They were taken to a farm not far from their homes but not the same one were (sic) the bodies of the two murdered activists were found. For three days, the opposition activists were severely assaulted and tortured by their captors who accused them of campaigning for the MDC and seeking to topple Mugabe’s government.
The rest of the MDC activists were later released except for Ndiweni and Sibanda whose whereabouts remained unknown until their bodies were found dumped at a farm.
Ndiweni and Sibanda, aged 39 and 42 respectively at the time of their deaths, join a growing list of activists of the opposition murdered by unknown people - but suspected to be members of the government’s feared Central Intelligence Organisation – since the party’s formation eight years ago.
The MDC, which poses the greatest threat to Mugabe’s government in next year’s elections, says state security agents have abducted scores of its activists and arrested others on false charges in a bid to cripple the party ahead of the polls.
The Harare administration denies targeting opposition activists for arrest and insists anyone suspected of breaking the law is liable to arrest regardless of their political affiliation.
This was a well balanced story in which the reporter had tried to get views of various sides, including that of the police and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The only problem was that the reporter had not talked to either of the two people quoted.
Moyo was in South Africa when the story broke. He had to rush back to his constituency to verify the story when international organisations like Amnesty International and Voice of America started phoning him to comment on the murders.
He went to the constituency on Tuesday and discovered that there was nothing of the sort.
“The murders may have happened elsewhere but not in my constituency,” he said. “They may have taken place in the neighbouring constituencies but even then, the police would know about them. But what has upset me most is that the reporter claimed to have talked to me and even quoted me when he did not speak to me. I do not even know who wrote that story.”
Bvudzijena said he had not spoken to anyone from Zimbabwe Online for one-and-a-half years now but they continued to quote him and other police spokesmen.
“I have even complained to Mutsakani that what they are doing is unprofessional, but he has never come back to me,” Bvudzijena said. Though now an assistant police commissioner, Bvudzijena is a trained journalist and was editor of the police magazine Outpost, before being promoted to head the police’s public relations department.
Since the legislator for the area and the police have denied any knowledge about the killings, one is left wondering what else is not true in the story.
What is more disturbing is that Moyo was skeptical about talking to journalists in general when they sought to confirm the killings with him because he believed they were liars. While Ncube will get some rands that will translate into millions of Zimbabwe dollars, he has put the careers, and even lives, of his colleagues who are not hiding behind pseudonyms on the line.
The story has already been picked up by several organisations and has been widely circulated. It is likely to be used by organizations and institutions doing research on Zimbabwe because no one has publicly refuted it so far.
A report by Kate Bird and Stefanie Busse of the British Overseas Development Institute entitled: Rethinking aid policy in response to Zimbabwe’s protracted crisis which was commissioned for a roundtable discussion on Zimbabwe that was held early this month, says it relied heavily on a paper by Karen Proudlock, also of the same institute, entitled Zimbabwe Media Digest.
Zimonline was one of Proudlock's prime sources of information in that digest. It was cited 12 times and only came second to IRIN, the United-Nations linked news regional information network, which was quoted 13 times. Twenty-four media sources were cited. The Zimbabwe Independent was only cited three times, The Financial Gazette, once, and the Zimbabwean six times.
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