A lawmaker from Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party was arrested on Friday, accused of playing music denigrating veteran President Robert Mugabe, the party spokesperson said.
Stewart Garadhi, who represents Chinhoyi in north-western Zimbabwe, was arrested as a court in the capital remanded in custody a fellow MP in a case involving the theft of a cellphone.
”Another of our MPs, honorable Garadhi of Chinhoyi was arrested early this morning [Friday],” Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said
”We are still gathering the facts but the information we got is that he was playing an MDC party song on his car radio,” Chamisa said.
”We believe this is the work of people who are trying to undermine the MDC.”
The MDC said in a statement that Garadhi was travelling from Harare to Chinhoyi when he was arrested by police who accused him of playing a song, Nharembozha, which means ”cellphone”, alleging it denigrated Mugabe by supporting Tsvangirai’s rise to power.
Garadhi’s arrest came three days after Deputy Youth Minister Thamsanqa Mahlangu was detained in custody to August 13 after being implicated in the theft of a cellphone.
Several other MDC lawmakers and officials have been charged in different cases, while three are still detained in what the MDC says is a ”systematic crackdown on MDC members and activists in recent months”.
”Some government officials are bent on decimating the party majority in Parliament and its structures,” the party said in a statement
The MDC won a majority in Parliament in last year’s elections, leaving President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party in the minority for the first time. — AFP
