Tsvangirai, who has faced a police ban on rallies, has taken to carrying out meet the people tours in the Matabeland region as part of his campaign strategy in the run up to the 27 June run off election. While on one such tour in the town of Esigodini, he was apprehended by police who took him to Esigodini Police station. The run off was necessitated by failure of all four Presidential hopefuls to acquire the required 51% to secure the Presidency.
Part of the campaign team that moved with him yesterday confirmed that they had met a lot of resistance from the police in Plumtree where they were walking around with the Presidential candidate. Armed security personal made their presence felt in the town and the group encountered numerous road blocks along the way. 24 hour road blocks have been mounted in and around major towns and cities in Zimbabwe in the build up to the elections.
This arrest comes barely two days after Tsvangirai was arrested on June 4 and detained for over 11 hours while in Lupane (Matabeleland North) and was later released with no charges. Prior to his release, Thabo Mbeki, SADC appointed mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis, telephoned government representatives to secure Tsvangirai’s release. The latter was released after police impounded a bullet-proof South African registered BMW X5 he was using during the campaign in Matabeleland North on allegations that the driver of the vehicle was not authorised under the Customs and Excise Act to drive the vehicle in Zimbabwe.
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Post published in: News