British Labour Party MP Navendu Mishra has urged his government to cancel the invitation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa to the coronation of King Charles III next month accusing the Zanu-PF leader of orchestrating human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Last week, Mnangagwa, after meeting with UK Ambassador to Zimbabwe Melanie Robinson, said he was “most excited” to be invited by Buckingham Palace to the coronation of Charles III and his wife Camilla as King and Queen respectively.Britain is in its preparations for the ceremony to recognise the rule of a new King who will be crowned on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey.
But Mishra, in a letter to James Cleverly, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, believes that Mnangagwa was not supposed to be invited in the first place citing several incidents where the Zanu-PF regime suppressed the dissent.The MP cited the detention of opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislator Job Sikhala as one of the case studies why Mnangagwa’s invitation should be canceled.
“It is more than 300 days since Citizen’s Coalition for Change (CCC) Deputy Chairperson, Job Sikhala MP was detained after providing legal representation to the family of murdered opposition campaigner Moreblessing Ali.
“Since then, he has been held without trial in Chikuruhi Maximum Security prison and denied his constitutional right to bail. In response to Mr Sikhala’s detention, the Inter-Parliamentary Union stated on 22 October 2022 that it ‘fails to understand how his detention in a maximum security prison could possibly be justified and is alarmed by allegations that Mr Sikhala is being held in inhumane conditions’.
“In 2020 opposition MP Joanah Mamombe and supporters Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were detained by police for taking part in a protest and subsequently abducted from Harare Central Police Station, tortured, sexually assaulted and dumped by a roadside.
“On 10 June 2020, five special procedures experts of the UN Human Rights Council issued a statement calling on the Zimbabwe authorities to “urgently prosecute and punish the perpetrators of this outrageous crime, and to immediately enforce a policy of “zero tolerance’ for abductions and torture throughout the country.”
“Instead of the arrest of the perpetrators, the three victims were charged with publishing a false statement prejudicial to the state, for daring to report the crime. Three years on Joanah and Cecilia continue to face state sponsored harassment through the courts-their colleague Netsai Marova managed to escape from the country and gain sanctuary in Norway.”
The MPs further cited another incident that happened in Kwekwe where one of the opposition CCC members was allegedly attacked by alleged Zanu-PF and killed.
“On 27 February 2022, a CCC rally was attacked in Kwekwe. Mboneni Neube, a 30-year-old CCC supporter, was killed and at least 17 others were seriously injured,” read the letter.
Source: bbc news
In other news- Man ran over by bus in Harare
A tragic incident occurred yesterday when a mechanic, Daniel Dandawa, was attacked and run over by a bus after a dispute with a tout identified only as Dread.The incident happened on the route from Epworth to the City Centre.
Dread was said to have convinced the Lofombo bus driver, Christopher Chimonga, to take a different route. This led to a misunderstanding with Dandawa, who is also a panel beater. Learn more
