Farai Dziva|The MDC Alliance(Namibia Branch) has described the detention and torture of the party’s Youth Assembly member, Hon Joana Mamombe as totally unacceptable.
The MDC Alliance has also called for widespread protests at the harassment of women and the youth by Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Read full statement below:
25 SEPTEMBER 2020
GENUINE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS MUST COORDINATE IMMEDIATE ACTION DEMANDING JUSTICE AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT, TORTURE AND DENIAL OF PSYCHO-SOCIAL SERVICES FOR HON JOANA MAMOMBE, MDC ALLIANCE NAMIBIA FUMES
Mdc Alliance Namibia is infuriated by the perpetual incarceration of Hon Joana Mamombe who has just been remanded in custody for two (2) weeks for her to be examined by two (2) government doctors after the state said it suspects her of faking mental illness to avert trial.
The outspoken legislator has been imprisoned for actively supporting democratic rights that conflict with the views of despots in rogue Zanupf regime.
Ms Joana Mamombe is a prisoner of conscience and we should demand her immediate release from the hell- hole of Chikurubi Maximum Prison.
On 2 March 2019, she was arbitrarily arrested and charged with treason.
It was alleged that she was attempting to subvert a constitutionally elected government led by Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa,after she led a protest on 14 January 2018. On 13 May 2020, she and two other women , Mdc Alliance vibrant Youth Assembly leaders Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were initially arrested by the police before they were surrendered to masked abductors at Harare Central Police Station.
Two days later, the women were found badly injured and traumatized , by the side of the road sixty miles from Harare.
Given this authoritarian narrative, Mdc Alliance Namibia urges all Social Democrats around the globe to pent-up their outrage forcing Zanupf government to address the longstanding obstruction to justice and constitutionalism for the victims of rape and other sexual abuse perpetrated by Zanupf state security agents.
Instead of allowing the further victimisation, we should coordinate action to assist Hon Joana Mamombe to obtain legal , medical , psychosocial services and political freedom.
We need to gather the much needed varlour , mettle and nerve to compel Zanupf to lift restrictions on freedom of expression and association , and allow civil society, including female human rights defenders, to demonstrate peacefully and engage in public action and discourse.
Furthermore, all genuine revolutionaries must confront the ruthless security forces to halt targeting activists and end all abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence , and hold accountable those perpetrators.
We would like to urgently call for the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) rapporteurs on human rights defenders to escalate their engagement on Zimbabwe, conduct visits to investigate and report on incessant patterns of gross abuse against female activists including sexual violence and the adverse repercussions on their agenda to ensure gender equity in the Motherland.
Moreover, Mdc Alliance Namibia believes that the imprisonment of our youthful leader on spurious charges is an attempt to muffle and then silence her altogether. Lets demand democratic reforms and castigate Zanupf for suffocating voices of dissent in Zimbabwe.
We should remain resolute in our clamour to end arbitrary detentions of all activists and human rights defenders, release those held unlawfully or charge them lawfully according to full due democratic and constitutional processes. Zanupf sadists should be called to order and respect the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Moreso, Social democrats must ensure that all victims of sexual violence and physical assault have access to medical care including pyscho-social support.
Hon Joana Mamombe, Cecilia and Netsai need our serious confrontation with Zanupf thugocrats for their liberation.
In a nutshell, Mdc Alliance Namibia shall not be silenced by Zanupf terrorists. We shall continue to audibly call for democratic reform in Zimbabwe. We reject to be bullied by our murderers. Mdc Alliance Namibia advocates for dangerous freedom against thugocracy and maltreatment of women in the alternative government.
Mdc Alliance Namibia
Rundu Branch Spokesperson
Robson Ruhanya