Former Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Jonathan Moyo says he regrets comments he made during his time as Minister of Information about the disappearance of Itai Dzamara in 2015.
Moyo who is in exile said his comments were informed by a security report that had been presented to Cabinet by then Minister of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi.
Mohadi is reported to have told Cabinet that Dzamara’s disappearance was staged to put pressure on the Zanu PF government.
Speaking to Q Dube on Magamba TV’s Take Down, Professor Moyo said, “Where is he, I wish I knew where he is, the record will show that when he disappeared in 2015, I was Minister of Information, and in May 2015 in an interview on Hard Talk, I made remarks about him or his whereabouts which were most unfortunate and very regrettable and I expressed my regret while I was still in government in June 2016,” he said.
According to Professor Moyo, Kembo Mohadi as Minister of Home Affairs had given a report in Cabinet on behalf of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Joint Operation Command that the Dzamara issue was meant to pressure the government.
“…their report to us in Cabinet was that Itai had disappeared as an internal job to put pressure on the government and we had to find a way of presenting that view.
“But still when we were in government it became obvious that in fact he had been abducted and had been abducted by the security organs and the question is was it a JOC abduction, or a CIO abduction
“What you and Zimbabweans must know is that there is no crime, serious crime involving a disappearance or murder or abduction that is not resolved in Zimbabwe unless it is done by the security forces.
“The only crimes of that nature that have never been resolved in Zimbabwe have been done by the state and we can count them, right from the days of Gukurahundi, from the Majonga issue, Rashiwe Guzha, Cain Nkala, Jestina Mukoko, all these people up to now.
“What happened to young Tawanda Mucheiwa those crimes that are not resolved of that nature without exception are perpetrated by the state security organs, either one of them or all of them in a joint operation and there is a common pattern about them, the way the abductees go,” he said.
Moyo who is also a critic of the Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime highlighted that his father abducted in the same manner as with the others, before being tortured and killed.
“My own Father was abducted, tortured and murdered when the Gukurahundi 5th Brigade was first deployed, its very first action in January 1983.
“The very action of Gukurahundi were to abduct, torture and murder people in Tsholotsho, its first area of operation was in Tsholotsho, that patten has continued to this day and the people on the ground, the field operatives, the enforcers who were behind those atrocities are the one who are now in charge of the political system and Zimbabweans need to treat these issues with the seriousness they deserve,” he said.
Dzamara who was a critic of the late President Robert Mugabe was reportedly abducted from a barbershop by men believed to be CIOs who were travelling in unmarked twin-cab vehicles.
Despite many campaigns calling for his return, both the regimes of Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa have been reluctant to bring the issue to finality.
