PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has come out guns blazing, tearing into shreds Harare doctor Peter Magombeyi’s claims he was abducted by elements linked to his administration.
Mnangagwa said on Friday that Magombeyi’s claims of abduction did not add up and were calculated at soiling his government’s image in the eyes of the international community.
“They knew the President was about to go to the UN; they want to soil the country’s image through false claims of abductions,” Mnangagwa is seen telling a meeting in a video circulating on social media.
The 26-year-old medical doctor was allegedly seized last Saturday night with earlier claims he was taken from his home in Budiriro by suspected State agents.
He is acting president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association which is leading a crippling strike action for improved wages.
His alleged abduction intensified already boiling tensions between striking doctors and their employer with the medical staff declaring not to ever set foot at their workplaces if their colleague was not found.
International media, likewise, has also taken a keen interest in the alleged abduction of the young doctor.
But Mnangagwa saw everything ridiculous about the situation.
“He (Magombeyi) left saying he was heading for an all-night prayer but there was nothing from the church suggesting he ever set foot at the said church,” said the President.
“The church’s Bishop did not even say a word as to whether he even came to the church. The all-night prayer being talked about is never stated whether it was being held in Swaziland or elsewhere.
“What all night prayer is done by a lone person…the irony of it is that the person he left at home, having informed him he was not returning on the same night, was at the police station the next morning claiming abduction.
“…We all of a sudden know of a young boy’s abduction. We have never ever heard of his history on whether he has even played football at school, or whether he has proposed loved to a girl or what, we just come to hear of his capture. What is so special about him.”
Magombeyi was found Thursday in Nyabira, some 40km out of Harare.
He claims torture and electric shock in the hands of his captors.
The doctors’ union leader, who police say has no visible injuries, was Friday admitted at a private hospital in Harare with police saying they were investigating his clais of abduction.
