Opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will honour its members that were subjected to political violence and those that endured persecution in the hands of various political and state agents throughout its 20 years of existence, through a fundraising initiative to be held tonight.
The proceeds from the fundraising initiative will be handed over to the victims, party deputy spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka has said.
The event will see various guests attend the dinner on the eve of the party’s 20th Anniversary with tickets being sold for tables at a private event, Tamborinyoka was however cautious to disclose.
“We are going to hold a dinner, an anniversary dinner tonight. Various tables will be bought for various amounts and the proceeds will go to our victims. These are the people who have been brutalized in the past 20 years of our existence, so the proceeds from the dinner will go to our victims of violence and as you know, we have braved it in the past 20 years; they have survived rape, torture and murders. We have survivors of violence and the proceeds of that dinner will be given to families who have survived ZANU PF brutality and torture in the past 20 years,” he said.
Following its formation, the MDC party was quickly labelled a Western-puppet project by the state, and this left it susceptible to wanton state victimization with it’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai at one time publicly apprehended while attending a prayer meeting in Highfields township suburb, beaten and left for dead under police custody in March of 2007.
Current party president, Nelson Chamisa and other top leaders such as Tendai Biti have also been victims to security agents’ brutality.
In the run up to the June 2008 re-run election, a trail of politically motivated attacks on MDC supporters marked one of the darkest periods in Zimbabwe’s political discourse were figures of killings, torture, rape and destruction of property went unrecorded.
Since then, and prior to that, in urban areas, MDC led protests have also been met with disdain by the state, resulting in killings with the August 1 2018 killings of protesters by the army still fresh in memory.
“We don’t have apt statistics, as you know some of these cases are not even recorded a lot , thousands and thousands of people have suffered and I can tell you we will be giving some of these victims awards but I can tell you that it is sad that we won’t be able to give all of them and some of them are not even known, people who continue to suffer in the countryside who are not even recorded but we will give those who are known. It is unfortunate we will not be able to give all of them,” Tamborinyoka said.
The opposition insists many of the reported cases of violence against its supporters have not been accorded justice.
As part of its findings, the Montlanthe Commission of Inquiry into the August 1 events identified the level of political polarization in the country as toxic, hence fuelling violence.
MDC says it will also give lifetime awards for survivors and other victims of violence tomorrow when its celebrates it 20th anniversary.
