WATCH: 'Mugabe agent' beaten with bricks during Zim march in Pretoria
Tiso Blackstar has captured on video a pedestrian being assaulted at an anti-Mugabe protest in Pretoria on Thursday by protesters who accused him of being an “agent” for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. WARNING: Graphic footage
The protesters broke away from a march to the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria after they spotted the man dressed in a suit whom they apparently mistook for being a member of the Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
They chased the man down the road and kicked him to the ground and started to assault him with bricks before a single policeman intervened and managed to halt the attack.
Speaking to Tiso Black Star Group Digital after the attack‚ the shaken man‚ Domingos Chenai‚ said he had no idea why they had attacked him‚ adding that he was not even Zimbabwean.
“I’m just nothing…I don’t know anything from there… I’m not from there. They approached me and said this one who is wearing a tie and suit is from the CIDs (evidently an allusion to the Zimbabwean CIO).
“I tried to explain to them that I’m not a Zimbabwean‚ that I’m a Mozambican. They took my phone and car keys‚” Chenai said.
He said he was just there as he had spotted a friend whom he recognised from church.
Hundreds of Zimbabweans living in South Africa took part in the march on Thursday to the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria to hand over a memorandum demanding that Mugabe step down so they can return to their home country.
Zimbabwean embassy staff however refused to accept the memorandum.
Angry protesters also damaged cars parked nearby‚ scraping the paintwork of some of them.
A case against Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire who was accused of trying to overthrow the country’s government was dismissed by a court in Harare on Wednesday.
Mawarire had urged Zimbabweans to stage peaceful stay-aways in support of a campaign against corruption and economic instability in the country. – Tiso Black Star Group Digital