MUTARE – Police on Saturday arrested MDC MP Joana Mambombe while she was attending parliamentary business in Nyanga, and the party said she was being charged with treason.
The 25-year-old, the party’s youngest MP, is expected to be taken to court on Monday morning.
The cause against Mamombe stems from a press conference she addressed on January 14 last month during protests over a 168 percent increase in the price of fuel decreed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Harare West MP, flanked by her local MDC councillors, addressed a news conference ay the Marlborough civic centre where they made several demands, among them a reversal of the fuel price hike; abandonment of the 1:1 bond note pegging to the US dollar; an upward review of civil servants’ salaries and a call on Mnangagwa to initiate political dialogue with MDC leader Nelson Chamisa.
“The MDC is concerned with the continued harassment of Members of Parliament by the military State,” the party said.
Police have targeted at least a dozen MDC MPs accused of inciting the anti-government protests which turned violent in areas. They are accused of attempting to overthrow the government through unconstitutional MPs.
Some of the party’s legislators are still on the run. Mamombe only recently returned to Zimbabwe from an unknown hideout.
Her lawyer Jeremiah Bhamu said: “She was brought to Harare and she has been charged with subverting a constitutionally-elected government and the allegations are that she addressed a press conference on January 14 and advocated, suggested or urged people to engage in civil disobedience and called for (sabotaging of) government’s essential services intending to overthrow the government.”
In a crackdown that followed the protests by security forces, rights groups say at least 17 people were killed and over 1,200 arrested. Nearly 600 others were subjected to beatings, torture and unlawful detentions. At least 80 people were treated for gunshot wounds.
