The abduction of three MDC Alliance activists, including Member of Parliament Joanah Mamombe, and her colleagues in the party, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova made international headlines and has put the government, the police and other State security agencies in bad light.
What cannot be denied now is that the abduction and Mnangagwa’s insensitive statements on the matter have exposed the government for continuing on the wrong path of resorting to torture of opposition actors.
There has been pressure for Mnangagwa to engage in talks with opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa for a lasting solution, but the Zimbabwean leader appears to have settled for a scorched earth policy against his political opponents.
Chamisa has expressed willingness to talk, but Mnangagwa insists he has a platform set for that under his Political Actors Dialogue, which is proving every day that it is not only a waste of time and resources, but that it has no capacity or will to deal with the problems this country faces.
Since taking office through a November 2017 coup, Mnangagwa has had many opportunities to make peace, choose a progressive path, to be transformational and write his name into Zimbabwe’s history as a leader that actually put the people he leads first and every time, he has chosen the wrong path.