Tsvangirai official (Last Maengahama) not kidnapped

HARARE - Last Maengahama, the secretary for local government in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party was never kidnapped but was picked up by police and quizzed  over a debt he owed a Harare man.

The MDC on Monday raised a panic alarm following the disappearance of Maengehama  suspecting  that he could have been kidnapped or abducted.

However, this turned out to be false as Maengahama, who manages the MDC memorabilia shop on the ground floor of the MDC headquarters – Harvest House – was picked up by police for an unpaid debt.

Police sources said the MDC official had been picked up by plainclothes officers who assisted the man who had sought their intervention to recover the money owed by Maengahama.

The party was quick to trigger the panic alarm by sending an alert to journalists announcing  Maengahama's "kidnap".

But after it emerged that Maengahama had made a fool of the media and his party, Chamisa tried to downplay the howler by the MDC whose credibility and sincerity in cases of violence will now be severely questioned.

""The matter is a personal one. But we were worried as a party. It would appear that it is a personal issue. It appears he is safe wherever he is.

I wouldn't want to get into the details of the issue," Chamisa told the Daily News when pressed to comment on Maengahama's sensational "kidnap".