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Mugabe aide under fire over Dzamara

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PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe was yesterday described as lacking morality and common decency after his spokesperson said the 91-year-old leader is not oblidged to speak on missing activist Itai Dzamara.

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe was yesterday described as lacking morality and common decency after his spokesperson said the 91-year-old leader is not oblidged to speak on missing activist Itai Dzamara.

BY XOLISANI NCUBE

Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba told State media the Zanu PF leader cannot take a leading role in establishing Dzamara’s whereabouts.

The activist has been missing since March after he was allegedly abducted from a barber shop in Harare.

Last weekend, a prayer meeting organised by churches to put pressure on the government to find Dzamara, attracted MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, former war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda and former Zanu PF Mashonaland West chairman Temba Mliswa.

The convergence of different opposition parties appears to have unsettled the government, with Charamba accusing parties of trying to use his disappearance to “regain a political foothold”.

However, MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said Mugabe and his government were responsible for the activist’s disappearance. “Constitutionally, Mugabe has an obligation to protect and safeguard all citizens regardless of their political standing and social position,” Gutu said.

“So the remarks attributed to Charamba are untoward and arrogant. “Those rabid and cruel comments lack both public morality and common decency.”

He said the circumstances surrounding Dzamara’s disappearance pointed to the government’s involvement.

“It does not need a rocket scientist to know that Dzamara was abducted by State security agents,” he said.

“Mugabe and the Zanu PF regime that he leads together with the State security apparatus in Zimbabwe have a constitutional obligation to tell the nation what exactly happened to Itai Dzamara.”

Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe (RDZ) led by Elton Mangoma said Charamba “should be smoking something which is dangerous to both the President and the country at large”.

“It’s madness on the part of Charamba to allege that there are political points to score when people question the whereabouts of Dzamara from Mugabe who is obliged by the law to ensure that all citizens in Zimbabwe are accounted for,” RDZ spokesperson Pishai Muchauraya said.

“No one will score any political point through Dzamara because all that we are pushing for is that he be found and accounted for. “Unless Mugabe and his government are afraid of something, they should join us in demanding that Dzamara safely comes back home and reunites with him family.

“If you are a President, you must be worried when you see one of your children missing.

“We expect Mugabe to lead the call to anyone holding Dzamara to release him because he has an obligation to do so.” The Tendai Biti-led MDC Renewal Team said Charamba’s comments were misplaced and inaccurate.

“There is no way that this government can run away from its constitutional and international obligations over its citizens. “A President cannot run a country where people evaporate without trace like water.

“The government through its chief executive officer, the President, must provide answers,” MDC Renewal Team spokesperson Jacob Mafume said.

“We know that he thinks his office is all about titles and privileges, but that’s not it . . . there are duties and responsibilities as well.”

Several critics of the Zanu PF government have disappeared without trace since independence, sparking fears Dzamara would suffer the same fate.