Bulawayo state house guards humiliate newly weds

By Staff Reporter

BULAWAYO – The indiscipline of soldiers guarding Zimbabwe’s State House in Bulawayo came to the fore again Tuesday evening after a newly wedded couple were forced to go down on their knees and hosed down with water. 

Nehanda Radio was told that the group of four, husband and wife with their two friends, back from South Africa and in Zimbabwe on holiday, were lost while driving and pulled over to ask for directions.

The soldiers at the back entrance asked them to drive into the premises and once inside told them to get out of the car and kneel down on the tarmac. It was at this point that the soldiers took out a hosepipe and started spraying them with water.

Speaking to Nehanda Radio, Rev Levy Moyo, Chairman of the Council of Zimbabwean Christian Leaders in the UK, recently back from Zimbabwe, told us his relatives were subjected to this abuse at the backyard of the State House along Saucerstown Road near the popular Garden Cash drinking spot.

Efforts to get comment from the responsible authorities proved futile.

The Bulawayo State House is a virtually abandoned facility with President Mugabe hardly ever using it when he visits the city. Built on vast woodlands next to the low-density suburb of Sauerstown, to the north of the city along the Victoria Falls road, the large property lies idle the whole year.

The soldiers guarding the property have meanwhile gained notoriety for assaulting civilians and committing all sorts of abuses over the years.