Top Tsvangirai aide, once abducted and tortured by Zanu-PF, joins ruling party

HARARE – A former MDC official and longtime aide to the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Gandhi Mudzingwa, has joined Zanu–PF, marking a significant shift for a figure once associated with the pro-democracy movement for over two decades.

Mudzingwa was among more than 30 human rights and political activists abducted, detained and tortured in December 2008, during a period of political violence carried out against the opposition by Zanu–PF and State Security agents.

At the time, he was accused of recruiting individuals for alleged banditry, insurgency and terrorism training in Botswana, charges he denied and for which he was acquitted by the courts.

He, along with Kisimusi Dhlamini and photojournalist Andrison Manyere, were granted bail on 9 April 2009.

The State initially sought to block their release by indicating its intention to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the appeal was not filed within the legally required seven days. As a result, the trio was freed.

Following their release, Mudzingwa and Dhlamini remained under police guard while receiving medical treatment at Avenues Clinic. Both men reported torture after their enforced disappearances in 2008.

Mudzingwa along with other former MDC officials presented himself before Zanu-PF political commissar Munyaradzi Machacha on Monday.

His shift has drawn strong reactions from some former colleagues within the opposition, who view the development as a dramatic reversal for a figure once associated with resistance to the ruling establishment.

Respected journalist Chofamba Sithole commented on the issue saying, “…this is hard to watch too! Such a decorated figure of the pro-democracy movement undoing his entire legacy in this humiliating manner!”

Promise Mkwananzi, a long time opposition leader slammed the Mudzingwa and his colleagues describing them as “worn-out and toxic elements”.

“The individuals purportedly defecting to Zanu-PF appear quite intriguing. It appears that the initial condition for defection is to be initially rejected by the mainstream, authentic alternative.

“I feel sorry for Zanu-PF for adopting these worn-out and toxic elements,” Mkwananzi wrote on his X handle.

Former MDC official Blessing Chebundo, who joined Zanu–PF in 2021 together with Lillian Timveos, is leading efforts to recruit opposition members into the ruling party.