Missing MDC activist’s wife wants husband declared dead

The Zim Diaspora

17 June 2010

From Our Special Correspondent in Bulawayo
THE wife of missing MDC activist Patrick Nabanyama – abducted by Zanu PF thugs from Bulawayo during the night in the run up to the 2000 parliamentary elections has engaged lawyers to try and get a death certificate for her husband – now presumed dead, The Zim Diaspora can reveal.

Mrs Nabanyama said the matter would be heard in court in the coming months.

Nabanyama was David Coltart’s election agent. Coltart is now Minister of Education, Sport, Art and Culture in the collation government.

In an exclusive interview with The Zim Diaspora this week from her Nketa suburb in Bulawayo, Mrs Nabanyama said her numerous attempts to get a death certificate for her husband had been deliberately frustrated hence she had resolved to engage lawyers.

She said she approached the Registrar General offices in Bulawayoto get a death certificate for her husband but was told that it was impossible to get it as Nabanyama was still regarded as a missing person, 10 years after she was allegedly abducted by ZANU-PF agents.

“I have really lost hope of finding my husband alive because it has been 10 years now we have been praying for his safe return but it does not look like its going to happen so together with my children we have decided to move on,” she said.

“After the refusal by the Registrar General to give me the death certificate approached Legal Projects Centre in Bulawayo who have engaged lawyers for me so that the matter could be taken to court.”

“There is not a single day that passes without thinking of the day my husband was abducted and what makes it so painful is that since he disappeared there has been no trace of him meaning that his remains are out there in the cold,’ she said.

She said she would never forgive those responsible for his disappearance.

“My husband was murdered and to those responsible for taking his soul

I say to you be damned your whole lives and my children do not have a person to say father to because of them.”

On earlier media reports that she was now a destitute, Mrs Nabanyama dismissed the  claims saying she and her children were not living a substandard lifestyle. She is self-employed.

“As you can see I spend my time sewing various things meaning that I am able to send my children to school, buy groceries and pay bills.”

She said she last received assistance from MDC some time back.

“I do not have any hard feelings towards MDC because they really helped me when my husband disappeared but it has been a while since the last time they did so I will attribute it to lack of communication between me and them.”