Zimbabwe: MDC-T MPs Receive Death Threats On Their Phones, Lawyers Condemn Development

MDC-T MPs on Tuesday received death threats on their mobile phones after threats to heckle President Robert Mugabe during the 3rd Session of the 8th Parliament, NewZimbabwe.com has learnt.
Mugabe officially opened the third session of the eighth parliament on Tuesday where he read a wrong speech which his aides said had been given him accidentally.
Parliament stopped the live broadcast of the speech following reports that the MDC-T MPs were planning to boo Mugabe.


The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights condemned the incident as "an act of cowardice" which is both "unlawful" and "prosecutable". The lawyers' group said it was monitoring the situation.
Harare West MP, Jessie Majome posted on her constituency information service Facebook that she and her colleagues had received death threats warning them not to disturb parliamentary proceedings.
Last month, opposition MPs heckled Mugabe during his state of the nation address after he delivered a 30 minutes speech, which the legislators felt was devoid of substance.
"I have received a death threat at 1013hrs and another one at 1135hrs on my Econet line from 'Death' saying 'Warning!! Immunity ends in Parliament.
"If you step outside you become an ordinary citizen. Do the wise thing and not disturb proceedings in Parliament," Majome posted on her Facebook wall.
"Fellow MDC T MPs Amos Chibaya (Mkoba MP), Prince Sibanda (Binga North) Innocent Gonese (MDC-T chief whip), James Maridadi (Mabvuku/Tafara) and Prosper Mutseyami (Musikavanhu) also got the threats aimed at preventing the State President from being heckled during his address to open the 3rd Session of this 8th Parliament going on now."
Added Majome, "The address is being heard in deathly silence, I suspect I'm being targeted for politely demanding the constitutional state of the nation address."
MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese reportedly raised the issue as a point of order during parliamentary proceedings with Speaker, Jacob Mudenda promising to deal with the matter after the President's address.