THE straw-hat toting leader of Zimbabwe's war veterans is suing a leading member of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for £11.5 million for allegedly stealing his mobile phone.
Former security guard Joseph Chinotimba claims the sum equates to business he has lost in the two weeks since his phone went missing.
Police arrested Thamsanqa Mahlangu on Tuesday as he was addressing a school assembly in Harare and charged him wi
th stealing the phone, an old Nokia 2310 worth less than £5.
Mr Mahlangu, who is deputy youth minister in the power-sharing government formed in February, denies the charge.
His arrest has fuelled claims that Zimbabwe's hardline attorney-general, Johannes Tomana, is deliberately targeting supporters of prime minister Tsvangirai for prosecution.
Mr Chinotimba has led many white farm invasions in the past decade. Now a "new" farmer, he claims his phone was stolen from a VIP lounge at a Harare hotel where he was attending a conference. Mr Mahlangu says an aide handed him the phone and he passed it on to a minister from president Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
He appeared in court yesterday and was detained for a third night.
The MDC says Zanu-PF hardliners opposed to the power-sharing agreement are determined to whittle down its 11-seat majority in parliament.
Four MPs have been convicted this month on what the party says are trumped-up charges, and another five face prosecution on charges of selling on state agricultural inputs.
But the MDC says Zanu-PF members fingered in last year's election violence still walk free.
