Former Member of Parliament for Pelandaba-Tshabalala, Gift Ostallos Siziba, has shared details of a harrowing near-death experience following his abduction and torture by suspected ZANU PF activists in 2016.
Speaking on the interview series In Conversation with Trevor, hosted by media mogul Trevor Ncube, Siziba, who is also the former deputy spokesperson for the CCC party, recalled the brutal assault, saying that at one point he was prepared to die, as he "was no longer feeling any pain" despite the severity of the beatings. He said:
So, in 2016, I was supposed to be part of a bridal team in my church on Saturday in Bulawayo. Then I came to Harare because we're part of the national elections reform campaign program.
And most of our activists in the Tajamuka had been arrested and "This Flag"... So when I was now going back to find public transport to go back to the city on a Friday, I was followed and then I got abducted because the demo was sanctioned and all those kind of problems in our country. This is 2016.
Siziba recounted that after his abduction, his captors forced him into a sack. He was then driven around the city in a vehicle, subjected to a brutal beating throughout the journey. He said:
They're beating me up anywhere and I mean, they climb my head is down. Then the next thing I woke up in the ZANU PF headquarters and taken downstairs into their torture chambers, I presume.
And obviously you are petrified. I got terrified and I realized, I mean clearly that probably this is my last moment with my life.
And two things were very important to me [Brother Trevor]. The first one was the grounding that had happened to me in terms of my political consciousness building.
Because it prepared me to understand that I must conquer the fear of death because you're seeing blood, people are torturing you, they're beating you and you can no longer feel the pain.
There was this one old man who realized that all everything, everywhere in my body had been beaten up and blood was all over.
During his captivity, Siziba underwent a series of intense interrogations. His abductors accused him of participating in efforts to overthrow the government, framing it as an attempt to undermine the legacy of the country's liberation struggle. He said:
He just started to step on my toes, just that, asking me, you guys, regime change, all those things...
They were asking who's funding the political activism and why we do what we do. And by then I couldn't answer, I was beaten all over.
And I knew that these people are going to kill me. So I had conquered that fear of death. I was no longer feeling any pain.
But also I felt for them. When you are closer to death, you feel for the person who's actually persecuting you.
Because I knew that this old man is damaged because he was reciting his experience in the war that my friends died.
"Do you guys want to undermine the death of my own friends and my comrades?"