(NEWZIMBABWE) Zanu PF youths assault Gwanda town official

Zanu PF youths assault Gwanda town official
by Lunga Sibanda
20/04/2010 00:00:00

A GROUP of suspected Zanu PF youths have stormed the Gwanda Town Council chambers and assaulted the director of housing after she tried to evict the former deputy minister of public service and labour Abednico Ncube from a council property, officials said.

Sipho Mdlongwa was hospitalised following Friday’s raid on the MDC-Mutambara led town council. Gwanda mayor councillor Lionel DeNecker said the youths stormed the council just after 1PM and demanded an audience with Mdlongwa, the wife of a local education staffing officer.

“The 15 youths who arrived in a white pick-up truck demanded that she comes outside where they proceeded to assault her with clenched fists and booted feet,” he said.

“She is old enough to be a mother to all those youths who assaulted her. It is also a gender violation to see these young men severely beating an elderly woman like that.”

Speaking to New Zimbabwe.com by telephone on Tuesday, Mdlongwa said: “I am in so much pain right now. I can’t talk about that matter.”

The officer commanding Matabeleland South Police Senior Assistant Commissioner Bill Mashonga said police had launched an investigation.

“I can confirm that we received a report of assault but the assailants are not known even by the victim herself. However, investigations are underway to find the assailants and the motive behind their attack so that they can be brought to book,” he said.

A councillor who witnessed the attack said the youths were driving in a car marked ZANU PF MATABELELAND NORTH-BULAWAYO PROVINCE – suggesting they were not from Matabeleland South Province whose administrative district is Gwanda.

New Zimbabwe.com has heard that after the attack, one of the youths shouted at Mdlongwa: “We are going to put a bullet through your head.”

Her family is concerned because Ncube, a high ranking member of Zanu PF’s politburo, has form in the use of violence. He is feared in the province and routinely threatens journalists and civil servants.

Ncube, the former MP for Gwanda South, was implicated but never charged in the abduction and murder of a civil servant, Tumelo Makhurane, who disappeared soon after the 2002 presidential elections. His remains were not found until 2007.

A council official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mdlongwa had recently signed an eviction order for Ncube from a council house which had been provided him when he was MP.

“Ncube’s son, Leslie, reacted to the notice by going to the council where he threatened Mdlongwa as well as the mayor. He threatened to lead demonstrations against Mdlongwa. In fact minutes before Friday’s attack, someone called the director of housing and said ‘Abednico’s boys are coming to attack you’,” said the official.

Ncube shouted obsceneties at our correspondent when asked if he had links with the attack mob.

Mayor DeNecker said Mdlongwa has a difficult job.

“We have a housing crisis here with 10,000 home seekers on the waiting list ... it’s easy for Mdlongwa to pick up enemies but it has to be understood that her decisions are informed by the Gwanda council. She does not make those decisions on her own."