‘Still no leads on missing Dzamara’
By Blessings Mashaya
Police are still searching for abducted human rights activist Itai Dzamara, Home Affairs deputy minister Obedingwa Mguni has said.
Mguni told senators yesterday that the police still have no leads on Dzamara’s whereabouts.
“Yes the police are still searching; they are giving us updates every month. We formed a committee consisting the police and his family members,” Mguni said
“To declare someone dead needs an agreement between the family and police. The police are getting information but there is no much evidence in as far as the issue is concerned.”
Dzamara was abducted in 2015 by unidentified men in Glen View while having a haircut.
Two days before Dzamara’s abduction, he delivered a speech at an opposition rally in Harare, offering solidarity with the MDC for mass protests against the deteriorating political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.
The missing activist’s family accuses President Robert Mugabe’s government of being involved in his disappearance.
In May last year, the Dzamaras released a horrifying and grotesque image which they alleged was of Itai taken from captivity by his alleged abductors.
At a media conference where the images were released, his younger brother Patson claimed the country’s feared military intelligence had been responsible for the missing social justice campaigner’s brazen abduction, an accusation the army staunchly rejected.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai also told a news conference just after his abduction: “We are in no doubt as to the perpetrators of this abduction. We hold Mugabe and his regime responsible for this morbid and senseless act.”
The United States and European Union have both called on authorities to thoroughly investigate the disappearance.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights successfully filed a habeas corpus application at the High Court ordering senior security officials “to do all things necessary to determine his whereabouts.”
High Court Justice David Mangota directed a team of police detectives to work closely with Dzamara’s legal team to search for him. Daily News
