via Mukoko blasts Mutasa for ‘protecting’ abductors – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 10, 2016
HUMAN rights activist Jestina Mukoko has blasted former State Security minister Didymus Mutasa for protecting the identities of officials who abducted her together with several other activists in 2008.
BY SILENCE CHARUMBIRA
The Zimbabwe Peace Project director challenged Zimbabweans to hold the State accountable for human rights violations that include enforced disappearances.
Mukoko was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of a publication titled Enforced Disappearances by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) in Harare yesterday.
She said despite an undertaking by the police to charge her abductors, Mutasa issued a ministerial certificate in 2009 prohibiting the disclosure of their identities, resulting in their protection.
“When I disappeared, the police actually made an undertaking; they actually wrote a letter that was signed by their legal adviser Assistant Commissioner Nzombe who said the people who had taken me from home were going to be charged.
“When my lawyer now wanted to know the identities of the people who did this, Minister Mutasa issued a ministerial certificate which said those people were not going to be identified because they were on State business,” she said.
Mukoko added: “So Mutasa knows the people who abducted me, the people who held me incommunicado, the people who handed me over to the police, but he protected their identities.”
Mukoko said the fact that Mutasa was now with the Zimbabwe People First party would not take away the pain and suffering she endured at the hands of Mutasa’s then subordinates.
“The new face does not change anything. It does not rub that I was abducted, I was tortured and I was not protected by the law and the people who did this to me have had their identities protected.
“It does not change anything that he is no longer with Zanu PF and he is now with People First; he is still Didymus Mutasa,” Mukoko said.
“The message to Zimbabwe is that as Zimbabweans, we need to hold people to account. People need to be responsible for their actions because for as long as people are protected, what is there for them to desist from doing these things?”
Mutasa could not be reached for comment yesterday.
ZLHR programmes manager Dzimbabwe Chimbga said the publication was motivated by the country’s long history of enforced abductions with the view of articulating international, regional and domestic guidelines on human rights protection against enforced disappearances.
He said the book also addressed situations where the state reneged in the enforcement of High Court orders and said it was not surprising when the State ignored court orders.
“For us it is not surprising because in most cases of enforced disappearance the State actually participates directly so we are saying when those actions happen it must be condemned and the individuals in the State agencies must be sued in their individual capacities,” he said.
COMMENTS
This is why many of us continue to say Zimbos really have to do serious introspect before embracing & kissing the likes of Didymus, Teirai Ropa, Jabu, etc. Surely these thugs have blood on their hands – and they are surely not democrats. They still share same ideological beliefs as their erstwhile colleagues in zanu pf. Ideologies such as “Asi ngadi zvadinoda (any one who disagrees with me/us) Pasi naye or Demo mugotsi(must be killed)” very much remain ingrained in their power-mongering mentality. Only that they were fired from zanu pf not that they have changed; no! Let’s not make any mistake about these guys.
I hope really opposition leaders like Tsvangi wont make such a fatal mistake. Removing a dictatorship & replacing it by another is not the way to go. That is exactly what we did in 1980 – replacing a nondemocratic white regime with a worse, murderous and demon-possessed black-elite regime under the dictator RGM. Is this the history we would have repeated all over again? I think not.
Entirely agree with Mapingu. We are a nation of gutless political prostitutes who blow with the wind. Mujuru and Mutasa and their sidekicks (even the infamous Bright Matonga is now on board!) are no different from Zanu PF at all. If they had left Zanu PF voluntarily, instead of being kicked out, we could ask ourselves if they had repented, but all we are seeing is sour grapes. Is Joice still reaping the money from the $160 number plates, or has she lost that priviledge?
You have said it all guys. Mutasa remains a Mdidi Mutasa, a murderer,and a liar despite trying to paint his past with a white brush. Mujuru is no saint either. Her participation in the senseless killings of those with different political opinion, different ethnicity by the regimed she tirelessly worked in and for,and her insulting of Joshua Nkomo remains unforgiveable. I pity Tvangson who lacks the intellect and ability to think beyond his nostrils for calling Mujuru “one of his or theirs”. We are a nation in mourning. God deliver us from these devils.
Well said guys. Mutasa remains a Mdidi Mutasa, a murderer,and a liar despite trying to paint his past with a white brush. Mujuru is no saint either. Her participation in the senseless killings of those with different political opinion, different ethnicity by the regimed she tirelessly worked in and for,and her insulting of Joshua Nkomo remains unforgiveable. I pity Tvangson who lacks the intellect and ability to think beyond his nostrils for calling Mujuru “one of his or theirs”. We are a nation in mourning. God deliver us from these devils.