Profile: MP Kachepa - Inciter Of Violence

Venue: Mudzi North
Date: 04/07/2012

With the election proceedings in Zimbabwe still being decided, President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, the Zanu-PF, continues its campaign of political intimidation through some of the party's reported hard-liners.
One such man is Zanu-PF MP for Mudzi North, Newton Kachepa, who is reportedly infamous in the district for his brutal campaigns of intimidation and violence and party dominance in the area. He is allegedly responsible for the murders of various opposition members during the violent 2008 elections and the current spate of violence and sabotage of opposition party meetings in the Mudzi district leading up to the next election. In his various speeches, his incendiary rhetoric is often focused around a sense of Zimbabwean patriotism and the stature that being a war veteran aligned with the ruling party.
The recent murder of Sekuru Cephas Magura, the MDC-T chairman for Ward One Mudzi North has been attributed to, in various testimonies (including that of his son), to Kachepa's Youth Militia who invaded a planned MDC meeting in the district (SWRADIO, 30 May 2012).
While the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has urged Western countries to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe to give the country a chance to implement reforms within the period of planned elections, there are still serious concerns of violence and human rights abuse in the country as seen with Kachepa and other hard-liners. Ironically, this murder occurred less than 24 hours after the UN envoy had left Zimbabwe. For now, Kachepa still remains on the EU's sanctions list for the undermining of human rights and democracy.

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