Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Violence continues unabated, activist left for dead
Zimbabwe Youth Forum
August 06 , 2008

Tafadzwa Mugwadi a University of Zimbabwe based youth activist was lucky to survive following a gruesome attack at the hands of seven unknown assailants, suspected to be ZANU PF militia. This incident took place yesterday around 3pm at Market Square, to the amazement of onlookers who were in ques to get commuter omnibuses. Mugwadi was also on his way to Glen-Norah where he stays with his parents, when he was abruptly hackled. Speaking from his hospital bed, Mugwadi said he only remembers that he was thrown in an open truck and he was driven to Kopje area where the thugs started to assault him with clenched feasts, sticks, claps and booted feet.

He was being accused of selling out the country by recruiting MDC polling agents and campaigning against President Mugabe at the University of Zimbabwe in the run up to the March 29 harmonized elections. He was unconscious for almost an hour, as onlookers were afraid to assist him since the thugs had threatened to deal with anyone who gave assistance to the victim.

A good Samaritans only managed to resuscitate Mugwadi after pouring a bucket of water on his body and he managed to direct him to the Students Solidarity Trust office where he was rushed to a private hospital. He is feared to have suffered broken jaws and limbs since he is struggling to talk and cannot walk on his own.

This shows the hypocrisy of the ruling party in the talks, its supporters are unrepentant since they never received the message of unity. It shows that the proposed unity is only of benefit to the elite leaders on the table and to ordinary, suffering Zimbabweans it is still the same old story. Food is still being distributed on partisan lines as evidenced by a woman who committed suicide in Manicaland after having been denied BACCOSSI goods on the premise that she was an active member of MDC. With bases still operational in full of force and militia on rampage it boggles the mind as to what exactly is a perception of talks by ZANU PF. The ZANU PF government has also not allowed the distribution of humanitarian assistance by NGOs and people continue to languish in hunger and extreme poverty.

Youth Forum castigates the hypocrisy of ZANU PF in the much talked about talks and we feel that these talks were held without consulting the people of Zimbabwe and as Youth Forum we take whatever outcome from these talks as politicians' agreement. As youths we feel betrayed because there wasn't any representative for us neither were we consulted. Considering that youths are the majority and the most politically active group there is need to consult and engage them in issues to do with the democratization of the nation. Youth Forum maintains that youths are today's leaders and they should be at the helm of any issues to do with development as decision makers and not implementing instruments.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP