Desperate to build investor confidence, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa made police advertise a $10,000 dangle for missing activist Itai Dzamara on Friday.
Dzamara has been missing for over four months and the State now faced with a collapsing economy has for the first time cast facial care for the matter.
The VP had police gazette the splash in the State Media just in time for Mnangagwa’s trip to Belarus where the latter says he is going to lure a pool of investors.
The announcement published in the government broadsheet, The Herald, read: Police have offered a reward of $10 000 to anyone with information on the whereabouts of journalist-cum-opposition activist Itai Dzamara as investigations into his disappearance intensify. Dzamara went missing on March 9 in Glen View 7, Harare. Police have been submitting fortnightly updates on investigations into the disappearance of Dzamara to the High Court and working closely with human rights lawyers in compliance with a court order issued in March this year.
In a statement yesterday, Officer Commanding CID Law and Order Division Assistant Commissioner Crispen Makedenge said police investigations conducted so far have failed to yield any fruitful results.
“The Police is now appealing to the general populace, any civic and non-governmental organisations who might have any information of his whereabouts to contact Officer Commanding CID Law and Order Division, Assistant Commissioner Crispen Makedenge on 04-251505; Officer in Charge, CID Law and Order Harare, Detective Chief Inspector Runganga on 753411; Police General Headquarters Complaints Desk on 703631 or any nearest police station,” he said.
According to Police, Dzamara was allegedly abducted by three male adults who entered the barber shop where he had gone to have a haircut and advised him that he was under arrest for stock theft.
The barber shop is owned by one Wellington Deketeke.
“They dragged him out of the barber shop and bundled him into a white Nissan Hard Body double cab vehicle whose registration number was only captured as ABB 2, with the last three digits not visible. He was driven away to an unknown location,” he said.
A High Court record seen by The Herald on Thursday showed that eight reports had been filed by the police giving updates of progress made, although no tangible evidence had been picked.
The revelation came amid claims from some quarters that the police were not doing anything to establish the whereabouts of Dzamara.
The opposition has been trying to profit from the alleged disappearance in the hope of triggering what it calls a Zimbabwe ‘Arab Spring’ to unconstitutionally unseat the Zanu-PF government.
The Arab Spring refers to the wave of demonstrations and protests, riots, and western-sponsored wars in the Arab world that began on December 18 2010 in Tunisia after the self-immolation of a vendor, Mohamed Bouzizi, culminating in the overthrow of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Analysts have accused Western countries of using the alleged disappearance of Dzamara to prop up the fortunes of opposition political parties ahead of the 2018 harmonised elections.
Information at hand also indicates that the West has planned to pour resources into the civil society and arms of Government such as the judiciary in a bid to weaken the control of the ruling Zanu-PF.
Government on Wednesday summoned French ambassador Mr Laurent Delahousse after he pulled a shocker on Tuesday by proposing a toast to Dzamara accusing officials of abducting him.
Sources said Mr Delahousse said in his disappearance the former journalist had become a “symbol and he would not let him down”.