Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Lovemore Matombo, his first vice-president Lucia Matibenga and secretary general Wellington Chibebe were ”heavily assaulted” by police on Wednesday at Matapi police station in Mbare, the ZCTU said in a statement on Thursday.
They reported the assaults took place during the national day of protest against poverty led by the unions on Wednesday.
ZCTU spokesperson Mlamleli Sibanda said — in a report released in South Africa by the Congress of South African Trade Unions — that reports reaching the ZCTU indicated that Matombo and Chibebe could not manage to stand after the assaults.
He reported that they had to change their clothes ”as they were soaked in blood”.
Matibenga had swollen feet and could not walk. The three ZCTU leaders have not yet received any medical attention, reported Sibanda.
The ZCTU said that the police initially denied the ZCTU leaders access to a lawyer on Wednesday afternoon ”and presumably this was the time they were being beaten”. — I-Net Bridge