Gideon Shoko, a former senator for the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) in Bulawayo, has been taken into custody by Law and Order investigators from the Criminal Investigations Department in Bulawayo.
According to News Day Shoko’s detention follows the government’s stepped-up suppression of dissenting opinions, which is meant to avert any protests during the August 17 Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit.
CCC spokesperson Promise Mkhwananzi confirmed Shoko’s arrest to NewsDay. He said:
Government has suspended the bill of rights without the due support of parliament. (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa must declare that he has suspended the constitution.
When contacted for comment, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesperson in Bulawayo Province, Inspector Abednico Ncube, professed ignorance of the arrest.
The specifics of the accusations made against Shoko were not yet public.
Sen. Shoko was among the senators from the CCC who were called back by Sen. Tshabangu, an activist who took over the opposition party shortly after the general elections of 2023.
Countless CCC MPs and council members that Tshabangu disliked were ousted and replaced with his own friends.
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