Emmanuel Nyapfungwe’s body has still not been found
Emmanuel Nyapfungwe (36) from Ward 20, Nhamo Village, Chief Nyashanu in Buhera was murdered on 20 June 2008 by ZANU PF militias led by Headman Amos Betera. His body has still not been found.
Nyapfungwe was the MDC branch secretary for Guhudza and MDC activist since its formation in 1999.
Chris Makanyisa, Albert Masuka, Trymore Sabira, Pepukai Maangira, and Phineas Chirozva are individuals named as being among the murderers.
Narrating the incident, Nyapfungwe’s mother said her son was axed in both hands and legs before the murderers took him to Save River where they futher brutalised him. This led to his painful death on 20 June 2008.
His mother further stated that after she visited Headman Betera on 23 June 2008 to ask him about the whereabouts of her son, he tried to give her Nyapfungwe’s clothes that he was wearing when she last saw him, which she refused to take: “I told him I needed my son not his clothes,” she said.
She reported the matter to Murambinda Police Station but the police were not cooperative and told her to leave the Police camp.
Efforts to establish the whereabouts of Nyapfunwe’s body in Birchenough Bridge, Mutare General Hospital, Murambinda and Rusape Hospital morturies have been fruitless.The only places that can’t be searched - and it is assumed there may be more bodies in these places - are the crocodile infested Ruti dam and Gotora dam in Buhera.
Nyapfungwe is survived by a wife and three children.
July 23rd, 2008 22:56
May his soul rest in peace and rise in glory, and may his grieving family find the answers to which they are completely entitled.
I am afraid that as the country opens up, assuming that the present negotiations have any real effect on the ground, there will be more and more discoveries concerning the missing, which may change the feeling or willingness to negotiate.
As one journalist pointed out, Mandela’s ANC did not have to negotiate with Verwoerd, Vorster or PW Botha. The people they worked with did not have that kind of attitude.
It’s all so raw and agonising, so unstable, and a time limit of two weeks has been set? In whose interests is that, I wonder?