Former Zanu-PF youth leaders still on the run

News Reporter

A senior Zanu-PF youth member who has been on the run since 2017 is still on the wanted list with police wanting to question him on a number of political related matters.

Lloyd Simba Takana who is also known as Masendeke, was the party’s Manicaland Provincial secretary general. He skipped the country in 2017 fearing possible arrest after the change in leadership within the ruling party.

Takana is said to have been among a group of party members that had been targeted for arrest in the role they played in backing the now toppled former President Robert Mugabe.

Police sources revealed that the estranged activist together with three of his cadres- Tawanda Murehwa, Tendai Chakanuka and Amos Banda are still wanted for questioning on trumped up charges.

Takana’s pending arrest follows the incarceration of a number of the party’s leadership inclusive of their former national leader, Kudzai Chipanga who at one point declared he was prepared to die for former President Robert Mugabe.

“Yes they are still wanted for questioning, we have gathered evidence against them and want them for questioning mainly relating to political violence,” said the police source.

Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi while not confirming the charges the four were facing, said they were just wanted to assist police in their investigations.

“We just want to question them, so that we conclude some investigations dating back to 2017,” he said.

Takana, who was the leader of the group in Manicaland, was a leading figure, fighting in the corner of the former President, openly declaring that he will not support President Mnangagwa arguing that he was wrongly at the helm of the throne.

Friends claimed that the quartet skipped the country when they were informed that police were looking for them.

In early 2017, Takana was also part of a group of Zanu-PF activists who were assaulted by alleged party members when the party’s Manicval provincial offices were torched down.

He was admitted in hospital for a week after the attack.

The activist also made a police report that he was constantly being followed by unmarked cars.