Who Killed Elliot Manyika and is Jestina Alive?

Jestina Mukoko, abducted from her home in Norton in front of her teenage son, is still missing. (pic courtesy of newzimbabwe.com graphic)

Jestina Mukoko, the Zimbabawe human rights campaigner, is still missing and despite all the noise around her disappearance, the regime is not even saying a word about the matter. Yestrday, I was talking about her with someone who worked in government for two decades and got an encouraging statement from him. It is a difficult subject, but we were basically asking each other whether she is still alive.

This man I was speaking to said he also asked himself the same question. "But when I heard that there was a woman when she was abducted, I was encouraged," he says. "The way these things work, I knew that they took a woman along so that she could handle Mrs Mukoko, it is almost certain that they have not done anything to her......" He thinks this means that, in warped minds of the abductors, they were acting professionally. In light of this, the likelyhood is that she is still alive. While talking, we also got word of the raid of the raid on the ZPP offices and that some more people had been "taken away". My conversation partner then said, "Ah, so she is definitely still alive..." There are foreigners in the country, if you recall, delegation from SADC and even the UN. The regime does not want certain people out and about, talking to the wrong, presenting dossiers on abducted and disappeared people. But I am also encouraged that the regime certainly would not try anything with the profile she is now getting all over the world. There are a lot of us praying for her safe return and I ask that you join in this.



Then there is the issue of the ZANU PF minister, Elliot Manyika, who died a couple of days ago in a car accident. The circumstances of his death are exactly like those around the death of his predecessor, Border Gezi, who occupied the same exact position that Manyika held at the time of his death. And I mean exactly, right down to the smallest details. His driver, sources tell me, has survived but is paralysed from the neck down. He will live, but will never be able to move a limb again. Ever. There are always theories around these deaths. Currently ZANU PF is fighting internally and Manyika was at the epicentre of this. The Herald, ZANU PF's mouthpiece newspaper, made a strange comment in today's edition about this in relation to Manyika's death. Specifically, there is the case of those Povincial Chairmen who had been suspended by Mugabe and who have now been brought back into the party. They wanted their posts back and Manyika had given them the go-ahead to contest ZANU PF elections for these posts. He was overruled by the Politburo of the ruling party and the atmosphere was very poisoned at ZANU HQ.

Some of these chairmen had indeed managed to win back their posts, but the ruling party ruled that they should start at the lowest level of the structures of the party before they could eventually contest provincial elections. To fully explain would require more time than I have just now, but I will do that later on in the day. It is an interesting little scenario, with facts that will leave you open-mouthed.