opinion & analysis_mdc

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I was astonished on Wednesday night to discover a small group of 4 men, including Moses Nzila Ndlovu outside my house with his Toyota pick up. They were joined by another vehicle at about 21.00 hrs and more men. I called out the armed response of the security company and they interviewed this suspicious group at 20.20 hrs. They were told “we are policemen”.

At 20.00 hrs I called the Hillside Police Station and made a report about suspicious people on the street outside my house! They arrived at 23.30 and I spoke to them – about 15 men with two uniformed police from Hillside Police Station. They questioned my staff – I have 4 people working for me at the house – and then left the two uniformed men on duty to ensure there were no developments. They stayed until 04.30 hrs. I then had plain clothes police at the house for the next 3 days.

I had no idea what was going on – no inkling that the Mutambara Group had made these absurd accusations against me. I left for a family wedding in South Africa on Thursday at 13.00 hrs and in Beitbridge that evening a journalist phoned me to tell me about this nonsense – it then made sense what the fuss was all about. We fed the police on duty for three days and they have now gone – I assume they were quite happy that the accusations had no substance or I would be in trouble!

The MDC (there is only one MDC) does not, has never and will never use violence to achieve its goals. We have absolutely no reason to do so in any way as far as the Mutambara group is concerned. They do not represent a threat to the MDC and we are in no way going to appose their right to campaign wherever they want and whenever they want. The right of association is an essential right in any democracy operating under the rule of law. Trudy is an old friend and colleague of the MDC and we would never, in any way act to threaten her safety and the safety of those she was with when she was attacked. The allegations of the Mutambara group are totally false and have no basis at all.

The Police were professional in their approach to this matter and the Member in Charge from Hillside could not have been more courteous or helpful. It was quite clear to him that I knew nothing of the accusations and from a inspection of the house and during the taking of statements from our staff, they were quite satisfied that we were not involved in any way in anything illegal. They left a team on duty for four days just to make sure this situation did not change. I got back from the wedding on Tuesday.

Warm regards

Eddie