Some of the 2019 class of graduating medical students at the University of Zimbabwe are reported to have proceeded to boycot their graduation ceremony at which they were due to be capped by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The move was in solidarity with hospitalised union activist Dr Peter Magombeyi, who was abducted and later dumped by suspected state security agents.

In a letter addressed to Mnangagwa on the eve of the graduation, in his capacity as the university’s chancellor, the former students who were meant to boycott the event enmass said they had resolved to boycott the graduation ceremony in solidarity with a “selfless individual who decided to put himself in the forefront in demanding a fair living wage for the health profession”.

The letter was copied to the dean of students at the medical school.

Their stance comes at a time when government through the state media and state security have been disputing that Dr Peter Magombeyi was indeed abducted.

Deputy minister of information Energy Mutodi earlier got the ire of the doctors when on his official Twitter account @energymutodi, accused doctors of being politicians and implied that the missing doctor would “sober up and find his way home”.

The withdrawal from the graduation ceremony is the first direct resistance Mnangagwa has encountered from the doctors over the abduction.

On Tuesday, doctors were barred from marching to his offices. However, on Thursday, with High Court clearance, they marched to parliament.

Meanwhile, Zimbabweans in New York have vowed to protest against Mnangagwa when he arrives in the Big Apple for the UN General Assembly today.