The ManicaPost
Chenai Mutasa Post Correspondent
LAST week, Zimbabweans watched in awe when ZBC TV serialised a documentary that exposed the alleged abduction of the MDC Alliance trio of Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marowa, as a choreographed act that was meant to tarnish the country’s image with the ultimate goal of portraying Zimbabwe as a country in crisis.
Besides the documentary exposing the abduction story as a hoax, it showed the world that it is now extremely difficult for criminals to go scot free as technology will be used to trace and link them to their crimes.
In the case of the MDC Alliance trio, the world almost believed the abduction story and for some months most people believed that indeed the abduction had taken place.
Zimbabwe’s detractors spread the narrative that the trio had been abducted, tortured and sexually abused by suspected State security agents.
Thanks to the Cellular Phone Tracking Technology and the Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), the abduction story of the MDC ladies was dismissed as a hoax.
The investigating team of the alleged abduction showed that the police are abreast with technology. They resorted to using the Cellular Phone Tracking Technology and CCTV to solve the mystery surrounding the alleged abduction of the activists. Mobile phone tracking is a process of identifying the location of a mobile phone, whether stationary or moving. Localisation may be effected by a number of technologies such as using multilateration of radio signals between (several) cell towers of the network and the phone or simply using GPS.
To locate a mobile phone using multilateration of radio signals, it must emit at least the idle signal to contact the next nearby antenna tower, but the process does not require an active call.
The MDC Alliance and their handlers were not aware of this technology, or if they knew it, then they underestimated the capabilities of the police to use the technology to solve the mystery surrounding the trio’s alleged abduction.
The technology used by the police to solve the alleged abduction case dismissed the evidence given by the trio to the police as fake and rehearsed to hoodwink the public into believing that they were indeed abducted.
According to the technology used by the police, the three lied about their whereabouts as Cellular Phone Tracking Technology showed that the trio converged somewhere in Harare in the morning of May 13, 2020, drove along Samora Machel Avenue to Warren Park where they spent just under two hours, most probably participating in the demonstration, and then drove back into Harare’s CBD via Rugare, Lochinvar and Harare Kopje.
The technology also helped to dismiss the women’s narration about how they were arrested at a roadblock at the National Sports Stadium as the evidence does not place any of them on Samora Machel Avenue between Warren Park and Harare CBD or at either of the two roadblocks at National Sports Stadium and the Harare Showgrounds, where they claim to have been abducted.
Instead, the tracking system showed that the trio visited Advocates’ Chambers in Old Mutual Building, where Nelson Chamisa’s private offices are situated.
To make matters worse for the MDC Alliance trio, the CCTV footage at Chicken Inn exposed them as liars and actors in this whole abduction saga.
The love of chicken and chips unravelled a well-orchestrated fake abduction storyline that they should not be seen in public. However, they drove to a Chicken Inn food outlet to quench their appetite. They were doing so hours later after making their abduction claims and the CCTV footage revealed this.
The MDC Alliance is now desperately working overtime to dismiss the documentary flighted on ZBC TV as Zanu PF propaganda, but their dismissal is finding no takers.
Zimbabweans have seen the true colours of the MDC Alliance as a party that thrives in tarnishing the good image of the country in exchange of cheap political mileage.
Police should have used this technology long back as it was also going to be helpful to expose other fake abductions of Peter Magombeyi and Samantha Kureya aka Gonyeti.
But then again, the use of the technology is just confirming the cat that was let out of a bag by a high-ranking MDC official, Mr Tapiwa Mashakada, when he said the party is in the habit of orchestrating fake abductions.
“During the alleged abduction period of the ZHDA leader, Dr Peter Magombeyi, MDC-A senior members Mr Douglas Coltart and Mr Arnold Tsunga allegedly organised accommodation for him at the US Embassy in Westgate, where he stayed for five days,” said Mr Mashakada.
Free advice to the MDC Alliance, if they want to continue with this drama of fake abductions, they must employ a good script writer and good actors as the current team is doing a shoddy job. In this whole abduction saga of MDC Alliance activists, it is hoped that people have learnt that the era of lying and faking abductions is over as technology will definitely expose them.
