FIRED former Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairman and Hurungwe West independent candidate Temba Mliswa and four members of his campaign team were still in police custody yesterday following their arrest on Sunday on charges of disrupting a Zanu PF meeting at Sengwe business centre. BY NUNURAI JENA
By end of day yesterday, Mliswa and his team members, who include former Zanu PF Harare youth chairman Jimmy Kunaka from Mbare, Munyaradzi Mugomedza, Farai Kuvheya and Prosper Gavanga, were still detained at Magunje Police Station in Hurungwe.
Mliswa’s chief election agent Goodwell Zinyama told NewsDay that police had advised them that the investigating officer dealing with the matter had been sent on another assignment outside the station.
““The police are taking their time in dealing with the case. It looks like they want to fix him (Temba). The officer-in-charge and the officer who picked them at Sengwe are out of the station and no one is prepared to deal with the case in their absence,” Zinyama said.
On Sunday, Kuvheya claimed that they were arrested after Mliswa was mobbed by his supporters at Sengwe business centre with police officers accusing them of disrupting a Zanu PF meeting which was being held about 500 metres away.
Mliswa, who last Wednesday successfully filed his nomination papers in a bid to reclaim his seat, is set to lock horns with Zanu PF’s Keith Guzah in a by-election slated for June 10 this year.
The outspoken former Zanu PF legislator was booted out of Parliament and the ruling party recently on charges of belonging to former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s camp.
Mliswa has expressed confidence of reclaiming the seat, this time as an independent candidate, claiming traditional leaders, war veterans and several other disgruntled Zanu PF members were behind him.
