The police in Zimbabwe have arrested the mayor of the country’s capital, Harare, over allegations of corruption surrounding the allocation of public land.
Jacob Mafume, who is a member of the MDC Alliance, spent the night at a police station in the city.
He has not commented on the accusations.
Mafume was elected mayor of Harare on 3 September 2020 to replace Herbert Gomba who was recalled from his position by MDC-T.
The opposition MDC Alliance party has accused the government of “weaponizing the law against its members”.
“We know that his real offence was winning the mayoral vote for the MDC Alliance… They want to remove him and replace him with a Zanu PF [the ruling party] proxy,” it said in a tweet.
“This is a flimsy, political case designed to oust him from his mayoral post because he’s MDC-A.”
State-owned Herald newspaper quotes a police spokesperson as saying more information will be given on the arrest on Thursday.
