Tsvangirai moves in to quel violence

This comes amid pressure mounted on him by civic society leaders that he reigns in the violence. On Sartuday he addressed party structures in Masvingo where warring suporters of Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro and those of Deputy Youth Minister Tongai Matutu have been clashing. On Monday the Prime Minister met the Midlands South and North MDC executives s in Gweru and Kwekwe respectively. In all the meetings he condemned the fresh cases of intra-party violence and promised to punish perpetrators.

Adressing journalists in Gweru after the meeting MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said violence has been put as an item on the agenda of the party’s congress scheduled for Bulawayo. “The President has emphasised that there are certain vices and transgressions we do not subscribe to and violence is one of them.

“Those issues we are going to make sure that we uproot and eliminate in our congress, its going to be part of our resolutions,” Chamisa who is also the Information, Communication Technology minister said. He blamed President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF for fuelling the intra-party violence.

“We also acknowledge that ZANU PF has been coming into our party so that they export into MDC their own culture of violence but the good thing is that our supporters have succeded to ward it off,” Chamisa said. Cases of MDC intra-party violence have also been reported in Mashonaland East and Bulawayo where elected chairman Gorden Moyo’s position is being contested.