Zanu-PF youths abduct, assault MDC youth leader

An MDC provincial youth chairperson, Sekai Marashe, was reportedly abducted from her home by machete-wielding Zanu-PF youths and severely assaulted at Zanu-PF Kwekwe district offices in the early hours of Tuesday.

Marashe claimed that the ruling party youths attacked and dragged her to the Kwekwe party offices where they tortured her.

"They received a call ordering them to stop beating me. I don't know who beat me. They tried to order me to clean up so that the abuse is covered up. They even offered me clothes," she said.

Marashe reported the matter at Kwekwe Central Police Station.

"In an open act of provocation, Zanu-PF youths abducted Midlands province MDC youth assembly chair, Sekai Marashe (Muchaina) and took her to Zanu-PF offices in Kwekwe. She was severely tortured and brutally assaulted with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and then dumped her, left for dead," Takavafira Zhou, the MDC Midlands provincial spokesperson, said.

Zhou indicated that Marashe sustained multiple injuries after the torture.

"She sustained serious injuries on her face, head and all over her body," he said.

Photos of Marashe showing the torture bruises and injuries went viral on social media yesterday, with people in Kwekwe expressing outrage over the incident.

"As Midlands province, we condemn outrightly such barbaric, thuggish, nefarious, callous and unwarrantable law of the jungle. We call upon President Emmerson Mnangagwa to rein in such thugs in his party, and the police to apprehend the thugs and bring them to book," Zhou said.

"It is certainly dangerous for leaders to allow the country to degenerate into lawlessness that currently is becoming fashionable with abductions. Lawlessness is fast becoming a security threat in Zimbabwe, and unless it is arrested, it may degenerate into war."

Cornelia Mupereri, the Zanu-PF Midlands provincial spokesperson, said he was unaware of the alleged abductions.

Posting on his official Twitter handle, Information deputy minister Energy Mutodi seemed to downplay the torture and crudely referred to the incident as a non-event.

"No matter how democratic our government can be, we can never guarantee that drunkards and prostitutes stop fighting," he said in a post that opened a barrage of criticism.

The minister has also recently been in the eye of a storm after rubbishing the spate of abductions around the country in the wake of banned MDC protests.