Mashonaland East
The month of September recorded an increase in human rights abuses compared
to the month of August. This was attributed to the numerous cases of primary
school learners who were sent home over non-payment of levies and tuition.
Politically, Mashonaland East remained a hot spot with CCC activists being
assaulted, threatened and intimidated by Zanu PF supporters. In Wedza, a man of
the cloth, Douglas Kwashirai was harassed and intimidated by a Zanu PF youth
Hwinhai Karenga at the funeral service of a prominent businessman identified as
Chadoka. Pastor Kwashirai was wearing a yellow African attire before he was
harassed and intimidated. Karenga accused the pastor of being a CCC member
since he was wearing a yellow African attire. When the pastor was about to give a
closing prayer, Karenga pulled him away from the mourners and said,
“chimbouyayi kuno vakuru, munoziva here bato reCCC kuti ravakupfeka
zvamakapfeka? Please don’t ever wear this again”. In another case, a CCC
supporter was abducted and brutally assaulted in Damofalls suburb in Goromonzi
North by persons suspected to be Zanu PF activists around sunset on 4
September. Reports confirm that he was manhandled, forced into a vehicle and
taken to an unknown location. The assailants reportedly brutally assaulted him
until he passed out. He was then dumped near a dairy farm east of Arcturus mine.
He woke up the next day disoriented and was assisted by some locals to contact
his family and the party.
In another disturbing incident, a Zanu PF aspiring Member of Parliament for
Marondera Central and business man Mr Lucas Chimoka was shot dead on 23
September in Paradise Park Marondera Central. It is alleged that robbers pounced
at the Chimoka house before shooting him in cold blood and brutally assaulting
his wife. It is unclear whether the incident was purely a robbery or a political
assassination aimed at stopping Chimoka from participating in the upcoming
elections. Residents of Marondera were shocked by the incident and still suspect
that the robbery was a cover up of a political assassination.
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