MASVINGO -- Hordes of Zanu (PF) supporters who were in a party vehicle descended upon two MDC supporters who were distributing Prime Minister and party leader Morgan Tsvangirai's newsletter and confiscated it.?? RadioVOP witnessed the incident last Thursday afternoon along Robert ?Mugabe way in the city center, near Zimbank.The militia, who were putting on Zanu (PF) regalia, abruptly stopped the ?car and jumped out before snatching the Newsletter from the unnoticing MDC ?supporters, and sped away.? The youths were numbering about ten. RadioVOP failed to get the ?registration number of the vehicle as the incident happened quickly.
“This is bad. They accuse MDC of being violent, but look what did they ?just do to us. You are journalists, you have seen it for yourselves,” said ?Kennias Munanga, an MDC activist who was also distributing the newsletter to ?hundreds of rural teachers who were queuing for their salaries.
His colleague, Edmore Chirichoga, said they were going to make a ?police report.??”They should know that we are also ruling, our party leader is the ?prime minister. We are going to make a police report and we want to see what ?the police will do with this issue. After all, what we were doing is legal ?as we want to inform the public about what really is going on with the PM’s ?tour, not the lies they get from the state media,” he said.
Zanu (PF) provincial chairman, Lovemore Matuke, who professed ignorance ?over the matter, however blasted the ‘nave youths’ for such ‘intolerance’.??”I will investigate the matter, but I think if it is true, then those ?youths are nave and still have a hangover because we are now in an ?inclusive government which calls for tolerance,” said Matuke, a former Gutu ?Central legislator.
The newsletter, published by the office of the PM, which was ?criticised by Information and Publicity secretary and Mugabe’s spokesperson, ?George Charamba, has hit the streets once again where it has proved to be ?popular with the people.??It had a screaming headline, ‘EU salutes Tsvangirai’ with a picture of ?the PM and Vice Chancellor Angela Merkel inspecting a guard of honour in ?Berlin, something which could have irked Zanu (PF), given that the liberation ?party has no official mouthpiece of late following the closure of its ?publication, The Voice.?? The Voice last hit the streets in February and since then it has never ?published due to viability problems.
Post published in: Politics