Zanu-PF thugs compensate violence victims

Zanu-PF followers accused of burning down the homes of MDC supporters in Muzarabani in the violent run-up to the discredited June 2008 presidential run-off election that was supposed to pit President Robert Mugabe against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had their livestock attached on Tuesday.

The long arm of the law caught up with the yobs when the Deputy Sheriff for Mount Darwin took 14 cattle and 10 goats belonging to some of the 13 ruling party activists fingered in the violence, to be used as compensation for their victims.

This followed a default judgment passed by High Court Judge Garainesu Mawadze in December last year, following applications filed by three of the victims - Gideon Mukoshoware, John Savanhu and Moses Nyabuda.

The Zanu-PF activists - among them Nixon Kampiyo, Kennedy Honde, Yotamu Munyuruka and Reason Kadira - were all found guilty of arson.

According to Mawadze's ruling, the guilty 13 Zanu-PF activists were supposed to pay to Mukoshoware compensation to the tune of $4 000, while Savanhu was awarded $30 000.

Nyabuda was deemed by the court to be entitled to $5 000 compensation.

However, the ruling party supporters failed to honour the court's determination, prompting the messenger of court to act as he did in execution of the ruling.

Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO forum, which represented the opposition supporters and accompanied the Deputy Sheriff's team as it carried out the executions, told the Daily News yesterday that so far only two executions for Nyabuda and Mukoshoware had been effected.

It also revealed that the team had faced many challenges in locating the respondents as they did not stay at the same place, hence the need for more time to follow all of them up.

"Kampiyo's homestead was the Deputy Sheriff's team's first port of call and four beasts belonging to him were identified and duly attached.

"At Honde's homestead, six cattle were attached together with five goats, while Munyuruka had four of his cattle and five goats attached," the rights group's lawyer Kenias Shonhai said.

The Deputy Sherriff's team had not been so lucky at Kadira's homestead, despite having had to endure an 8km journey on foot, owing to the area's poor roads.

"They found him at home but there was nothing worth attaching. He has cattle but he refused to point them to the Deputy Sheriff, who concluded that there was nothing to attach."

Meanwhile, the MDC has welcomed the development and hailed the country's judiciary for "their vigilence given the political sensitivity of the matter".

"We are pleased with the development and we hope it sends a clear signto other would-be perpetrators of political violence that when it comes to the crunch, they will be on their own and the law will descend heavily on them.

"We salute the justice delivery system in ensuring that those who fall foul of the law will face the music," MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said.

Tsvangirai withdrew from the presidential run-off citing a violent campaign against his supporters by Zanu-PF and security agents, which saw more than 200 MDC followers being murdered.

Most of the cases that have been brought before the courts have, however, not been concluded, seven years down the line.