Former police Senior Assistant Commissioner Emmanuel Chimwanda has been appointed at the opposition MDC Secretary for Defence and Security.

Chimwanda was appointed by the party leader Nelson Chamisa in his new National Standing Committee announced on Wednesday.

Chamisa also appointed Costa Machingauta to the new position of Secretary for Intelligance

“We do not want weaknesses in the party. We must have intelligence. We must know what our opponent is planning. So yes, (Costa) Machingauta is going to be in charge of that.

“Mr Emmanuel Chimwanda, a former Assistant Commissioner whom we have worked with for a long time, is now going to head our Defence and Security,” Chamisa said.

Chimwanda was in 2009 appointed by then MDC leader and State Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to the post of director of security in the prime minister’s office.

Chimwanda is best remembered for the arrest of the late notorious war veterans leader Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi.

Hunzvi had led Zanu (PF) supporters and war veterans on a violent orgy targeting opposition supporters in Bikita during the 2000 elections, in which the MDC, contesting for the first time since formation a year ago, whittled down Zanu PF’s parliamentary dominance.

He later dumped the police force insisting he would rather leave with his principles intact than take orders to allow some militant Zanu PF supporters to brutalise fellow citizens with impunity.

Chimwanda, who once served as Commissioner in the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), replaces ex-army Major Giles Mutsekwa.