Tsvangirai weeps as victims narrate

The anguish on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s face said it all as Rutendo Munengami, wife of Glen View North MP Fani Munengami, yesterday narrated her ordeal when 10 armed men beat her up and raped her in her home.

Seven years might appear like a long time to many people, but for Munengami memories are still fresh and she will never forget the cold winter night in June 2003 when 10 men dressed in army fatigues broke into her house. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Munengami courageously tells a packed Book Cafe in Harare of politically motivated violence on women.

“One of the assailants lifted a gift that I had received from my husband and asked if he was good in bed which I did not answer,” she said. “He went ahead to ask “sei wakashamira mutengesi” (Why are you dressed in skimpy clothes for a sellout). He walked towards me and lifted my nightdress and raped me once in front of my nine-month-old son.”

One of her adductors, she claimed, was late Zanu PF minister without portfolio Elliot Manyika who died in a car crash two years ago. After being abducted she said the assailants grabbed her baby boy and attempted to throw him on the floor before another abducted Mdc supporter saved the innocent child from the near fatal experience.

For the alleged abductors she said, they feared that the nine-month infant would “sell-out just like his father”. “My life has been affected tremendously by this ordeal,” said Munengami who is now an expectant mother. “I cannot do heavy jobs like carry heavy items. After I got pregnant with the third child, I was told that I could not have any more children as my back cannot sustain it.”

For supporting the MDC, she spent three weeks in hospital nursing injuries suffered in the attack. Her traumatic experience typifies the story of many women and other unfortunate people that have witnessed the ugly face of Zimbabwe’s politically motivated violence since Independence.

Launching a book documenting politically motivated violence titled Cries from Goromonzi: Inside Zimbabwe’s Torture Chambers, Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe needs transitional justice before next year’s elections. The book recounts horrifying stories of 23 prominent and ordinary people detailing an orgy of violence targeted at suspected and known MDC-T supporters.

The Mdc claims that over 300 people lost their lives during the bloody 2008 presidential election runoff that saw President Robert Mugabe clawing back to power after losing the first poll to Tsvangirai. The book also names and shames state apparatchiks who through commission or omission fuelled persecution of dissenting voices.

Yesterday’s book launch coincided with the date of Tsvangirai’s brutal assault three years ago during the bloody Save Zimbabwe campaign at Harare Grounds, Highfield.

Police allegedly brutalised the Mdc leader leaving him with bloodshot eyes, a swollen face and arms fractured. Sekai Holland And National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku were also assaulted during the peaceful protest. Apart from Tsvangirai’s injuries, the fateful day also claimed the two youthful lives of Gift Tandare and another MDC-T supporter who were fatally shot.

This incident put Zimbabwe’s human Rights record in the spotlight and subsequently led to an emergency Sadc meeting in Dar... ...

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