A CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) activist, who went missing at the weekend after being abducted by suspected State security agents in Mabvuku, Harare, has been found dead.
Bishop Tapfumaneyi Masaya was allegedly abducted while campaigning for Munyaradzi Febion Kufahakutizwi, who is seeking re-election on December 9 after being recalled alongside 14 others by self-proclaimed CCC interim secretary-generel Sengezo Tshabangu soon after the August 23 and 24 harmonised elections.
Last night, party deputy spokesperson Gift Siziba posted on X saying: “Our change champion, Bishop Tapfumaneyi Masaya, who was abducted in Mabvuku while campaigning, hasbeen found dead. They recalled a legitimately elected MP of Mabvuku, Hon Kufa, to pave way for Zanu PF. Today, this has cost an innocent life. He shall have justice.”
Masaya’s body is suspected to have been dumped at the intersection of Arcturus and Lobho roads in the Cleveland area.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday confirmed that an unidentified body had been found in the Cleveland area, but could not confirm if it was Masaya’s.
“The Zimbabwe Republic Police is conducting investigations in connection with the location of a body at the intersection of Arcturus and Lobho Road, Cleveland area, Harare on November 12, 2023,” he said.
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“The identity of the victim is yet to be established.”
In a telephone interview last night, Nyathi said police details were on the ground to ascertain the identity of the body and would release more details today.
Zimbabwe has had a long history of abductions and torture of opposition activists, with some of the cases turning fatal.
Two weeks ago, CCC legislator Takudzwa Ngadziore recorded a short video of gun-toting men closing in on him before he was abducted, tortured and injected with an unknown substance and later dumped in Mazowe.
Last month, former Mabvuku-Tafara MP James Chidhakwa was abducted, tortured, injected with an unknown substance and had his dreadlocks shaven off before being dumped in Arcturus.
Journalist and human rights defender Itai Dzamara as abducted from a barbershop close to his Glen View home in Harare in 2015 and has never been heard from since.
Recently, human rights defender Jestina Mukoko exposed the State’s hand in the abductions after she revealed that then Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi, who is now Vice-President, knew of her abduction in 2008 from her Norton home and held incommunicado for nearly a month.
In June 2020, legislator Joanah Mamombe and party activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were abducted and found almost 48 hours later near Bindura.
They had to be treated in hospital for their injuries.
The government routinely dismisses the complaints, and instead accuses the activists of staging the abductions.