MDC spokesman Jacob Mafume just finished a press conference in Harare where he addressed the events of last Saturday in which the party says an attempt had been made to abduct its leader Nelson Chamisa.

Reacting to a statement by Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa who said the purported abduction attempt was nothing more that a “road rage incident”, Mafume said: “First, they said it was staged. Having realised that that does not carry, they now say the police will charge the president or his security detail over the incident. Indeed they call the head of our security to Law and Order and they have him as we speak.

“The statement by Monica Mutsvangwa is in violation of section 219 of the constitution that says police must investigate in a non-partisan manner. When you have a minister giving directions as to how police investigations are going, what the conclusions are and the conclusion that it should be a road rage incident, it is a manner of trying to give the police a direction and they are investigating backwards.

“They are investigating to prove that this was a road rage incident rather than to investigate the incident. They had not called any of our people, they had not called for videos, they had not called for witnesses and already the minister of information has a conclusion about how the police are investigating the matter.”

Mafume said one of Chamisa’s aides had suffered injuries after jumping out of a Toyota Harrier vehicle that is at the centre of the incident.

Chamisa remains “strong, resolute, undeterred and very much willing to prosecute the people’s struggle to its logical conclusion,” he added.