who travelled all the way from Bulawayo, descended on the club in the morning. The war veterans were angered by the fact that management at the club had allowed Morgan Tsvangirai, the president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to address a meeting there.
Tsvangirai was a guest at the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) silver jubilee celebrations held a week ago. Raylton Sports club, owned by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is an exclusive club and members pay an annual fee of $8 million. Patrons said they were shocked to realise that drunken and foul-mouthed war veterans who were openly drinking spirits and beer had swamped the club.
“From as early as 11:00am we realised that something was clearly wrong at Raylton.
These people we didn’t recognise started shouting obscenities saying Tsvangirai was a dog and should not have been allowed to address a meeting at Raylton,” said a patron. He added: “They started demanding food and went ahead and looted the canteen.” The war veterans also manhandled and beat up Norman Ushe, the Raylton sports Club chairperson. Ushe refused to talk to reporters about his ordeal at the hands of the marauding war veterans. Police failed to attend to the scene despite calls by disturbed patrons. – AND