'Beer brawl triggered CCC activist's disappearance'

The disappearance of a Chitungwiza woman three weeks ago, Moreblessing Ali, who was eventually found dead in the Nyatsime area last weekend, was triggered by a beerhall brawl between the deceased and her estranged boyfriend and had no political hand involved, witnesses have said.

Police have since intensified investigations into the death of Ms Ali, whose body was found mutilated after her disappearance.

Witnesses who were with her when she was last seen, told The Herald yesterday that Ms Ali had an altercation with her ex-boyfriend, Pios Jamba, who is currently on the run.

The clarification puts paid to spirited claims by some CCC members in the area who sought to cast aspersions on Zanu-PF by claiming that members of the ruling party had abducted her.

Opposition supporters had fingered one Simbarashe Chisango, who is a Zanu-PF district chairperson in the area and a half-brother to the suspect, Jamba.

In an interview at the funeral wake, a workmate and neighbour, Ms Kirina Mayironi said they left their residence for Chibhanguza Night Club, a joint about a kilometre away, for a beer drink.

"We left with Moreblessing around 7pm together with her dog, soon after we had returned from work to have some drinks at Chibhanguza. We drank until around 9pm when we decided to return home. Moreblessing was the first to go outside as I briefly remained behind talking to another neighbour of mine," said Ms Mayironi.

"When I came out I saw her involved in a brawl with a man and by that time, she was being dragged. When the man saw me holding a beer bottle, he probably thought I wanted to attack him, and he then pulled out a catapault and fired at me, hitting my chin and I ran back into the bar.

"He also complained that the dog was disturbing him from what he wanted to do, a statement which I did not understand what it meant. We then came out together with other patrons and by then, I was screaming to say ‘look at what is happening to my friend' but none managed to help because the man began to throw a lot of missiles so much that all patrons ran back into the bar."

Ms Mayironi said while she did not positively identify the culprit because of darkness and drunkness, she later heard from people present that it was Pious Jamba.

"I was even shown his residence the following day, but at that time there was no one," said Ms Mariyoni.

A bar lady at Chibhanguza Nite Club, who only identified herself as Melody, said she saw patrons stampeding into the bar and she initially thought they were running away from the police.

"I was then approached by our security guard from the window who asked to use my phone saying he wanted to call our boss. Our guard said Jamba was indiscriminately throwing missiles at anyone outside so he feared that he might damage window panes.

"After a while, I followed up on the guard to find out if he was safe because by then, he was the only one whom we knew was

outside. He then returned saying our employer had not picked his phone but I remained in the bar," said Melody.

Moreblessing's step mother, Mrs Judith Chisiiwa who stays in St Mary's, Chitungwiza, said she did not suspect politics to be behind the incident but blamed people who were with her step daughter on the night in question for taking long to inform close relatives.

 Chisango confirmed that he was Jamba's half-brother but said Jamba was not a member of any political party.

"I will not comment substantively since the case is being handled by the police but what I can say is that indeed Jamba is my half-brother. We were born to the same mother but different fathers. He does his own things as an adult, some of which I might even not agree with.

"He is not involved with any political activity. It is myself who is into politics, I am a district chairperson of Zanu-PF here and that is probably why the opposition CCC wants to take advantage and soil the ruling party's image," said Chisango.

A councillor in the area, Masimbi Masimbi, said it was clear that circumstances surrounding the death of Ali had nothing to do with political parties.

"What is coming out clearly from this unfortunate incident is that this is purely a domestic affair that turned sour. It is purely a criminal case which has nothing to do with politics. It is known that Jamba and Moreblessing had a love affair until this sad incident that happened at a bar.

"When I heard about the incident, we carried out searches all over the place for the lovers until Moreblessing was found dead. Unfortunately some opposition parties want to take advantage of this for their propaganda purposes," he said.

At yesterday's funeral wake, both Zanu-PF supporters and CCC were in attendance claiming Ali belonged to their rank and file.

Clr Masimbi said they had discovered that Ali might have been involved in opposition politics while she was still residing in St Mary's, but turned to Zanu-PF when she got a residential stand and began to stay in Nyatsime.

"She actually used to attend all our political activities and she belonged to Cell 2," he said.

Zanu-PF provincial secretary for Information and Publicity, Tatenda Mavetera, who attended the funeral implored members of the opposition to desist from politicising the tragedy.

"We are equally disheartened by the sad incident. We are, however, encouraged that law enforcement agencies are carrying out investigations," said Mavetera.

At the weekend, Zanu-PF director of Information and Publicity Tafadzwa Mugwadi said attempts by opposition political formations and foreign agencies to place blame for the kidnapping and subsequent death of Ms Ali on Zanu-PF was perfectly choreographed to destabilise Zimbabwe's foreign policy.

He said this was happening at a time Rwanda is scheduled to host the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Zimbabwe has expressed interest to rejoin the Commonwealth, and the current wave is aimed at shifting focus on the country's progress in the reform agenda and put a justification for those still calling for the upholding of the illegal sanctions.