Mutambara's passport seized ahead of London trip

Mutambara's passport seized ahead of London trip

MUTAMBARA and Tsvangirai were due to jointly brief European and South American leaders on the crisis in Zimbabwe

• Courager Shumba: MDC losing moral and political authority to oppose

• 18 MDC activists now clear of terror charges

• Kwinjeh released after visa problems at SA airport

• 7 MDC petrol bomb suspects freed

• Kwinjeh detained at South Africa airport

• MDC unity talks break down

• Court orders fresh probe into MDC jail beatings

• MDC fights tribalism charges over SA elections

• Judge lavishes praise on MDC bomb plot official, grants bail

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWEAN opposition leader Arthur Mutambara has been stranded in South Africa since Saturday after police in Harare seized his passport, hours before he was due to fly to London.

Mutambara, one of two presidents of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was attending the World Economic Forum in Cape Town and had sent his representatives to get a visa put on his passport in Harare.

But on their way from the British embassy, officials said, four MDC members, one of them carrying Mutambara’s passport, were arrested in central Harare over yet unspecified charges.

The seizure of Mutambara’s passport scuppered a scheduled visit to Europe and Canada where he was due to brief officials on the crisis in Zimbabwe alongside the other MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai and officials from the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a coalition of opposition interest groups including churches and students.

Mutambara has accused the government of trying to sabotage moves to unite the feuding MDC factions.

"Zanu PF knows that it would lose any free and fair election in Zimbabwe and it does not want the MDC to be united at elections next year," he said in Johannesburg.

At the World Economic Forum, he told delegates that the future of Zimbabwe could not remain in the hands of President Robert Mugabe's party. "The Zanu PF politburo created this crisis and genocide in Zimbabwe," he said.

Mutambara’s lawyers were battling to get his passport released to allow him to join Tsvangirai and the Save Zimbabwe Campaign leaders for the remainder of the tour which includes some European countries and Canada.

Mutambara’s lawyer Harrison Nkomo of Mtetwa & Nyambirai on Saturday filed an urgent court application for the release of Mutambara’s passport.

"Mutambara is not facing any crime under this sun and therefore his passport and other travel documents which are not subject to any criminal conduct or whatsover should be released as a matter of urgency," Nkomo said in the application.

On Monday morning, Mutambara said he was still marooned in South Africa without his travel documents which means he can’t travel to Zimbabwe, or anywhere.

He said of efforts to get back his passport: "There is no progress. None at all."
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com