Police swoop on Harare deputy mayor

The party's deputy spokesperson Gift Siziba confirmed the arrest, but national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said he was unaware of the incident.

NEWLY-ELECTED Harare deputy mayor Kudzai Kadzombe has been arrested, hardly a week after assuming office, on a charge of assaulting a Zanu PF member on election day.

Kadzombe landed the council seat in last month’s polls on a Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) ticket.

The party's deputy spokesperson Gift Siziba confirmed the arrest, but national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said he was unaware of the incident.

 “The newly-elected Harare City deputy mayor Kudzai Kadzombe has been arrested by Malborough Police Station (officers). She is being charged with assaulting a Zanu PF member in Marlborough during the recent harmonised elections. She will appear at Rotten Row Magistrate Court tomorrow (today) Friday 8.15am,” Siziba posted on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.

Ironically, Siziba, who is also a Member of Parliament for Pelandaba-Tshabalala, was briefly detained on Wednesday, released and summoned to appear in court today on a charge of inciting violence at Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo on Sunday.

The CCC has claimed that the series of arrests that has seen over 10 of its members taken into custody this week, are a plot by the ruling Zanu PF to reduce the opposition party's representation in Parliament and local authorities.

Other top party officials who have had a brush with the law include Seke legislator Willard Madzimbamuto, Grandmore Hakata (Glen View South) and Sunningdale MP Maureen Kademaunga, who was detained overnight early this week on attempted murder and arson charges, but had her charges dropped before appearing in court on Wednesday.

In a related matter, the party’s Harare ward 10 councillor Clyde Mashozhera was yesterday granted US$300 bail following his arrest on two counts of attempted murder and another for malicious damage to property.

Mashozhera who was being represented by Tapiwa Muchineripi was remanded to November 1.

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