MDC-A abduction case: Expose or hatchet job?

– Mystery deepens as video evidence emerges
– ZBC describes it as ‘almost perfect hatchet job’
– MDC-A says it’s ‘shameful propaganda’
– Prof Moyo points fingers at CIO

A documentary showing the movements of Harare West legislator Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova on the day they were allegedly abducted has divided public opinion.

One section of the population believes that the trio were indeed abducted and the video does nothing to disprove this, while others see it as an elaborate drama meant to tarnish security services and the Government.
The documentary was posted on Facebook yesterday by a user known as Ari Tikvah Goldstein before spreading like wildfire on the internet.
The 15-minute long video was even played on national broadcaster ZBC-TV on Wednesday. When promoting the documentary on their station and social media pages, ZBC-TV described the footage they were about to screen as “exposing the malicious deception behind an almost perfect hatchet job”.

This drew the ire of MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, who queried how ZBC determined that the abduction was a “hatchet job” and why the station deliberately violated the sub-judice rule by playing the video pre-judging a case before the courts.
Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana also posted the video online, saying that it proved that the MDC Alliance faked abductions and that the video exposed their hypocrisy.

“We have always maintained that these abductions are fake. I have just seen a disgusting video showing how that trio set out to malign their country through fakery. How many of these so-called abductions are nothing but #AtrocityPropaganda?” he said.
ZANU PF director for information and publicity Tafadzwa Mugwadi cheekily weighed in, asking those that believed the trio’s abduction story to be true to come forward and apologise.

“Everyone who supported the abduction script involving Joana Mamombe and two others should apologise to us now. If that can’t be given, then the MDC Alliance will be barred completely,” he said.
On the other hand, others have questioned the reliability of the video stating that it was a political tactic to try and squeeze water out of a rock so as to justify the state’s actions against the trio.

Political analyst and lecturer Pedzisai Ruhanya simply dismissed it as a non-event.
“There is no expose here. This programme that ZBC-TV aired last night to try to implicate MDC Alliance’s Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova masquerading as investigative journalism is poor,” Ruhanya said.
MDC Alliance information secretary Fadzayi Mahere described the video as “shameful”. She also said that the video lies that Chimbiri’s mother came from Muchapondwa while she resides in Chiweshe’s Museri village.
“The fake video produced by Nick Mangwana alleging that the MDC trio faked their abduction is shameful propaganda. ZRP spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed they were arrested and in police custody on 13 May. How could they be in Belgravia when they were in police custody?” she said.

Self-exiled academic Professor Jonathan Moyo wrapped the video, saying it was a cover up by the Central Intelligence Organisation’s (CIO) who also enlisted ZBC as an accomplice to clean up the allegations.
“It’s an aggravation of a crime against humanity for the same CIO that abducted and tortured Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova to produce an outrageous video to cover up its atrocity; and for ZBC to be an accomplice to the atrocity by broadcasting the cover up!” said Prof Moyo.

Contradictions
What is clear though from the different versions of the abduction story is that a lot of important details are mixed up.
Those that made the video say that it shows the movements of the trio during the period they claim to have been in captivity through use of CCTV footage, cellphone tracking and pictures.

But one wonders how they failed to account for the trio’s movement concerning how Mamombe’s Mercedes Benz ended up in the parking space opposite Harare Central Police Station, which has 24-hour CCTV surveillance.
The documentary only shows the forensic team on the scene and fails to show who brought it there, how or when.
On the other hand, the trio claim to have been arrested along Samora Machel Avenue at a police checkpoint on their way into the CBD after buying groceries at Marimba Shopping Centre, they deny having been at the illegal demo. Yet the documentary places them at the demonstration.
The documentary claims to have established that after the illegal demonstration in Warren Park they drove a silver Mercedes Benz Reg. No. AFE 9222, along Westwood Road, which separates the suburbs of Westwood and Kambuzuma and turned into Kambuzuma Road, towards the Workington Industrial Area.

They eventually got into Coventry Road before turning into Rotten Row Avenue. The car was being driven by Ms Mamombe.
In afternoon of the alleged abduction, the evidence shows, they drove to Fidelity Life Towers. From Fidelity Life Towers, their movements were detected in the Kopje area where Ms Chimbiri detected her uncle and called him on her mobile phone and immediately made a U-turn and met the uncle at the corner of Rotten Row Avenue and Coventry Road.
Chimbiri’s uncle is said to have confirmed to investigators that he met the three female activists just before 2pm on the day of the alleged abduction.
Afterwards the three were noticed in the vicinity of Advocates Chambers housed at Old Mutual Building along Third Street, where MDC-Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa’s private offices are incidentally located.
From Advocates Chambers, they are tracked to Baines Avenue and Sixth Street and then moments later, they are tracked to Golden Stairs Road in the Ashbrittle area before making a U-turn towards Belgravia.
Just before 3pm, Ms Mamombe tells her lawyer, Jeremiah Bhamu via Whatsapp that she had been arrested.
However, his efforts to locate her or ascertain how many people had been arrested were not responded to. Around 5.34pm of that day, Mr Bhamu then notified Ms Mamombe of his intention to make a missing person report.
Mr Bhamu shared the messages with investigators.
While Mamombe had told her lawyer that she had been arrested around 3pm, CCTV at Belgravia Shopping Centre shows the team arriving at around 4.45pm and parked at a food court with the registration of the vehicle clearly noticeable.
Ms Chimbiri is still wearing the same clothes she had been pictured with earlier in the day. The trio’s sympathisers argue that they could not have been at the fast food yet they were in captivity.

However, the manager at the Food Court confirmed seeing them. The manager claims they immediately left after their order had been delivered with the car only discovered at Harare Central Police Station on May 16.
A manager at a nearby shop said the vehicle was not at the parking lot on May 14 and 15.
Detectives discovered the trio’s cellphones in the car while an empty packet of a new cellphone was also found in the vehicle, raising suspicion that the new gadget could have been the one they were using for communicating.
The three, disappeared under unclear circumstances after an illegal flash demo in Warren Park on May 13, 2020.
They were later “found” two days later at Muchapondwa Business Centre in Musana communal areas, Bindura South.