SW Radio Africa
By Tichaona Sibanda
15 March 2012
Rights activist Paul Chizuze has been missing since 8th February. Despite extensive efforts made civil society organizations to determine his fate his whereabouts are still unknown. Many of his friends and family now fear the worst.
Chizuze went missing on the night of 8th February and his friends and colleagues launched a campaign on social media networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, to try and find out where he is.
Pressure group Sokwanele first put out an alert on its website saying Chizuze ‘allegedly left his home around 8 pm on 8th February, and what happened after this remains a mystery. He may have been murdered, hijacked or abducted by parties unknown.’
He was last seen driving a white twin cab Nissan Hardbody (registration ACJ 3446) which is also missing. Organizations led by the Christian group Churches in Bulawayo and the Solidarity Peace Trust have issued several appeals saying they fear Chizuze may have been ‘murdered.’
Chizuze was well known for his paralegal work with civic organizations like the Amani Trust. Over the last three decades, Paul has been either employed by, or active with, the Legal Resources Foundation, Amani Trust Matabeleland, The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, ZimRights, Churches in Bulawayo, CivNet, and Masakhaneni Trust. He also worked closely with Senator David Coltart, the Education Minister.