time, a “sense of normality”.

The next year was a marquee one for Zimbabwe. Although they had a poor World Cup, in August that year they enjoyed a successful return to the longest format with victory over Bangladesh at home. They hosted Pakistan and New Zealand in an unusually busy home summer. Later that season, ZC secured the services of Chris Gayle, Shaun Tait, Ryan ten Doeschate and Dirk Nannes for their T20 domestic league, sponsored by Stanbic Bank.

However, the corporate backing didn’t last long. Stanbic Bank pulled out after the 2011-12 season, an early sign that things were not all that normal; the next season the tournament ran unsponsored, and the season after, it wasn’t played at all. Since then Zimbabwe has only staged a T20 competition three times. This is the landscape Streak believed had to change.

First, he found himself on the outside again when his contract wasn’t renewed after Butcher’s tenure ended. He headed to Bangladesh, where he worked for a while as bowling coach. But as before, he didn’t feel entirely satisfied unless he was doing something in Zimbabwe, and so he used his downtime in 2014 to set up what would, were it not for the revelations of 2021, come to be seen as his most enduring legacy.

The Heath Streak Cricket Academy in Bulawayo is Streak’s love letter to Zimbabwe, a top-class facility, aimed at developing talented cricketers and ensuring the national talent pool spreads outside the capital, Harare. He set it up in a tough financial environment, Zimbabwe being a forbidding place for investors, using his own money and some fundraising, including with government backing.

The academy is controlled by a trust that includes people on either side of the political divide. “The composition of the trust is fascinating,” says Coltart, who is part of the body. “He was at pains to include me. There’s also a ZANU-PF MP and another person who is very close to [current president] Mnangagwa. As I said, Heath knows how Zimbabwe works and has always been a bridge builder.”

Despite this reputation and the fact that he had set up an academy, Streak continued to be overlooked for jobs with the national team, as they cycled through Andy Waller, Whatmore, Stephen Mangongo and Ntini as head coaches. All the while, Zimbabwe’s results got worse. Among the lowlights in that time was losing all eight matches on a tour to Bangladesh in 2014, losing home and away ODI and T20 series to Afghanistan, and losing players, most notably Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis to Kolpak deals.

Streak worked with Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders as bowling coach in the IPL between 2016 and 2018 Prashant Bhoot / © BCCI

Eventually, after more administrative mishaps, they did circle back to Streak. He was appointed national coach in October 2016 on generous terms. He was also allowed to continue working as bowling coach of Gujarat Lions in the IPL and to take on other short-term deals, ZC perhaps safe in the knowledge that Streak would – could – never be away for too long.

There was still no T20 tournament in Zimbabwe when he took over, and not one by 2019, after Streak had been sacked. That was the year he started work on a business proposal with Agarwal.

“We were going to call it the Safari Blast, and look at playing it in the window just before the IPL,” Streak says. “It would give players who wanted to get match-ready for the IPL that opportunity and would work well as pre-season time for the England summer. We pitched it to the then-CEO, Faisal Hasnain, and presented something to ZC.”

According to the ICC’s investigation, at this time Agarwal also made it clear to Streak that he was “involved in betting on cricket”, and requested Streak’s bank details. Streak makes no mention of this critical bit of information, and as he did to the ICC, reiterates simply that he “made it clear in these discussions that he wanted to establish a T20 League in Zimbabwe and was passionate about furthering cricket in Zimbabwe”.

Herein is the crux of the case against Streak: the relationship he formed with Agarwal and his subsequent breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption code. That, although there can be little doubt about the nature of Streak’s transgressions and the motivations that drove them, it is possible to believe that at some level inside, he was also driven by a genuine desire to better the game in Zimbabwe; that he really did believe Zimbabwe needed a T20 league and that he was going to help set it up.

Unlike so many former Zimbabwe players, Streak never left. Each time he could have walked away, he came back. If he was a mediocre player, you might say he had no other option. Yet he stayed back and eventually – cruelly, perhaps – that decision led to his downfall. This isn’t to absolve him; just that as an irony, it is difficult to ignore.

Over the next year the Safari Blast project stalled but Streak’s communication with Agarwal did not. The ICC’s investigation found that Agarwal contacted Streak during the 2017 BPL for contact details of team captains, owners and players in that league. Though Streak was not coaching in the BPL, he had previously worked as Bangladesh’s bowling coach and was well acquainted with their players. Agarwal promised Streak they could “earn good money as a result of which they could invest in a T20 event in Zimbabwe”. Streak provided the details of three players, including a national captain, and the ICC’s decision found that Streak “knew or should have known that Mr X [Agarwal] may use these details to contact these players and request Inside Information from them for him to use for betting purposes”.

Streak provided “known corruptor” Deepak Agarwal (not in picture) contacts for Bangladesh players, whom Streak knew from his stint as the team’s bowling coach between 2016 and 2018 Morne De Klerk / © ICC/Getty Images

Streak says he made a mistake and puts it down to naivete.

“I was overly trusting. There’s a lot of things that you might say to your wife or your dad, and if they were a gambling people, they could do some of those things. I should have been a lot more conscientious [about] what we are privy to, and that we have information that can be used. This is the sad reality of professional sport. People gamble on sport and it’s big business. Everyone is trying to get any edge they can.”

Agarwal’s attempts to get an edge continued for another year. He asked for player references for the 2018 PSL and the 2018 Afghanistan Premier League (APL). Most damningly, in return, Streak accepted two bitcoins worth $35,000 each and an iPhone, as gifts. By December 2018, the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit had been in contact with Streak and notified him he would be required to attend an interview. The ICC found that Streak and Agarwal had coordinated on what they should say in this interview.

All put together, the trail of the case and the sheer weight of evidence against Streak blows holes through a defence of naivete, or that he was simply too gullible and that a corruptor took advantage of his eagerness to start a league. There is enough to show that Streak must have known more about Agarwal and his intentions than he has let on, and that he was, ultimately, complicit.

It took another two and a half years for the ICC to complete their investigation and impose an eight-year ban on Streak. That, he reckons, is as good as a life ban.

“In eight years I will be 55 and I think it will be difficult to get back into coaching at elite level then.”

Streak is now dealing with fallout that unfolds in multiple layers.

“A lot of people understand that I was abused by someone who had taken advantage of me,” he says, continuing to play the victim. “But there are people who I thought would reach out, even to express disappointment, who haven’t. So this has shown me who my true friends are. It’s been character-building and enlightening. I can’t think of anyone who has said to me directly that I am an idiot.”

Coltart says so, if in words not so blunt. “I was disappointed in Heath. It was a serious lapse of judgement. He should have known better. He should have realised that this was very dangerous territory.

“I was disappointed for him because it has severely undermined his credibility, and he is a man I respect. You don’t care too much when a scoundrel is caught out but that doesn’t apply to Heath.”

Outright nasty things have been said elsewhere. “One article equated me to Hansie [Cronje] and that was hurtful,” Streak says. “I didn’t do anything that affected the result of any part of any game. If I was helping somebody by saying I’d get my bowler to bowl a wide, then I can influence the match and that would be asking a guy to underperform. I never did that. In fact, I would happily do a polygraph to prove my innocence. Possibly something others should be forced to do, like the great Steve Waugh once suggested.”

At the family farm in 1996. Streak has returned to running the farm and fishing since his 2021 ban Chris Turvey / © PA Photos/Getty Images

Zimbabwe Cricket, with Mukuhlani still as its chair, responded to news of Streak’s ban with thinly veiled glee. The statement the board sent out on the day Streak’s sanction was announced said it was “an episode that may well go down as the darkest day in Zimbabwean cricket”, and that Streak had shown himself to be a “corrupt, greedy and selfish character who regrettably abused his status and position in pursuit of dirty benefits”. The country’s Sports and Recreation Commission asked the National Prosecuting Authority, the agency that deals with state prosecutions, to look into whether there might be a criminal case against Streak (although an observer well versed in the law in Zimbabwe confirms no such action can be taken).

Most consequentially, Streak’s dalliance with Agarwal has hit where it will hurt him most: his academy, his relationship with his beloved homeland, and his family.

“His parents are absolutely devastated by this,” Coltart says. “They love cricket; it’s in their bones, in their blood, so to have something like this happen, it goes to their very core. His mom was in floods of tears after the academy trust meeting.”

Streak’s parents remain involved in the academy but Streak himself is not, and for Coltart, that is the most worrying outcome of the whole saga. “I was also disappointed for the academy,” he says. “It has been hanging by a thread for ages, in this political and economic environment. It is an ongoing battle to keep it going, and I knew this would severely damage the ability of the academy to continue.”

For now, the academy continues to exist and has produced several players at age-group level, including under-19 captain Jonathan Connolly. It is being run by Streak’s former agent Joseph Rigo. “My name has been withdrawn from it, so there is no reason for corporate sponsors to withdraw,” Streak says. “I hope it can survive.”

He spends his days running the farm and fishing.

“I’ve always fished. I haven’t been able to do it as much because of cricket but now I am doing a lot of bass fishing and entering a few tournaments. I can’t say I am okay but I am keeping busy and doing stuff.”

Is he done with cricket? Not if you ask Coltart.

“He stayed in the country. He ground it out. Much as I have got affection for Andy and Grant Flower, they are not here. They left the country. Heath is here. So I hope that sentence can be reduced, because the sooner he is available to come back, the better for Zimbabwe Cricket. And personally, I stand shoulder to shoulder with Heath.

“There’s not one single person who doesn’t have a lapse of judgement at some stage. It’s just deeply saddening. Some people deserve what they get, people who you know are just an accident waiting to happen. That was never Heath.”

Is Streak done with Zimbabwe? We don’t have to ask anyone but history for the answer to that.

There’s a saying on the continent that you can take a person out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of a person. There are few people who exemplify that more than Streak. It’s clear in any conversation with him how much he loves Zimbabwe, the endless blue skies of a city like Bulawayo, or the deep silence of the African bush – even if he fears it’s that silence he will hear a lot more in the future.

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Daily Maverick

3rd October 2020

By Peter Fabricius

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change- Alliance (MDC-A), is under severe attack as the country’s ruling ZanuPF conspires with a tiny MDC splinter group, MDC-T, to help it seize the much bigger party’s parliamentary seats and other elected offices, headquarters and finances. ZanuPF has also arrested several MDC-A leaders over the past few weeks and has now accused it of plotting an armed struggle.

The destruction of MDC-A threatens to create a de facto one-party state in Zimbabwe — which is ZanuPF’s intention of course — some MDC-A leaders believe. With the help of “captured” — pro- Zanu PF — judges and a ZanuPF Speaker of Parliament, the MDC-A, led by Nelson Chamisa, has already lost about 30 members of parliament, senators and many local government mayors and councillors to the tiny MDC-T, led by Thokozani Khupe.

Courts have also given Khupe’s faction the MDC’s six-storey headquarters in Harare and Z$7- million (about R321,000), which the party is entitled to from government coffers. Chamisa’s MDC-A proved beyond doubt in the 2018 elections that it was the much more popular of the two MDC parties, trouncing Khupe’s MDC-T, though being trounced itself in turn by ZanuPF.

So by collaborating with Khupe’s group to hijack the MDC-A, ZanuPF is effectively neutralising any real opposition. This is the political reality. The legal reality is more complex.

It all began in February 2018 when Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC’s founding president in 1999, dying of cancer, anointed Chamisa as his successor, even though the party’s constitution said that Khupe, as vice-president, should have succeeded him. Khupe then broke away to form her own MDC-T.

With elections looming on 30 July, Chamisa formed an election alliance with Welshman Ncube’s MDC-N party, with former MDC stalwart Tendai Biti’s breakaway PDP and other smaller parties.

In the presidential election Chamisa was narrowly defeated by Emmerson Mnangagwa, winning 44,3% of the vote to his 50,8%. Khupe came a distant third with 3,42%. In the parliamentary elections, ZanuPF won 179 seats, Chamisa’s MDC-Alliance 88 seats – with at least 2.2 million votes – and Khupe’s MDC-T, just one directly elected seat, with about 45,000 votes.

After the election Chamisa’s MDC, Ncube’s MDC and Biti’s PDP resolved to dissolve and merge into a new party. But then just weeks before the May 2019 MDC-A congress, the High Court ruled that Chamisa was not the legitimate leader of the party and ordered a congress of MDC-T to elect new leadership. MDC-A appealed the ruling.

Senator and former education minister David Coltart, a founder member of the original MDC, and now treasurer-general of the MDC-Alliance, explains that under Zimbabwe’s Political Parties Financing Act, MDC-A, because it had won more than 5% of the vote, was entitled to government financing proportional to its seats. In 2019, it got Z$5-million. Khupe’s MDC-T got nothing as it had not reached the 5% threshold.

Two days into the Covid-19 lockdown in March, a “captured” Supreme Court judge overturned MDC-A’s appeal and reinstated the original High Court’s orders. This had a disastrous cascading effect on MDC-A.

In July, MDC-T youth, assisted by the military, seized the MDC-A headquarters, the government refused to pay MDC-A the first 2020 tranche, of Z$7-million, of party political funding in March and Khupe’s MDC-T was allowed to “recall” former MDC-T MPs now in the MDC-Alliance, as well as councillors.

In addition, Coltart said about 15 MDC-A MPs had crossed the floor of their own accord to MDC-T to save their jobs and MDC-T was trying to induce others to jump ship too. “So now we don’t have finances, our headquarters have been taken over and our MPs are being recalled,” Coltart says. “It’s had a huge impact on us.”

The party had been unable to pay its officials’ salaries until he created an online portal to crowd-fund from MDC sympathisers around the world. “Khupe is working very closely with ZanuPF on this. She is very close to Emmerson Mnangagwa and visits him on his farm.” He said ZanuPF had not orchestrated the whole thing but it had “appreciated the fault lines in the MDC” and so worked with Khupe’s faction to weaken the party. The clash between the leadership of the two MDCs has angered some of their supporters.

On Sunday this week, a group of MDC youth occupied Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House. Though some reports have suggested they were members of MDC-A recapturing the headquarters, Coltart believes they are actually members of MDC-T – possibly in cahoots with some in MDC-A – who have become disgruntled with their own leaders, who they believe have collaborated with ZanuPF for personal gain, and want them to settle the quarrel with MDC-A. But Coltart believes there is little appetite for doing that.

Is this a death blow to the MDC as a viable opposition?

Coltart recalled that in the 1980s, ZanuPF under Robert Mugabe did much the same to Josh Nkomo’s Zapu to create a de jure one party state. “They can’t do the same now because it wouldn’t go down well in SADC. Their intention clearly is to decimate us. Not to create a one-party state but to have an opposition which will do their bidding. It will still be a de facto one-party state.”

On top of this, ZanuPF is targeting its senior leadership with “spurious prosecutions” : MDC-A vice presidents Biti and Lynette Kareni-Kore, as well as vice-chairman Job Sikhala, have been arrested and charged. Three women activists including MP Joan Mamombe were abducted and sexually abused and assaulted. “This is a multi-faceted strategy; cripple us, cut us off at the knees financially, take our headquarters building and then have a full go at our MPs.

It’s culminated in this astonishing threat on Tuesday night by the minister of state security Owen Ncube. He has now accused us of wanting to import arms and to wage an armed struggle. That’s what they did against Zapu in 1981. “This is the coup de grace. We are expecting they will discover an arms cache and say it’s ours so they can proscribe us. It’s very sinister.”

263 Chat

2nd October 2020

By Fadzai Ndangana

Teachers have rejected the 40 percent cost of living adjustment offer by the government demanding a wage in the region of USD 520 for the lowest paid public worker synonymous with their October 2018 pay structure.

In an interview with with 263Chat, spokesperson of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) Obert Masaraure also accused government of negotiating civil servants salaries in bad faith.

“The 40 percent increment is a mockery to the teachers who are earning 17 percent of the Total Consumption Poverty Line.The government is developing a knack of playing the wrong card all the time. We do not need an increment but the restoration of our October 2018 salaries. The 40% will aid teachers to effectively coordinate the ongoing job action awaiting a genuine salary review,” said Masaraure.

He emphasized that teachers will not going back to work until their demands were met

“We are never going to step into the classroom until the salary crisis is resolved. We still demand USD 520, anything else is not welcome,” he added.

Addressing the media yesterday, The Minister of Information Publicity and Broadcasting, Monica Mutsvangwa assured civil servants that the government is aware of their plight and is committed to improving their welfare.

“Consultations are currently underway to consider the request by the Apex Council in the last negotiating meeting held with the government. On its part, the government has maintained the US$75 Covid-19 allowance up to the end of December and the 40 percent cost of living adjustment, which the workers have requested government to improve, has been paid and will reflect in civil servants’ accounts by end of day on tomorrow (Friday),” she said.

Teachers currently earn ZWL$3,500 (about US$42) per month, and the 40 percent increment reflects a massive mismatch with inflation figures hovering above 700 percent.

This comes barely a week after electricity tariffs shot by 100 percent.

“Normally, the government does not effect salary adjustments without a signed agreement, but we have had to go out of our way to cushion our dedicated workers,” Mutsvangwa said.

“Meanwhile, negotiations at the National Joint Negotiating Council will continue and any agreement arrived at will be honored in the spirit of collective bargaining… I appeal to civil servants to be patient and allow negotiations to be concluded.”

In a statement, the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe said the government should close schools and begin serious wage negotiations.

Former education minister David Coltart warned of an “unfolding catastrophe” in schools, after pupils lost six months of learning to the coronavirus.

He said only those from rich families with access to the internet and private tuition would be ready for exams set to begin in December.

The strike might just ensure children from poorer backgrounds have no chance of passing.

“With teachers not reporting for work due to slave wages, and the minister threatening them, this has the potential to create a generation of uneducated children. What is needed is honest and respectful dialogue, not threats,” Coltart wrote on Twitter.

Senator David Coltart

17th April 2020

The Zimbabwean Coronavirus lockdown is due to end at midnight on Sunday the 19th April. Mr Mnangagwa has stated that his government is going to review that policy and has suggested he will make a decision on the 20th April, but if it is left that late that will only cause unnecessary confusion. Businesses need to be able to plan ahead and government should announce its intentions today. It will cause chaos if government waits until the weekend, or after the weekend, to announce its decision.

Be that as it may any decision to end or extend the lockdown is fraught with problems. On the one hand it is clear that infections are rising and that Zimbabwe may only be at the early stages of its total number of infections, if statistics of other countries in the world are anything to go by. On the other hand it is clear that in many respects the lockdown is not working in Zimbabwe, and in any event is unsustainable. Lockdowns may work in countries with resilient economies but the danger in Zimbabwe is that more people may die from starvation than Covid 19. In addition it is virtually impossible for poor people to remain in their tiny homes for weeks on end without any ability to make an income and feed themselves.

It is clear that we need to finesse our lockdown policy so that we limit infections as far as possible but ensure that poor people in particular are not in greater danger from malnutrition than they are from Covid 19. We need to move away from the two extreme ends of the policy spectrum to a balance between a total lockdown and no lockdown at all. The current lockdown is clearly unsustainable but against that a sudden end to the lockdown could have catastrophic consequences.

Prior to making suggestions I must state the obvious. I do not have public health policy expertise, nor do I pretend to have it. I simply have been reading the views of a wide range of experts both within Zimbabwe and world wide and it seems to me that common sense dictates that the following broad principles should be applied:

1. It would be wrong to simply end the lockdown on Sunday. With infections rising in the country it will send a  wrong and dangerous message to many Zimbabweans who are already not practising safe social distancing and personal hygiene methods, namely that the danger is past.
2. The current lockdown should be extended to the beginning of the next school term – Tuesday the 5th May – and during that extension government, the international community and the private sector must work vigorously on the following measures.
3. Government in conjunction with the international community must urgently ramp up testing of front line medical staff and those still working in public. As resources and testing kits become more freely available testing must be extended to all displaying symptoms of Covid 19.
4. Goverment in conjunction with the private sector must use this period to produce face masks on a massive scale which should be provided free to unemployed people and at a subsidised cost to others. By the 5th May it must be made mandatory for all people to wear masks in public places. Government should avail clothing manufacturing companies throughout Zimbabwe the necessary financial support to manufacture hundreds of thousands of masks in the coming weeks.
5. Government must immediately commence a massive education policy regarding social distancing and compel all government institutions and businesses to mark out 2 meter distances for customers in all public places. A range of new laws should be enacted to compel social distancing in all public places. Laws will have to be introduced to stipulate maximum numbers of people who can travel in various categories of public transport.
6. Government in conjunction with the private sector must ramp up the production and importation of hand sanitisers and laws must be introduced to compel all businesses and all institutions to use sanitisers at all entrances to all public buildings.
7. All efforts to expedite the refurbishment and fitting out of hospitals countrywide to accommodate Covid 19 patients should be made by government, the private sector and the international community. The Minister of Finance should regulate that any donations made by private citizens and companies towards recognised government hospitals or charities involved in this exercise should be tax deductible.
8. UN agencies have recently warned that over 5 million Zimbabweans are food insecure and many are malnourished. If we are to avoid widespread looting of stores during the lockdown government, with its international and civil society and church  partners, must urgently designate food outlets throughout urban areas (particularly in high density areas) well controlled by the police, where basic food such as mealie meal, vegetables and cooking oil can either be provided to poor people for free or at minimal cost. The private sector should be engaged to assist in the transportation of food to the outlets and the general organisation thereof.
9. A critical complimentary policy to making general food available must be a policy to boost as far as possible the general immunity of the population particularly through the provision of citrus and supplementary vitamin. Zimbabwe’s citrus crop is being harvested at present. Whilst it is important that the export crop not be affected, there is available sub export standard citrus which is either juiced or in some cases dumped. An urgent investigation should be conducted to see whether this crop can be transported to and distributed in high density suburbs. Likewise government should engage pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Zimbabwe to see whether production of vitamins recommended by medical experts can be ramped up and distributed to particularly vulnerable sectors of the population. 
10. Government in conjunction with the private sector must rapidly escalate the production/ importation and supply  of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for front line medical staff.
11. The police and army must immediately be clearly instructed and educated that their role is to enforce the lockdown humanely. The widespread reports of soldiers beating innocent civilians over the last few days are unacceptable. Those responsible for these beatings should be suspended and charged and statements should be made from the highest authorities that the role of the police and army is to assist the public to ensure that social distancing and hygiene measures are respected.
12. The lockdown provisions should be relaxed to the extent that people be allowed to exercise for two hours daily so long as they do not participate in groups of more than 3 people, practice safe social distancing habits and wear masks. This should be implemented immediately – poor people in particular cannot be expected to remain cramped up in tiny flats or homes for weeks on end. The existing policy is not working and is impossible to enforce.
13. The lockdown should be reviewed at the end of April and businesses given adequate warning if the lockdown is be varied on the 5th May.
14. In any event if the lockdown is varied, or reduced, on the 5th May provision must be made to extend the lockdown and protection of all institutions catering for particularly vulnerable people such as old age homes. Policies must be implemented to ensure that other vulnerable people, for example those suffering from diseases such as lung disease and diabetes, are protected as far as possible. In any event all large public gatherings where there is close contact of people in confined spaces should be banned indefinitely pending confirmation that infections are under control.

In closing it is clear that government does not have the resources needed to implement all of the policies suggested above. This can only be achieved if we get the support of both the private sector and the international community. With regard to the latter it is important that the key political leaders from across the political spectrum make a combined appeal and approach to the international community for assistance.

Senator David Coltart

Bulawayo

17th April 2020

The Mnangagwa regime is deeply concerned about the threat that Nelson Chamisa’s MDC A Party poses to its hegemony and yesterday went to extraordinary lengths to try to neutralise that threat. On the face of it the Supreme Court has ordered Chamisa to submit himself to another Congress of the MDC which will be convened by a political opponent Thoko Khupe.

The Supreme Court through Judges Patel, Garwe and Guvava itself had to contort legal reasoning to arrive at its judgment. Whilst the thrust of this article is not to give a critique of the judgment suffice it to say that its legal reasoning is seriously flawed from start to finish. A few examples: firstly, when the case was brought the pleadings show that the Party cited was the MDC T. The Judges changed that in the judgment to the MDC alone, which it cannot do. The only “MDC” party the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has recognised since 2008 has been the party known as the MDC led last by Welshman Ncube which formed part of the GNU, but which was dissolved when it joined the MDC Alliance prior to the 2018 election. This was no typographical error by the Judges but part of the deliberate attempt to conflate a variety of parties into one MDC so that the purpose of the judgment could be achieved.

Then, secondly, although the Court agreed that the entire issue was moot (because both Khupe had held a Congress for the MDC T in May 2018 and the MDC A had a Congress in May 2019) and that it “cannot but take judicial notice of (certain) political realities” it chose to be exceptionally selective in which realities it took notice of. The one glaring fact which the Court ignored was what State organs have accepted as fact – namely that the July 2018 election was contested by, amongst others, two separate political parties, namely the MDC T under Thoko Khupe and the MDC A under Nelson Chamisa, which were accepted as different political parties by ZEC, and have been accepted as such ever since. Parliament itself accepts that there are two separate parties in Parliament at present – namely MDC A and MDC T. These facts were conveniently ignored by the Supreme Court which was clearly at pains to conflate the two.

Then at page 32 of the judgment Patel J accepts without demur the contention of Khupe’s lawyer Mr Madhuku that there are “two groups calling themselves the MDC T and there is therefore a leadership wrangle which must be resolved”, and uses that later on in the judgment to say that despite the “mootness” of the matter that is the issue which must be resolved. There are not two leaders claiming to be leaders of the MDC T, nor have there been since mid 2018. Nelson Chamisa stood as Presidential candidate for the MDC A in July 2018 and Thoko Khupe stood as Presidential candidate for the MDC T. Chamisa has never contested Khupe’s right to stand as President of the MDC T. So the attempt by the Judge to construct a “leadership wrangle” which must now be resolved is entirely contrived and flies in the face of facts which are all before us. It is remarkable piece of legal gymnastics but falls flat and will forever hereafter be a serious blot on the Supreme Court.

Sadly the perception that this is political judgment is further enhanced by events which surrounded the handing down of the judgment. Firstly, the timing of the judgement is curious. Our leadership has known about the existence of the judgment for weeks and yet the Supreme Court chose to hand it down two days after a nationwide lockdown called to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. The timing is made all the more intriguing given what the Chief Justice himself ruled, namely that the judiciary would join the lockdown and that all cases save for urgent matters would be postponed. The inescapable inference is that the Court chose this timing deliberately because it was politically convenient to do so.

Secondly, it is clear that not only did the other people, save for Chamisa, have prior notice of the existence of the judgment but also knew its content. The 4 page typed and edited statement read out by Morgan Komichi at the conclusion of the judgment was obviously prepared well before the judgment. One asks the question – how did he know about the content of the judgment, and the ruling it would make, in advance and have so much time to prepare the statement he did? Nelson Chamisa’s lawyer Innocent Chagonda was only advised that judgment was going to be handed down at 9 minutes to 12 noon yesterday. In like manner Thoko Khupe’s tweet issued yesterday morning was clearly optimistic – she ended it as follows “In unity let’s renew & build our great Party”. What did she know to give her such optimism prior to the judgment being handed down? Linda Tsungirirai Masarira tweeted at 12.16pm yesterday “I have got a feeling that today is going to be a very good day for me…” What gave her that cause for optimism? As far as I know she isn’t clairvoyant. Then finally on this score the Police were deployed well before the judgment locking down the MDC A’s headquarter building. Why was this necessary unless the Police had prior knowledge that the judgment was going to go against the interests of Nelson Chamisa’s MDC A party?

Unfortunately the content of the judgment, its final ruling and the circumstances of its delivery have compounded the perception in the minds of many that the Judiciary has not acted professionally, independently and in compliance with its Constitutional obligations. But there is no meaningful appeal to the judgment and so democratic forces have to accept its reality and move on.

Despite the contortions of the judgment the fact is that this case was brought against the MDC T, not the MDC A. That was the party cited in the pleadings and the attempt by the Judge to conflate the MDC T and MDC A parties failed to the extent that the order to have another congress can only apply to the MDC T party led by Thoko Khupe. She can go ahead and have another Congress and we in the MDC A will not do anything to hinder her and her colleagues.

However there is no doubt a more insidious aspect to the machinations of the Mnangagwa regime and its allies Madam Khupe and her colleagues Mwonzora and Komichi, which is revealed in paragraph 6 of Mr Komichi’s statement – namely that “the current leadership is asked to hand over the assets of the Party to the Secretary General. All financial records should be handed over to the Treasurer General of the Party”. Unless Komichi is referring to the assets of the MDC T led by Ms Khupe he too seeks to conflate the MDC T and MDC A parties. I personally have never been a member of the MDC T and in May last year was elected as Treasurer General of the MDC A. The bank and party accounts I have opened since then are all in the name of the MDC A and the MDC A constitution was used to open those accounts, not the MDC T constitution. Likewise all the assets which have been acquired since May 2019 clearly belong to the MDC A party, which is not subject to this order of the Supreme Court.

It is clear from the actions of the Police yesterday, who blocked Vice President of the MDC A Tendai Biti from entering the MDC A headquarter building, and this morning when they blocked members of our staff from entering the building, that the State is going to back Mr Komichi’s attempt to seize control of MDC A assets. If ever there was evidence that this is entirely a plan concocted by the Mnangagwa regime to destroy the only political party which poses any threat to its control, then this is it. The judgement does not give the Police these powers. The Headquarter building is not even registered in the name of any version of the MDC but is owned by an independent Trust which leases it to the MDC A. Without a court order in the name of the Trust the Police has no lawful right to bar the MDC A from using the building.

There is also no doubt that the Mnangagwa regime will now use this judgment to block the Parliamentary budgetary amount allocated to the MDC A. We are currently entitled to some RTGS $ 7 million to run our operations but the regime has been stalling for weeks now on transferring the money allocated to us in last year’s budget, yet another example of how the contents of this judgment have been known for weeks. The RTGS $ 7 is due to us by virtue of the proportion of seats we have in Parliament. The MDC T does not get any allocation because it did not meet the threshold of percentage of seats which have to be won as contained in the Political Parties Act. We are entitled to this money by right of law as set out in the Political Parties Finance Act and the judgment, I repeat, makes no mention of the MDC A party and does not apply to it. Any blocking of this amount will be entirely unlawful.

The only good thing about yesterday’s judgment is that it lays bare once and for all those who had infiltrated the MDC A and indeed the original MDC established in September 1999. Their identities are all now known, working as they are hand in glove with the Mnangagwa regime. It interests me that many of those now exposed are the very people who worked so hard in 2005 to divide the original MDC party and succeeded then. I was present at the meeting of the MDC A Standing Committee on the 10th March 2020 when Professor Welshman Ncube clinically interrogated Messrs Mwonzora and Komichi regarding the intelligence our leadership had then about the ZANU PF plot. They denied it all and pledged afresh their allegiance to the MDC A. I have found their duplicity breathtaking. History will judge them harshly. Moreover we will be all the stronger without having such charlatans in our midst.

What about the way forward? We will of course use all the power at our disposal to resist these machinations. But more importantly is what I shared with Nelson Chamisa this morning particularly Psalm 73:26 which says “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever”. Isaiah 40:29 says “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak”. There is no doubt that in many senses we are now at our weakest – we have the full force of a brutal, corrupt and violent state arrayed against us. The regime will probably use its power to deprive us of our buildings, assets and income in the coming weeks.

But I believe that it is in our moments of greatest physical weakness that we are strongest. This judgment has stirred the wrath and indignation of our members, supporters and friends in Zimbabwe and throughout the world and from the messages I have received since the judgment it is clear that if anything this will only boost our support. Our real power lies not in our physical assets but in our steadfast belief in, and compliance with, the principles of democracy, justice, non violence and respect for the rule of law, and the unwavering support of millions of Zimbabweans who believe in the same principles. It is that power which will enable us to prevail.

Senator David Coltart

Treasurer General MDC A
Bulawayo
1st April 2020

Zimbabwe Independent

By Nyasha Chingono

27th September 2019

TWENTY years after it was formed amid high hopes, the opposition MDC’s pathway to power remains hazy amid concerns it lacks the gravitas to mount a formidable challenge to dislodge Zanu PF from power.

On the contrary, its nemesis, formed in 1963, managed to win state power just 17 years after its formation, albeit in very different circumstances.
September 11 marked exactly 20 years of the MDC’s existence, the party having travelled a long, arduous journey in which it has gone through several transitions.

At 20, the MDC’s major opponent, Zanu PF, had already formed a government and gathered a formidable force to lead post-independent Zimbabwe. By the time Zanu PF marked its 20th anniversary in 1983, the party was already in government.

One of the key distinguishing factors between the two parties is that from the time it was formed to pursue the liberation struggle, Zanu PF managed to assemble a large pool of thinkers to help articulate its cause on the local and global political arena. But the MDC has relied largely on the charisma and popular appeal of its leadership, from its founding president, the late Morgan Tsvangirai, to the current leader Nelson Chamisa.

Ndabaningi Sithole, Zanu’s founding president, Herbert Chitepo, Leopold Takawira, Edson Zvobgo, Edison Sithole, Robert Mugabe, Dzingai Mutumbuka, Rugare Gumbo, Bernard Chidzero and Fay Chung were part of the stellar cast of outstanding political and intellectual actors Zanu had within its ranks, in the 17 years leading to independence in 1980.

It is difficult to say the same of the present-day MDC. While the party has some intellectuals of note, most notably Welshman Ncube (a professor of law), Tendai Biti (a prominent lawyer), David Coltart (another distinguished lawyer) and Chamisa, who is also a lawyer, among a few credible leaders, there is very little quality elsewhere in the party. To his credit, despite his youth and lack of experience, Chamisa has managed to attain respectable academic qualifications which have broadened his intellectual clout to add to his charisma. But beyond these few top leaders, the MDC is pretty much thin on thought leadership.

The aforementioned have over the years gained international exposure, while some had a stint in government during the 2008 Government of National Unity (GNU), affording them some experience at the coal face, but the same cannot be said of the rest of the leadership. Although Chamisa is a charismatic leader who managed to win 43% of the votes in last year’s presidential election, he lacks critical experience and gravitas in the intricacies of statecraft. Another weakness of the MDC is that the party lacks a clear political ideology.

During its time as an opposition party, Zanu PF clearly defined itself as a variant of a Marxist-Leninist movement fighting to liberate the country from white minority settler rule. That ideology was carefully coded, simplified and taken to the masses who responded in kind to deliver independence.

The MDC, on its part, remains without a clear ideological position through which it can sell itself as a real alternative to the ruling party; to the effect that even latter-day opposition parties in other countries, like the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) of South Africa, have provided good examples of truly ideologically clear movements.

Whether or not one agrees with what it stands for is another issue, but the EFF has a clearly defined conceptual framework; which basically revolves around the old black consciousness concept underpinned by radical socialist political ideas like expropriation of land without compensation, a war against white monopoly capital and black economic emancipation.

As far as such issues are concerned, the MDC remains unclear. For instance, its latest policy document, Reload, appears to advance a centre-right policies which appears to embrace the Washington Consensus.

Failure to articulate its ideological standpoint has also impacted its policy propositions with regards to the economy, among other propositions, where Zimbabweans are calling on the opposition to provide an alternative. With the MDC leadership dispute resolved a year after Tsvangirai’s death, the MDC should be at the forefront of proffering alternative solutions to the country’s unrelenting economic crisis.

From a social base mobilisation perspective, the MDC has been significantly weakened, especially in rural areas where it has consistently fared badly in polls.
While the party can take advantage of the dire economic situation to garner more support in urban areas, it needs to concentrate on mobilising the rural population.

Chamisa’s popularity in the urban areas is undisputed, but to dislodge Zanu PF, the MDC also needs the rural vote which it has failed to wrest since Tsvangirai’s days.

During the 2018 elections, the nrural vote — the MDC may dispute this — was critical, even though manipulation and rigging of the electoral processes was evident.

To its advantage, Zanu PF has conflated with state, using state machinery, including the state funds and other resources, the military, police and intelligence operatives, for political expediency. This has kept the MDC on the back foot.

Stephen Chan, a professor of world politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, told the Zimbabwe Independent the MDC had done well to challenge Zanu PF, but failed to provide a solution for Zimbabwe during its 20-year existence.

“The MDC was a vibrant opposition party under Morgan Tsvangirai, up to the point in time when it entered the coalition government in 2008. Then, notwithstanding constant impediments put before it by Zanu PF, it discovered how hard it was to actualise reform and introduce new policies,” Chan said. “Under Nelson Chamisa, it does not behave like an opposition party in parliament. It seeks to express opposition in the streets. But, in parliament it has offered no detailed alternative economic programme to that of (Finance minister) Mthuli Ncube. So Ncube leads the economic debate because no one is challenging his policies. I have consistently pointed out the flaws in Ncube’s policies, but it is as if the MDC — while seeking a fairer distribution of wealth — has no ideas about how to generate wealth and therefore recovery,” Chan said.

The only person who has consistently challenged Ncube is former finance minister Biti; Chamisa does it occassionally.

Political analyst Ibbo Mandaza said despite some weaknesses, the MDC still maintains a strong political base amid a political and economic crisis.

“MDC has made its mark on the Zimbabwean political landscape. It was the first opposition which made a mark in post-independent Zimbabwe. This has happened during a time Zimbabwe has been facing the worst economic and political crisis,” Mandaza said.

Newsday

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE/RUTENDO MATANHIKE/NQOBANI NDLOVU

26th September 2019

udge president Justice George Chiweshe yesterday dismissed the State’s urgent chamber application to stop Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association (ZHDA) leader Peter Magombeyi from leaving the country for South Africa to seek medical attention.

The State had submitted that it wanted more than two more days to carry out forensic tests before Magombeyi could leave the country.

The State had also asked the court to be allowed to “escort” Magombeyi and “provide him with security” to South Africa, but the judge dismissed the application, saying it was an illegal detention by the State.

“It is ordered that respondents or anyone acting through them are hereby ordered to release Peter Magombeyi forthwith and in any event no later than an hour of them being served with this order,” Justice Chiweshe’s ruling read in part.

Police on Tuesday challenged a High Court order issued earlier by Justice Happius Zhou allowing Magombeyi to travel to the neighbouring country. Police argued they were still carrying out investigations on his alleged abduction.

Meanwhile, MPs yesterday put government to task for blocking Magombeyi from seeking medical attention outside the country and in defiance of a High Court order.

Harare Central legislator Zwizwai Murisi (MDC Alliance) questioned whether police had the final decision in allowing an individual to seek medical treatment outside the country.

“I would like clarification on your ruling Mr Speaker, I think that the follow-up question was to say that if an individual’s decision to seek treatment outside the country depended on payment and affordability, is it government policy to then have further requirements before an individual can go and seek treatment outside the country?” Zwizwai asked.

Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala (MDC Alliance) questioned what steps government was undertaking to ensure Magombeyi was allowed his right to leave the country to access health care in South Africa.

“Since the government cannot decide where an individual can seek treatment, we have an issue where the government through the police is denying Magombeyi to seek treatment outside the country. What measures are being taken by government to ensure that Magombeyi accesses medical attention in South Africa considering that police are hindering this process?” he asked.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda dismissed the issue, arguing that the case was currently before the courts.

“This matter has gone to court and we cannot in Parliament interfere with the court process. Let us wait and hear what the court will say,” Mudenda said.

Meanwhile, MDC treasurer-general David Coltart implored the international community to “flex” its muscles against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government for allegedly blocking Magombeyi from seeking medical treatment in South Africa.

Magombeyi, who is ZHDA acting president, has been prevented from travelling to the neighbouring country to seek medical treatment following his alleged abduction and torture by suspected State security agents.

Coltart accused government of being “increasingly paranoid” and fearing medical examinations in South Africa might prove Magombeyi was “tortured, electrocuted or even poisoned (or injected with other substances)”.

“The international community must flex its muscles … Having gone to court, Magombeyi has exhausted his domestic remedies against a regime which has scant regard for the rule of law and constitutionalism,” Coltart said.

“It appears his life may depend on a robust demand being made by the international community. (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa himself must be left in no doubt about the severe consequences of this barbaric conduct demonstrated by his government today. In short, the international community must speak out to compel the Mnangagwa regime to allow Magombeyi to seek urgently medical treatment in South Africa,” Coltart added.

“It appears that the regime, confronted by a decision between the devil and the deep blue sea, has now decided that it must prevent Magombeyi from travelling to get this further medical diagnosis and treatment.”

Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa in a statement said government was not holding Magombeyi against his will.

“Satisfied that his personal security is guaranteed, government will ensure that Dr Magombeyi is free to travel to a place of his choice without hindrance,” she told journalists in Harare yesterday.

David Coltart Blog

Bulawayo

24th September 2019

Zimbabweans can be forgiven for thinking that they must be with Alice in Wonderland because our legal system and law enforcement is so increasingly and utterly bizarre.

About 10 days ago a medical doctor, the President of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, who was representing doctors in salary negotiations with government, Dr Peter Magombeyi, was abducted and disappeared for 5 days. He was found by police last Thursday night dumped in the bush disorientated and suffering from loss of memory. Initially although he was the victim he was denied access to his lawyers and fellow medical practitioners who had been looking for him.

Since he was allowed to leave the police station in the early hours of last Friday morning he has been hospitalized. Senior doctors have reported that although he has not suffered major external physical injuries his body and blood samples show that he has been tortured, and possibly injected with an unknown substance. There is one report this evening put out by a credible Zimbabwean journalist that he has been poisoned.

Whatever the case his medical team has recommended that he be transferred to a South African hospital so that he can receive more specialized observation, diagnosis and treatment. This morning Dr Magombeyi’s legal team got wind of news that the police intended to prevent him from leaving the country, even though he is the victim of his own disappearance and torture, not the accused.

An urgent application was brought before the High Court by Dr Magombeyi’s father, Kingstone Magombeyi, against the Commisioner of Police seeking an interdict preventing the police from stopping his transfer to a South African hospital. The Commissioner of Police was represented by a government lawyer who consented to the order.

This evening when the medical team tried to assist Dr Magombeyi to be discharged from the hospital he is in to catch a flight to South Africa, they were barred by police backed by Riot Police from leaving. The police were in clear contempt of the High Court order but resolutely refused to allow Dr Magombeyi to leave.

The Commissioner of Police has now filed an urgent application seeking to overturn the order granted by consent this morning, using, bizarrely, the Constitution to justify his claim and equally bizarrely asserting that the government lawyer had no right to consent to the original order. I have attached some of the court papers filed this evening which are in legal terms at least utterly bizarre.

The affidavit of the officer in charge of police Law and Order section, Michael Chibaya, is particularly astonishing. It is attached below. In paragraph 3.2 Chibaya states under oath that the Respondent’s son – the “Respondent” is Dr Magombeyi’s father Kingstone Magombeyi in whose name the High Court order was obtained- i.e. Dr Mgombeyi, “underwent medical examination and the government doctors indicated that he is unfit to travel”. In the next paragraph Chibaya states that Dr Magombeyi “is being given security for his own personal safety and it will be prudent that if he is to go to South Africa for medical examination that he be given security by the State and in the mean time no such arrangements have been made.” Unwittingly the police officer confirms that Dr Magombeyi has been tortured because why else would he be unfit to travel? But of course it is not the State’s prerogative to decide whether he is fit enough to travel or not, that is up to Dr Magombeyi, his family and his own medical team. And the “security concern” is simply risible – Dr Magombeyi is not an accused person and once again it is his decision whether he needs State provided “security”, whatever that means.

It goes without saying that Dr Magombeyi is the victim in all of this. In all the papers I have managed to read the police have not said that he is accused of anything – something I suppose they would be reluctant to say on oath because it would just be so ridiculous. If Dr Magombeyi is not an accused person then it follows the police have no right to interfere with his liberty, one of the most fundamental Constitutional rights. And they certainly have no right to prevent him from seeking the medical treatment his doctors believe he should receive.

So why is the regime doing this? I don’t know but can only speculate. It has been the regime’s contention that either the disappearance was “fake”, namely that Dr Magombeyi organised for himself to be abducted, tortured and dumped in the bush, or that the disappearance was the work of a “3rd Force” which presumably, according to this line of propaganda, abducted Dr Magombeyi against his will in a bid to embarrass Mr Mnangagwa as he was about to leave for the UN. As absurd as these allegations are, even if they were true neither constitute a crime committed by Dr Magombeyi. It is pertinent to note that he hasn’t released a single statement since his abduction to suggest any motive even if he did abduct himself. In other words it isn’t a crime to disappear oneself, self flagellate or get lost in the bush. It certainly isn’t a crime to be abducted by a 3rd Force.

Although the regime hasn’t decided which of these stories it is going to stick with, both of the stories have become increasingly problematic in the face of medical evidence which shows that Dr Magombeyi has suffered severe trauma. Right from the outset the claims of the regime were ludicrous – for example given their silence regarding nearly all of the other 50 disappearances this year, does their assertion that the disappearance of Dr Magombeyi was “fake” mean logically that all the others were “real” and committed by state agents?

But there is no doubt that the news that Dr Magombeyi needs certain further tests in South Africa has

alarmed the regime even further . If expert medical opinion in South Africa reveals that Dr Magombeyi has been tortured, electrocuted or even poisoned (or injected with other substances) that will be deeply embarrassing to the regime.

It appears that the regime, confronted by a decision between the devil and the deep blue sea, has now decided that it must prevent Dr Magombeyi from traveling to get this further medical diagnosis and treatment. That has resulted in the utterly bizarre events of today where a victim is treated as if he is a common criminal.

This is a regime which is increasingly paranoid and unhinged. It has dug itself into a deep hole. In seeking to exculpate itself from the crimes against humanity it is alleged to have committed in recent months, which systematic disappearances by the State are, it has spun a propaganda yarn which is increasingly untenable and deeply embarrassing to Mr Mnangagwa who will have to face the international media in New York if this goes horribly awry with South African doctors leveling serious allegations against his government.

What is worrying however is the report this evening that Dr Magombeyi may have been poisoned and that he needs urgent medical attention for this. Equally troubling is the report that critical evidence of what may have been injected into his system may be lost if there is any further delay. So both medically and forensically it is critically important that he be allowed to travel to South Africa.

The international community must flex its muscles, particularly the South African government . Having gone to Court Dr Magombeyi has exhausted his domestic remedies against a regime which has scant regard for the rule of law and constitutionalism. It appears his life may depend on a robust demand being made by the international community.

Mr Mnangagwa himself must be left in no doubt about the severe consequences of this barbaric conduct demonstrated by his government today. In short the international community must speak out to compel the Mnangagwa regime to allow Dr Magombeyi to seek urgent medical treatment in South Africa.

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?

The Chronicle (ZANU PF propaganda)

24th September 2019

THE Zanu-PF Youth League says it has noted with concern the recent wave of alleged abductions in the country which are a ploy by the MDC and its allies to destabilise and tarnish the country’s image.

In a statement yesterday, Zanu-PF Deputy Secretary for Youth Affairs, Cde Lewis Matutu, said the recent alleged abduction of Dr Peter Magombeyi, who is the acting president of Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), is linked to the MDC’s cocktail of acts that include violence, propaganda and economic vandalism.

“It has been noted that Dr Magombeyi has finally resurfaced and has given himself up to the police after a period of six days of uncertainty during which his whereabouts were unknown to the general members of the public. It has come to my attention that Dr Magombeyi emerged with no visible physical injuries. It is my belief that the opposition MDC and its allies have embarked on a deliberate programme to destabilise the country through a cocktail of acts that include violence, vile propaganda and economic vandalism in order to achieve unconstitutional regime change and overturn the wishes of the majority of Zimbabweans as expressed in the July 2018 elections,” he said.

Cde Matutu said the ruling party has long maintained that the MDC has resorted to fabricating abductions with the specific aim of tarnishing the image of the Government of Zimbabwe. 

“The MDC intended to use the false abduction of Dr Magombeyi as a Trojan horse through which to engage in violent demonstrations with a view to destabilising the nation and effecting regime change. In my opinion Dr Magombeyi was not alone in this charade that he has subjected our country to. He has been acting in concert with the MDC as evidenced by the participation of senior MDC officials, the most prominent being David Coltart,” he said. 

Since last week health professionals have been boycotting work claiming they wanted Government to furnish them with the whereabouts of Dr Magombeyi, who was allegedly abducted by unknown men at his home in Harare’s Budiriro suburb.

Dr Magombeyi was on Thursday last week found in Nyabira, about 40km from Harare. 

His alleged abduction and disappearance sparked demonstrations, with medical doctors downing tools demanding his release, but there were questions on the authenticity of the claim, amid indications that the disappearance could have been stage managed. 

President Mnangagwa has since warned against the rising incidences of false abductions in the country, saying his Government is contemplating measures to deal with the threat and punish those responsible.

Cde Matutu said there was a possibility that the opposition party could be working with some foreign embassies to destabilise the country.

“Immediately after resurfacing, Dr Magombeyi voluntarily submitted himself to an interview with the Voice of America which has been broadcast and widely distributed. Dr Magombeyi indicated in this interview that he has no recollection whatsoever of where he has been for the past days and he cannot remember who abducted him let alone identify his abductors,” he said.

“Ordinary Zimbabweans have found the explanations given by Dr Magombeyi or perhaps the lack of any, implausible and the narration he has given induces a sense of shock and revulsion in any objective and right-thinking person.”

Cde Matutu said the MDC also lobbied teachers and lawyers to support its treacherous cause. 

“In addition, MDC through its representatives in the medical and legal profession had hoodwinked professionals elsewhere in Namibia and Kenya into engaging in acts of solidarity with their cause which was based on the alleged abduction of Dr Magombeyi. I would like to take this opportunity to urge our brothers and sisters across Africa to be wary of exhortations by MDC for expressions of solidarity and to exercise extreme caution when they receive messages from that party,” he said.

Cde Matutu said Zanu-PF was aware that the alleged abduction of Dr Magombeyi was targeted to coincide with the visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Freedom and Peaceful Assembly, Clement Voule, who is in country at the invitation of the Government.

“Zanu-PF is further aware of the fact that in the project of the destabilisation of Zimbabwe as currently manifested by the false abductions that we have witnessed, the MDC has assistance and co-operation from some foreign embassies who share the party’s objectives of effecting unconstitutional regime change in Zimbabwe,” he said. Cde Matutu urged police to conduct thorough investigations into Dr Magombeyi’s alleged abduction so that the culprits are brought to book.