Tsvangirai Press Statement on the Assault of Harare North MP Trudy Stevenson and Others


pix by the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara


President Tsvangirai's remarks at the publication of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into tphe assaults perpetrated on the Member of Parliament for Harare North, Honourable Gertrude Stevenson, and Mrs. Simangele Manyere, Mr. Linos Mushonga, Mr. Luxon Sibanda and Mr. Tawanda Mudzerema on Sunday 2 July 2006 at Harvest House.


Following a report in the Herald newspaper on Tuesday 4 July 2006 which made public an attack allegedly perpetrated against the Member of Parliament for Harare North, Honourable Gertrude Stevenson, and Mrs. Simangele Manyere, Mr. Linos Mushonga, Mr. Luxon Sibanda and Mr. Tawanda Mudzerema on Sunday 2 July 2006, we set up an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the incident. We felt such a move was necessary given the numerous allegations linking the party, and myself in particular, to the attack. I also met a representative from the Stevenson's family who had indicated to me their concern about the allegations and sought some assurance from me about the future.
The commission, headed by Advocate Happias Zhou, carried out its work and has now concluded its report, complete with a summary of the evidence, its findings and recommendations. May I thank the commissioners for a professional and objective investigation? We have already begun to use the findings, the experiences highlighted by the commission and the lessons from the probe in an honest search for remedies to our organizational and structural weaknesses as a party.
Today, I wish to make public that report.
Once again, I wish to express my dismay with the attack on Honourable Stevenson and the other MDC members. Such a brutal act on fellow Zimbabweans, innocent human beings and committed activists could have been avoided. It is regrettable. It is clear from the findings that the state was determined to cause maximum damage on the MDC and to discredit the democratic movement. State agents ensnared and trapped Honourable Stevenson and her colleagues into this sadistic and unfortunate attack.
The report shows that neither Honourable Stevenson nor some of her colleagues knew the people who advised them to follow them and later waylaid them to the scene of attack – a secluded rural or peri-urban area outside Mabvuku. The attackers, working at a lightening pace and without any notice of members of the public or eyewitnesses, took place in Harare East constituency in the Chishawasha area.
The events leading to the attack and methods used in attack, according the investigation, show that a professional hit man directed the assailants with precision and a broad political motive. We shall handover a copy of this report to Honourable Stevenson for her perusal, for her own information and possible use at her own discretion.
A major highlight of the report is a confirmation of our long-held suspicion of heavy infiltration in the party. After the regime's failure to liquidate the MDC following the leadership crack on October 12 last year, Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF changed their tactics and are still pursuing their project to destroy the MDC. Before October 12, the regime targeted our provinces and provincial structures for infiltration. When they realized that the rest of the party remained intact at the grassroots level, they changed tact.
The report shows that they have since moved downwards and are still working on this destructive project. It is clear from the report that some state security agents direct party affairs and determine the party agenda in Mabvuku. The constituency is heavily infiltrated and all our members and structures in the area are at risk. Not surprisingly, the Advocate Zhou commission noted that some of the people working with Honourable Stevenson in Mabvuku were suspect and could have been working against her own political interests.
The report shows that Mabvuku may just be one of the many constituencies with a web of bugs and spooks. We are grateful that we can now institute a process of clearing up our structures in Mabvuku and in other areas to contain and vaccinate the party against negative external influences. The National Executive Committee shall meet soon to institute an intensive leadership analysis and scrutiny at all levels in order to set in motion a regular process of weeding out nests of saboteurs and others whose agenda is at variance with what we seek to achieve.
Zanu PF and Mugabe have a history of infiltrating political parties and interfering with their legitimate political activities. The MDC has been a prime target for such a project during the past seven years. The report on what happened in Mabvuku provides ample evidence of a sustained conspiracy to damage the reputation of the MDC and to direct the party focus onto its internal differences.
Mugabe is desperately looking for breathing space and has now gone down to our lowest structures to promote violence against the people. Mugabe and Zanu PF must understand that violence is a symptom of a deeper societal dysfunction. As long as certain fundamentals remain unattended to and the police turn a blind eye to their Constitutional duty, violence is set to live with us for sometime. In the case of Mabvuku, it took the police four days to move in and, by the look of things today, the investigations have already been bungled up. The people who should be made to account for the attack on Honourable Stevenson and others may never be punished because of Zanu PF's interests. Mugabe cherishes a society in which violence dominates political activity.
We are a young party, with a membership born and raised in a climate where violence was officially encouraged and celebrated. Mugabe, as the founding President of the Zimbabwe whose regime inherited a violent culture, worsened the situation and even boasted that his party has its own degrees in violence. We are suffering from the contagion of state-sponsored violence. Our young membership is vulnerable to abuse for a variety of reasons. They are hungry and poor. They are idle and jobs are scarce. The regime has abandoned them. We disagree with some of the findings because they are based on factually incorrect information. For instance, the commission says we have a security department headed by Nhamo Musekiwa. We do not have such a department. The commission also states that previous attempts to address issues of violence within the party failed top bear fruit. That is incorrect. We took action against certain individuals involved in violence in the past. In June 2005, we expelled more than 30 youths from the party because of their violent activities. It is common cause that Mugabe owns a militia which he uses to perpetuate the culture of violence. We understand they trained 300 000 and deployed them in urban areas. Only yesterday, this militia was active at our border posts looking for bearer cheques. Only yesterday, these poisoned youths assaulted and injured civil society leaders wishing to take part in ZCTU march.
The attack on the ZCTU leadership was carefully planned by the regime. A task force, made up of selected army loyalists mainly from the Presidential Guard, the militia and Zanu PF youths, was put together by the army intelligence unit. The force, numbering 450 personnel, was drawn from Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West provinces.Governor Masawi and Saviour Kasukuwere supplied the militia. The teams were deployed from I Commando barracks. The attack on the labour leaders was co-ordinated and directed by the military and senior Zanu PF leaders.
As a labour-backed party, we feel that our base is now under siege. There was no justification for denying workers their right to express themselves. We shall therefore inform a number of international organisations, including SADC, the AU and the United Nations of the local situation and express our displeasure at the behaviour of the Mugabe regime. Zanu PF and Mugabe want to trivialise the Zimbabwean struggle and to make it appear as if Zimbabweans are a confused lot, incapable of finding permanent solutions to their national problems. The attack on Honourable Stevenson and others may not be the last act of the regime to dampen our people's confidence in the MDC.
We know Mugabe shall from time to time select targets for attack, for his propaganda purposes, using a range of surrogates in order to selectively damage our reputation at home and abroad.