Gokwe-Nembudziya Member of Parliament, Justice Mayor Wadyajena (ZANU PF), has dismissed reports claiming that soldiers are brutalising citizens in his constituency in the name of enforcing the national lockdown.
Wadyajena said comments made by Indigenisation and Empowerment Parliamentary Portfolio Committee chairperson Senator Mbowa alleging military brutality on Gokwe communities are “mischievous and poisonous”. He said:
It’s not surprising that her audio was first published by UK based online sites and well known Government critics before even being shared locally, a move calculated to bolster the UK’s defence on its imposition of sanctions on the aforementioned members of the Security Services on the basis of ‘human rights violations’.
These very damaging lies cannot and should not be ignored because of their broader implications locally and globally.
Wadyajena’s remarks follow the emergence of Senator Mbowa’s recorded phone call to Mr Govha, an official in the Office of the President and Cabinet, alleging that soldiers are terrorising the Gokwe Nembudziya community.
During the conversation, the senator threatened to call President Emmerson Mnangagwa himself if army brutality continues unabated.