Possible SA link in Zim activist's absence

http://www.news24.com/

2012-08-06 14:02

Cape Town - Friends and colleagues of Zimbabwean human rights campaigner
Paul Chizuze, who has been missing for six months, are losing hope of
finding him and are desperately hoping he has fled to South Africa,
according to reports.

Four months after his disappearance, a relative saw his dusty vehicle parked
in a prominent position outside the government tax offices while passing
through the border town of Beitbridge en route to SA.

According to the Cape Times, colleagues say they were told by a security
guard working nearby that the car had been there for several weeks. But
Zimbabwean police did not do any forensic tests on the vehicle. One source
described the issue as "too sensitive" for the police to handle.

Chizuze had a modest SA bank account opened about seven years ago. But his
colleagues say they have established that no withdrawals have been made
since his disappearance.

Chizuze left his home in Bulawayo just after 20:00 on 8 February 2012. The
58 year old was seen driving his Nissan Hardbody with registration number
ACJ 3446.

Information on massacres

Some family members say they fear Chizuze may have been abducted, hijacked
or murdered on the night he disappeared. A relative who declined to be named
said the family was despairing.

"I now suspect he was murdered and we should all accept that we will never
find him alive."

Chizuze was a prominent activist and investigator during and after the
massacres (Gukurahundi) in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland region in the 1980s, when
then prime minister Robert Mugabe ordered a North Korean-trained brigade of
the Zimbabwean army to kill thousands of opposition supporters loyal to
Joshua Nkomo, leader of Zapu, then a rival to Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party.

Zimbabwe education and culture minister David Coltart, a close friend and
former colleague of the disappeared activist, said Chizuze had too much
information on Gukurahundi.

The minister said Chizuze had been working on issues that could have
embarrassed authorities in the government, especially hardliners.