NYANYADZI: War veterans and ZANU-PF youths last week stopped an outreach meeting designed to distribute and explain the contents of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) at Nyanyadzi Growth Point in Manicaland Province.People from the community had gathered since the early hours of the morning last Tuesday and were patiently waiting under a tree, seeking shelter from the downpour.
The workshop, organised by the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CISOMM) was about to begin when a splinter group from the assembled community identified themselves as war veterans and began aggressively questioning the organisers as to why they were carrying out the workshop.
The war veterans seemed determined to believe that the workshop was related to he constitution-making process or was a political rally – despite the fact that all participants had
received copies of the GPA in Shona, English and Ndebele. Discussion became meaningless as the mob insisted that they would not let the workshop proceed and were preparing to mobilise their own supporters to come and toyi-toyi.
The lawyers and war veterans then sought the intervention of the police at a station at Nyanyadzi Growth Point where the Officer-in-Charge sought to calm the highly agitated war veterans.
The mob was only appeased after the Officer-in-Charge decided that the workshop should be abandoned.
The Officer-in-Charge said the workshop could not proceed because he had not been notified of the event, as stipulated by the Public Order and Security Act.
In a final sting, the police and war veterans decided that none of the food that had been brought for the participants lunch could be distributed.
At the venue, the hundreds of people gathered maintained a buoyant and expectant mood.
People kept flocking into the hall while the altercation at the police station was going on.
They spontaneously started singing church songs and were led in a prayer.
The popular Rev. Steven Maengamhuru from ZimRights explained to the crowd why the meeting had to be cancelled. He said that the GPA was signed by the three principals, that it was the peoples right to know what political leaders commitments to the people of Zimbabwe were, and that it was right to fill their heads with knowledge.
Their disappointment was evident but their enthusiasm for gaining more information and understanding of the decisions and processes of their country was undiminished and encouraging.
It is disappointing to note that retrogressive elements stil seek to curtail the access to information of fellow members of their community on a national agenda that belongs to all Zimbabweans. It was a reassurance however, that all present, war veterans and police officers, councillors and headmen, women and men, received a copy of the GPA; that they may better hold their leaders accountable to their promises, said ZLHR official Danielle Connolly who was part of the facilitators.
Post published in: News