Tinevimbo Chibagidi

Masvingo police on Tuesday arrested Mollen Banga—the wife of the recently murdered Movement for Democratic Movement Alliance (MDC-A) supporter, Nyasha Zhambe—according to media reports.

She was released towards midnight on a case that apparently related to defamation. Zimbabwean law, though, no longer provides for criminal defamation and aggrieved persons can file for redress at the civil level.  

Zhambe was assaulted with logs by alleged ruling Zanu PF activists at a roadblock in rural Mupandawana in Masvingo province on 14 October and passed on last week due to the wounds sustained during the attack.

Banga was reportedly arrested alongside her siblings, Shepherd and Nyasha, after they allegedly confronted a man who they allege to have murdered Zhambe– Joseph Mudziwepasi—and told him that they had buried his victimThe national police spokesperson, Paul Nyati, said he was busy when Grazernews contacted him for a commented, while the provincial public relations officer, Kudakwashe Dhewa, referred the publication back to his boss in Harare.

The MDC-A had not issued an official statement on Banga’s arrest by Wednesday, but the party’s deputy chairperson, Job Sikhala who attended the deceased’s funeral and accused the ruling party and President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the murder, took to Twitter on Tuesday where he described the arrest of the widow as “satanic” and an act of cruelty.

“Dear Zimbabweans, this is what is happening in our country (the arrest). Satanic,” fumed Sikhala on the microblogging platform.

He added: ‘’In a blitz against the late Nyasha Zhambe Mawere’s family, the police have picked the wife of the late Nyasha. Few minutes ago they picked Nyasha’s brother Shepherd. What kind of cruelty is this to persecute the wife whose husband was murdered?.”

He identified one Assistant Inspector Mtunzi as the one who led the arrest.

Zhambe was assaulted by three suspected Zanu PF supporters during a meet-the-people tour by  MDC-A leader Nelson Chamisa in October.

Police are yet to arrest the murder suspects in the case, which was reported at Mpandawana under case number RRB 459/62/19.

Mudziwepasi reportedly filed a defamation report at the Mupandawana police station after Banga and her siblings bumped into and informed him that they had finally buried Zhambe.