MDC-T vice-president Thokozani Khupe yesterday bemoaned that abducted journalist-cum-democracy activist Itai Dzamara was yet to be found, months after he disappeared.
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Khupe said this at a prayer meeting organised for Dzamara at Huruyadzo Shopping Centre in St Marys, Chitungwiza, where several political parties and the Dzamara family joined the MDC-T in prayer.
“We all love animals, but it is our wish that the outpouring of concern and grief over Cecil the lion be transferred to Dzamara, the person,” Khupe said.
“The evil done to Dzamara should return to the perpetrators ten-fold. We are also deeply worried by the disappearance of our member Lancelot Masaraure, our party organiser for Zengeza East who has not been found since 2012,” she said.
Dzamara has been missing for five months now with no trace of his whereabouts.
MDC-T founding member Job Sikhala, who was also Dzamara’s friend, said petitions would be sent to Sadc, the African Union and the United Nations complaining over what he called the “complicit nature of the Zimbabwean government over Dzamara’s disappearance”.
A public declaration demanding the return of Dzamara was read at the meeting. Government has been accused of lack of concern over the disappearance of opposition activists.
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Last month President Robert Mugabe’s position over the missing Dzamara was heavily criticised after his spokesperson George Charamba was quoted saying the government was not obliged to comment on the abducted activist, resulting in many people taking a position that State agents could have had a hand in the activist’s disappearance.
Charamba dismissed calls for Mugabe to pronounce himself on the matter, saying it was “pre-eminently political and thus not worthy of his attention”.
However, when Cecil the popular lion was shot by a dentist based in the United States of America, the government was quick to say it was a ploy by the West to further worsen their relations with Zimbabwe. Most people took to social media platforms saying the government had shown more concern for the slain lion, but had ignored concern and pressure by diplomatic missions resident in Zimbabwe to seriously investigate the disappearance of a human being.
In an interview by The Standard, Dzamara’s wife, Sheffra, said she had been robbed of a breadwinner, adding that her children longed to be with their father again.
Last week, the Dzamara family also observed his 36th birthday at a function attended by friends and relatives at Africa Unity Square where they shared a small cake in the hope that the missing activist would one day be found alive.
