A ZIMBABWEAN clergyman, Pastor Tapfumanei Masaya, who was part of a political campaign team for an aspiring legislator for the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change political party, in next month’s parliamentary by-elections, has been confirmed dead after he was abducted and disappeared by some unidentified people last weekend.
51 year-old Pastor Masaya of Pillar of the World Church, was abducted on Saturday 11 November 2023 by some unidentified people near a place called Chizhanje in Mabvuku Tafara constituency, while conducting a political campaign to drum up support for Munyaradzi Febion Kufahakutizwi, the opposition CCCZimbabwe political party’s candidate for the upcoming parliamentary by-elections scheduled for 9 December 2023.
The people who abducted Pastor Masaya were reportedly in a three-vehicle convoy and they bundled him into one of the vehicles which looked like a grey Toyota Fortuner.
Jeffrey Kalosi, an opposition CCCZimbabwe political party, was also abducted and bundled into a double-cab vehicle and blindfolded and assaulted before being dumped near a place called Chabwino.
The vehicle in which Pastor Masaya was bundled into, reportedly went into a different direction.
On Monday 13 November 2023, human rights lawyer, Hon. Innocent Gonese, of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who was engaged by the Masaya family to assist them in the search for the missing clergyman, visited Mabvuku Police Station to check on the whereabouts of Pastor Masaya and to get an update on police investigations and he was referred to Harare Central Police Station. Thereafter, Hon. Gonese began working on filing a court application at the High Court for an order of habeas corpus requiring the whereabouts of Pastor Masaya to be disclosed.
On Tuesday 14 November 2023, Maria Zhuwawo, the wife of Pastor Masaya, together with other family members and friends, identified the body of her husband and the clergyman at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.
On the same day, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesperson Assistant Paul Nyathi, confirmed that the body, which ZRP officers had found on Monday 13 November 2023 at the intersection of Arcturus Road and Lobho Road in the Cleveland area in Harare.
Nyathi said ZRP is currently conducting comprehensive investigations to ascertain the circumstances surrounding Pastor Masaya’s death.
ENDS
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