By Beverly Bizeki
What was meant to be a peaceful book launch for opposition politician Job Sikhala turned chaotic on Friday (July 11, 2025) when Zanu PF youths disrupted proceedings in the public shouting at guests and throwing away books that were meant to be sold at the launch.
Among those that were identified is Esau Mutanho who drives the Masvingo West Constituency vehicle for the Member of Parliament, Ezra Chadzamira who was seen in the video forcefully taking the books and throwing them into the crowd.
However, there have been concerns that Mutanho’s unruly behaviour may tarnish the good image of Chadzamira who is also Masvingo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution.
The chaos erupted as guest of honour at the event, opposition politician Mathew Takaona delivered his speech reflecting on Job Sikhala’s struggle and the regime which triggered the youths into disrupting the gathering as a meeting to mock the ruling party.
Masvingo Provincial Police Spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa said police records showed that no such report had been made.
“Our record shows that no one came to the police station to report such a case,” said Insp Dhewa.
“I am not aware of this case and I will have to find out and get back to you,” said Inspector Dhewa.
Asked for a comment, Sikhala said the author of the book, Munyaradzi Angero Savanhu had attempted to make a report at Masvingo Central but the police allegedly refused to take note of the matter citing that they had to consult the District Police Officer first. He said they were going to take legal action this coming Monday (July 14, 2025).
“The author of the book and one of the event organiser’s went to report the matter to the police today (July 12, 2025) but surprisingly they were told that the police could not take the report without consulting the Dispol first. We realised that we were wasting our time, we have never seen this kind of policing. We are however going to take legal action against the people that disrupted the event,” said Sikhala.
Sikhala said prior to the event he had not received any threats but had however noticed that he was under surveillance from the time he left Harare to the book launch on July 10.
“I was being trailed and was under surveillance from Harare throughout the journey. In Masvingo I noticed that two vehicles were following me from the time I arrived even when I went to Caravan Park during the day but we did not care much about it because we thought they just wanted to see what was going on,” said Sikhala.
Savanhu confirmed and said they had lost 200 copies of the books and 150 copies of his other books that were meant to be sold at the event.
“We went to report that our event was disrupted and our books taken forcefully at around 0600hours but they refused to take our report and said we would have to wait until 0800hours with. We were told that the matter must be reported to the DISPOL first. We could not wait any longer to make the report because we suspected that something was fishy and feared that we could even get arrested, under such circumstances you suspect a lot of things.
“We wanted the matter to be addressed and for compensation because we lost many books. There were 200 copies of the book Footprints in the chains: The Life of Job Sikhala and 150 from the other books that I have written. We had not sold anything when the disruption happened,” said Savanhu.
Some sources who spoke to this publication however said the violence was organised by a senior ruling party official who was present at the book launch in a Fortuner and drove off after the disruption.
