GOVERNMENT has launched a special security expedition to search for the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association acting president, Peter Magombeyi, amid reports of abduction.
In a statement released on Tuesday by Foreign Affairs and International Trade minister, Sibusiso Moyo, government said it had deployed security agents to search for Magombeyi.
“Following this barbaric act, the government immediately activated its security agencies to make sure that Dr. Magombeyi is found and safely returned to his home,” Moyo said.
Magombeyi was allegedly kidnapped by unknown assailants from his Budiro home on Saturday. His family filed an urgent chamber application with the High Court on Sunday, seeking an order compelling the State to account for the whereabouts of the union leader.
Moyo insisted that government’s hands were clean, but expressed reservations over the timing of the abduction.
“We have no doubt that the latest abduction of Dr Peter Magombeyi was meant to coincide with the visit to Zimbabwe by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association,” he said.“
As the government continues to spruce-up the country’s image, it is unthinkable that any of its security agencies would be involved in such blatant criminal acts. The visit by the United Nations Special Rapporteur was at the invitation of the government, way back in November 2018. We feel we have nothing to hide,” he added.
Minister of Health and Child Care Obadiah Moyo is on record saying that government was taking the matter seriously as it had besieged the healthcare system.
He urged doctors to remain calm as investigations were afoot.
“As the minister responsible, my ministry is concerned about the welfare, safety and wellbeing of all its cadres. We are taking this matter seriously and condemn any illegal act by whosoever with the revulsion it deserves.“I have, therefore, personally engaged State security agencies who have undertaken to deploy resources to look for Dr Magombeyi. They are seized with this matter and no stone left unturned,” Moyo added.
High Court Judge Justice Edith Mushore on Monday 16 September 2019 ordered who ever is holding the leader of ZHDAto immediately release him or bring him to the High Court within 48 hours and for Home Affairs and State Security Ministers to determine his whereabouts and set up a team of investigators to search for him at all places in Zimbabwe.
Justice Mushore granted the order after hearing arguments from lawyers representing Magombeyi’s family.
Meanwhile, medical doctors and nurses on Monday staged a protest in Harare and served a petition of President Emmerson Mnangagwa expressing concern about the abduction of Magombeyi and advised him that they had withdrawn their services in protest against the ill-treatment of the ZHDA leader.