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Prosper Dembedza-Herald Correspondent

CCC legislator Joana Mamombe yesterday had a warrant for her arrest, issued after she previously failed to present herself before the courts, cancelled after she finally showed up in court.

Mamombe, who is facing charges of faking her abduction along with fellow party activist Cecilia Chimbiri, was issued with a warrant of arrest after she failed appear in court.

It is alleged that on May 13, 2020 at around 12.30pm, the two and Netsai Marova, who is on the run and presumed to be outside Zimbabwe, teamed up with other youths then under the MDC-A banner, and gathered at Choppies Supermarket in Warren Park 1.

They then allegedly staged a demonstration against the recall of their party’s MPs from Parliament and the way funds were used to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is alleged that on the same day, they called their friends, family and lawyers saying they had been arrested at a roadblock near the Exhibition Park in Harare and had been taken to Harare Central Police Station.

On receiving the information, their lawyer Mr Jeremiah Bamu allegedly went to the police CID Law and Order section where he spoke to Detective Chief Inspector Chibaya, saying the three had been arrested and taken to Harare Central police station.

According to the State, checks were made and it was established that they had not been arrested.

On the same day, social media platforms and local newspapers were awash with news that the three had been arrested, it is alleged.

Two days later, on May 15 2020, at around 1am, Mr Bamu advised the police that the three were at Muchapondwa Business Centre in Bindura.

The police and Mr Bamu went to the business centre in Bindura, collected the trio and took them to a private hospital in Waterfalls, Harare, since they claimed to have been tortured. On May 19, 2020, Marova was interviewed by Detective Chafa on whether she was abducted and tortured by the police. Mamombe and Cecilia Chimbiri were later interviewed on May 25, 2020, according to State.

It is said investigations by the police revealed that they were never abducted, but the three stage managed the fake kidnapping and were later filmed by CCTV at Belgravia Shopping Centre. 

The trial is still in progress with the defence maintaining that Mamombe and Chimbiri never made any claim of being stopped or kidnapped by police.