The main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change launched an investigation on Wednesday into a brutal attack on a prominent lawmaker in a rival opposition faction.
The leader of the MDC’s main faction, Morgan Tsvangirai, appointed a panel of lawyers and human rights experts to investigate the attack on Trudy Stevenson by a mob of about 50 militants from the rival opposition faction. The attack on Sunday left her with a severe stab wound to the head, a broken cheekbone and two fractures in one arm.
Tendai Biti, Tsvangirai’s secretary general, said the panel will also investigate other allegations of factional violence within the opposition.
Perpetrators of violence faced criminal investigation and expulsion from the party, he said.
Stevenson, one of the opposition’s white lawmakers, was hospitalised along with two other senior officials of the faction that broke away from Tsvangirai after he ordered a boycott of polls in November for a new upper house, or Senate, in the Harare Parliament.
The pro-Senate faction fielded candidates and won seven seats of 50 elected seats in the chamber.
On Sunday, Stevenson was returning from a meeting in eastern Harare when her car was attacked by a mob wielding rocks, clubs and a machete, a long scythe-like knife, witnesses said.
Police confirmed the attack but said no arrests had yet been made.
Stevenson told reporters the attackers taunted her for breaking away from Tsvangirai and threatened to kill her.
In six years of political and economic turmoil following the seizures of at least 5 000 white-owned farms, ruling party militants have been blamed for most political violence and intimidation.
The bitter split in the opposition, however, led to clashes, mostly between rival youth groups.
Nathan Shamuyarira, a spokesperson for President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party, said the attack on Stevenson and her colleagues and other violent incidents between opposition rivals belied Tsvangirai’s claims to lead a democratic organisation.
”The incident confirms the violent nature of the party,” he told the official media.
The independent Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, an alliance of 16 human rights groups, on Wednesday said its members were appalled by the Sunday’s ”savage and barbaric attack” in which cash, mobile phones and wedding rings were stolen from the victims.
”The forum urges all political parties to observe democratic processes and the constitutional entitlements of the people,” it said in a statement. — Sapa-AP