Harare – A Zimbabwean musician who recorded a protest album against President Robert Mugabe, was detained by the security police, sjambokked, and had the letters MDC carved on his back.

His torturers allegedly asked Charles Matorera, 28, who lives in Bloemfontein, to identify South Africans who support the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change.

The blows rained down on him because of songs he had written about Mugabe.

He recuperated in a Johannesburg hospital for a long time. He also received psychiatric treatment.

His friends in Bloemfontein never realised that he had been detained and tortured while visiting family in Zimbabwe.

Matorera believes Mugabe was responsible for the death of his mother, Confidence Jena.

He recorded a CD, The People’s Voice, in 2001, with songs such as Bobo (Mugabe’s nickname) in which he asks the hated president to step down from his “throne”.

On the track Ungabulali (Don’t kill) his message is: “Mugabe, you will be alone in the end if you keep murdering.”

These are the songs people sing at MDC rallies. And these are the songs that the dictator’s ears on the street, the Zanu-PF youth gangs, have heard. They are also the songs that nearly led to Matorera’s death.

Murder machine

He said he moved from Gauteng because Zanu-PF’s “murder machine” was active in that province.

Before the MDC’s stay-away action last year, a police detective traced Matorera to his brother’s shop in Harare. He was lured to a car with tinted windows, forced in and abducted. There were two security policemen in the car, one of them armed with a pistol.

He was taken to a cellar in Harare and stripped naked. Over a period of two days he was sjambokked until he lost consciousness. He was questioned about his music, the MDC and the stay-away action.

Scars still visible

The letters MDC were carved on his back. The scars are still visible even though it is more than a year later. When the policemen took him to the north of the country to be questioned by a war veteran, he pretended to have an epileptic fit and escaped. People gave him money to return to South Africa.

Matorera said the situation in Zimbabwe is worse than it used to be. Few people will dare to vote for the MDC in the elections next year because of the Zanu-PF militants patrolling the streets.

The MDC may not be quoted in newspapers, on radio or television.

Matorera wants to record a second CD with protest music, this time with more revolutionary songs on it. This will be to motivate the two million Zimbabweans in South Africa and the one million in Botswana and Zambia to stand up against the “terrible, merciless” Mugabe and his oppressive system.

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/…/p>