In separate interviews, the two parties expressed serious reservations about the recent arrests and intimidation of members of NGOs by state agents.
“We are extremely disturbed by the harassment of civil society organisations by Zanu (PF), which wants to weaken civil society organisations to reduce accountability during the forthcoming elections. We will be taking the issue up with SADC because it threatens free and fair elections,” said MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora.
The deputy spokesperson of the MDC led by Welshman Ncube, Kurauone Chihwayi, said it was disturbing that civil society activists were being intimidated and harassed, yet they were expected to play a crucial role in the referendum and forthcoming elections.
“As a party we are concerned about this. It’s a very sad development and dirty way of silencing democratic forces in the country at a time we expect civic society to play a pivotal role. This is why we have been calling for security sector reform – we have a partisan police force, CIO and the army who are serving the interests of one political party, Zanu (PF),” said Chihwayi.
In December ZimRights staff Leo Chamahwinya, Dorcas Shereni, Farai Bhani and Tatenda Chinaka were arrested on allegations of manufacturing counterfeit copies of voter registration.
In January ZimRights boss Okay Machisa was arrested on the same charges and 10 days ago the police raided the offices of the National Youth Development Trust in search of certificate of registration as a voter. They later on proceeded to search the residence of NYDT Programmes Officer, Alfred Ncube.
On 11 February, plain clothed policemen raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Peace Project armed with a search warrant and confiscated files and some equipment which included phones and DVDs.
The Minister of Labour and Social Services Paurina Mpariwa has condemned the harassment of civil society organisations by the police.
Post published in: News