” I know that the person is alive…”
THIS INVESTIGATION IS SPONSORED BY PHUMULANI MINNESOTA AFRICAN WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE.
By A Correspondent | The sun is shining bright, though temperatures are winter low, and we are on a long search for Moreblessing Ali, a 46y old CCC party activist who was kidnapped on 24th May 2022 after 8pm by named ZANU PF activists in the Nyatsime area.
The incident according witnesses, happened at the Chibhanguza Night Club, where Moreblessing Ali was assaulted and then dragged into the nearby bush. She is missing for nearly 2 weeks to date.
By this time, ZANU PF Spokesperson Simba Chisango has claimed to ZimEye saying he ‘knows’ that Moreblessing Ali us alive:
VIDEO LOADING BELOW…
Upon entering the Nyatsime area, the atmosphere changes. The air is thick full of fear, people are barely talking especially with strangers, and rarely walking around as usual. We pass through Chibhanguza Night Club on the way to ZANU PF Chairperson Simba Chisango’s home.
Getting into the street, ZimEye notices several children being chased off and being threatened with violence, an incident so frightening that we can’t film it. “Where are you going?- Murikuenda kupiko?,” a group of emotionally charged unidentified men ask them before picking up stones to assault the vulnerable minors so to ward them off Chisango’s house. What is inside this shackhouse that is so protected and even harmless kids should not see?
Talking to several people, the conclusion is- tension and angers are rising over Moreblessing Ali’s forced disappearance.
There are two vehicles, a green Toyota Altezza, and a dark grey Nissan Xtrail (3 police officers, one of them one holding an AK rifle). We manage to get at least number plates of the Toyota Altezza: AEH8372. The Nissan Xtrail belongs to a uniformed police officer. Even though we fail to get finer details, it is visually clear that the several men inside the vehicles are closely guarding Mr Simba Chisango.
When he walks around, he moves with a vigilante of predominantly youths, numbering more than 10.
His property (drone video), at the left side, has a combined red and green roof.
Drone footage at the property Moreblessing could easily be housed, shows Chisango’s home as a quiet, red and green-mix roofing, surrounded by other squatter houses, with no numbers as they are an informal settlement granted by the ruling ZANU PF.
VIDEO LOADING BELOW
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https://www.facebook.com/zimeye/videos/982110552490718/
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Drone footage captures people walking around, but due to the security fears, movements are so minimal, you can easily count the number of people pacing around. We spot just 20 people walking slowly in a large area of more than 800 houses, built without planning permission but under a ZANU PF program lyrically termed in a party song: ZANU PF yakasimba kumaSero- (ZANU PF is strong from cell level.), and this is a Build up to the 2023 election as people are parcelled non regulated land which they will lose if they vote for the opposition.
In the small cachement area where Simba Chisango lives, we see during the period, no one daring to transverse or even encroach his gateway. Is this a coincidence, or this is the work of State agents?
Later on, we spot two vehicles, the Toyota Altezza and a Nissan Xtrail, full of men we obtain, are protecting Simba Chisango.
Our international news desk team calls Mr Simba Chisango once again, this time via phone. The phone is picked up by a woman who says she is his wife. He briefly answers, before putting the phone down after realising he is talking to the media, somewhat avoiding his previous contradictory statements in the 20 min interview on 30 May 2022 (VIDEO BELOW), when he said he only got to know of Moreblessing Ali’s disappearance in social media, but would in less than 2 minutes, shift to the opposite as he began sahing that he first obtained information on Moreblessing Ali’s disappearance right on the ground at Chibhanguza (not from social media as earlier said).
Where is Moreblessing Ali?, he was asked, to which he said, “I am only hearing about this story on social media, you hear?”
“I am just hearing it on social media, come to area and investigate if you want us to agree. Isn’t it?”
The conversation continues as follows-
So, you are telling me you don’t know anything about Moreblessing Ali?
“Me?, she is someone I know- Moreblessing Ali who works in Chitungwiza, in Unit B, she is someone I knew, and is now staying in Nyatsime.”
Why are you using past tense?
“I am meaning where she was staying in Unit B. I was staying in H. Right, from there, she was staying there, until she started living here in Nyatsime, that’s what I know, such that, the information you are asking me about I heard it at the Chibhanguza area, that’s where I hear some commotion happened there, this and that happened, that’s what I heard.”
So you, what have you done, as a ZANU PF leader in the area, so that Moreblessing is found?
“I think we even did some investigations with police, we got into the area, this and that, but, aaah, I know that the person is alive. Isn’t it? Are you hearing?”
“There is no way she would just disappear, the information which I hear, that the people she clashed with, one of them sped off while holding a catapult, after a gun had been pulled out. This is the information, the other one I actually got it today (sic). I am struggling to establish what really happened.”
After this, Simba Chisango names the man now implicated in a police report, and acknowledges that Pius Jamba (the man accused of assaulting Moreblessing Ali and dragging her into the nearby bush, is his cousin.
“Listen Comrade, let me explain to you what’s making my name to come out… there is a young man by name, Pius Jamba, he is the son from my mother’s side, but when people see him, they say he is a Chisango. Right so, from that word, the Chisango who is being talked about is me, a senior in the ZANU PF party, people will be saying he is Chisango’s young brother…”
Chisango is then asked: since your relative is involved in kidnapping Moreblessing, what can you do today for us to find Moreblessing? He replies:
“Now, me now, that question you’re asking me on what to do to find Moreblesssing; I don’t have any reply, because I am just another person confused on this person who is said to be missing.
The young man himself is missing, Moreblessing is missing, the other young man from Mbuya Mhatsva is also missing. If it had been that there is at least one person who is visible, we would then ask that person where the others are,” he says.
But then this young man is your family, so what can you do Mr Chisango?
“Yes, that’s what I am saying I won’t deny him, one can’t reject their relative because they have committed a crime; if he is my relative he will meet his own stories. Do you hear me well, Comrade?”
To this, Simba Chikanza demands what Chisango will do to find Moreblessing, and the conversation continues for the remaining, over 14 minutes.
The police, having been previously quiet for over 5 days, suddenly, soon after this interview, produce a report that agrees with everything Chisango has said in the interview; but the ZRP report which states that the ZANU PF official, Chisango is not involved, fails to mention that the accused is Jamba’s cousin.
The police report also claims Moreblessing (46) was kidnapped following a love affair scuffle with a Pius Jamba who is the age of her own son (25). Moreblessing Ali’s family dismisses the report as “ridiculous.” How could Moreblessing date someone as young as her first born son?, her brother Washington says to ZimEye.
Zengeza MP Job Sikhala also tells ZimEye in an interview, “this Simba Chisango, his brother and their group are known for running terror operations in the whole area.”
A day later, an anonymous message is delivered at Zengeza MP, Job Sikhala’s doorstep, on a piece of paper which says that Chisango is clearly involved in the abduction. It states in Shona as follows:
“-Vakamutsakatisa mukadzi uyu [THEY MADE THIS WOMAN DISAPPEAR]
-Vanhu vacho vanoti
Chisango, brother yake, mukadzi wake, Liberty Mondiwa nevamwe vacho [PEOPLE INVOLVED ARE CHISANGO, HIS BROTHER, HIS WIFE, LIBERTY MONDIWA AND OTHERS]
-Munhu uyu vaimupomera mhosva ye kuti mutsigiri we CCC [THEY WERE BLAMING HIM FOR BEING A CCC ACTIVIST]
-Zvinhu izvi zvinoratidza kuti Chibhanguza urimo munyaya. [THIS SHOWS THAT CHIBANGUZA IS INVOLVED]
-Ini ndakarowa mwedzi wapera wa April ndichipomerwa mhosva yokutsigira CCC [I WAS ASSAULTED LQST WEEK FOR SUPPORTING CCC]
-Ndapona mupaburi retsono. Ndine mazino matatu ari kuzungunuka.
[I SURVIVED BY A WHISKER, 3 OF MY TEETH ARE CRACKLING]
-Mapurisa yeku Beatrice akauya nezuro kuzotora nyaya.” [BEATRICE POLICE CAME YESTERDAY TO INVESTIGATE]”
Contacted on the Monday 6th June 2022, a woman believed to be Chisango’s wife who picks up the phone, emotionally screams out, asking: “Who are you and what do you want? Why do you keep calling this phone?” VIDEO LOADING BELOW…
Opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa’s CCC party has produced a report saying: ‘the Police has revealed that the chief suspect, Pius Jamba, is also on the run for other criminal offences. According to information in the possession of the CCC investigation team, Jambo is allegedly facing charges of murder and fraud. Today, further investigations have revealed that chief suspect, Jambo, is in hiding in Hurungwe.
A team has been dispatched to conduct a further search for him there while the investigation into the whereabouts of Moreblessing Ali continue.’
On the 6th June 2022, ZimEye’s Simba Chikanza telephones Mr. Simba Chisango and reiterates the message to him:
Morning Mr Chisango… I’m sure you’re already aware you’re under 24/7 surveillance over the kidnapping of Moreblessing Ali. You’re already aware this is an international criminal prosecution case now, meaning you will be arrested in several countries upon arriving in nations such as Zambia, South Africa,UK, Australia, US, and others. You have an opportunity to talk to me and clear up the huge discrepancies in what you said in the interview.
Simba Chikanza.
THE SEARCH FOR MOREBLESSSING ALI CONTINUES.- ZimEye