The three missing MDC cadres are in very bad shape and have told horrendous tales of torture and abuse. Mamombe and Marova were having difficulty in walking while Cecilia Chimbiri complained of severe head pains.

They were being assisted to check into a medical facility in the presence of lawyers and the police, said Luke Tamborinyoka, Deputy National Spokesperson for the MDC.

After receiving a distress phone call from the dumped cadres who had been accommodated by a sympathetic villager in Muchapondwa, a group of MDC officials that included Secretary for Welfare Maureen Kademaunga and deputy Organing secretary Happymore Chidziva immediately alerted lawyers and the police and drove to the area in Bindura South where they found the three cadres in very bad shape, Tamborinyoka said.

They were found dumped near Muchapondwa shops, popularly known as “paSupa”.

According to the party’s rescue team who drove to Bindura with lawyers and the police, the three women said they were first taken to Harare Central Police station after being “arrested”. They were later taken from the police station and driven away in a black Wish vehicle. The men who drove them away covered the women’s faces with what looked like sacks. They remember being taken to a forest and being put in a pit where they were brutally assaulted.

They are telling horrendous stories of abuse and humiliation that include being forced to eat human excreta, Tamborinyoka said.

They were checking into a medical facility , under the close watch of MDC officials, a team of lawyers and some nine police officers from the Law and Order section.

The women are still heavily traumatised and their clothes are torn. DM