HARARE – A Zimbabwe teacher’s union on Thursday said ZANU PF militants sexually assaulted and abused two women who were among a group of nine union activists kidnapped and tortured by the ruling party supporters earlier this week. 

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general Raymond Majongwe, who was among the abductees, said the ZANU PF militants beat and kicked the women in their private parts with booted feet and stole cash and cell phones from their victims as punishment for not supporting President Robert Mugabe. 

“We were indiscriminately beaten by seven groups of about 15 people from 1050 to 1230 using iron bars, logs, booted feet, bottles and anything that they could lay their hands on,” Majongwe said at a press briefing in Harare. 

“Some female members who were abducted with us were kicked on their private parts,” said Majongwe, who showed reporters his back that was pitch-black from the severe beatings. 

Some of the union leaders passed out more than once but their assailants would just wait for them to come to before the beatings started all over again, according to Majongwe. 

The ZANU PF activists abducted Majongwe and his colleagues as they distributed flyers on the streets of Harare denouncing the collapsed state of education and urging teachers not to report for duty until their salaries were reviewed. 

Majongwe said their assailants accused them of supporting main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and of receiving funding and aid from the British government to topple Mugabe. 

Zimbabwe holds local government, parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29. 

Churches and human rights groups say a relentless wave of political violence over the past 12 months and in which police and other state security forces played a major role has rendered a free and fair contest impossible. 

Majongwe said police officers called in later to investigate the matter surprisingly turned against the PTUZ officials charging the flyers that the injured teachers distributed violated a tough government law prohibiting distribution of information subversive to the state. 

The police officers allegedly demanded the PTUZ officials’ identity documents and bank account details so they could check whether the union leaders were not receiving money from the British government, said Majonwge. 

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena accused the PTUZ leaders of provoking the ZANU PF supporters. He however rejected suggestions the police were biased in their handling of the case. 

Bvudzijena said the police had promptly reacted to the case and arrested some of the ZANU PF militants. 

“There are ZANU PF people who have been arrested in connection with that incident and are being charged with assault . . . we do not condone violence,” he said.