Netsai Marova

Netsai Marova is a Zimbabwean youth campaigner for the Movement for Democratic Change, who was abducted for two days at an anti-government protest in May 2020.[1]

As a student at Chinhoyi University of Technology, Marova highlighted the vulnerable position of women students there in 2017.[2] She has been mentored by MP Joana Mamombe, a fellow Chinhoyi student, and has in turn provided similar support to young girls in Mabvuku.[3]

On 13 May 2020 she and two other women, MP Joana Mamombe and fellow youth activist Cecilia Chimbiri, were abducted by masked assailants at a Harare protest against the government's failure to provide for the poor during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two days later, the women were found, badly injured and traumatised, by the side of the road sixty miles from Harare. They reported having been tortured and repeatedly sexually assaulted.[4] The three women were then charged with "communicating falsehoods" for their claims to have been abducted, tortured and held incommunicado by unidentified people. In August 2020 they appeared at court,[5] and had their trial postponed until September 15.[6]