Mugabe’s redistribution of land grabbed from white farmers to his supporters is a vote-winner as black subsistence farmers gaze across at the lush, lucrative farms they were given under the sullied agrarian revolution.
In this area, straddling four major towns, Chinhoyi, Kariba, Bindura and Marondera, Zanu (PF) has 31 of the 34 MPs.
Mashonaland Central leads the way in both support for Mugabe and violence against opposition activists. Bindura has been one of the most violent areas.
The province hosts the notorious Border Gezi National Youth Training Centre where unemployed youths from all over the country undergo three months of training and later terrorise ordinary folk suspected of not supporting Zanu (PF).
Zanu (PF) has been the aggressor in most incidences of violence, as the MDC leadership consistently urges its supporters not to resort to violence.
Members of the public travelling in these provinces have resorted, unwillingly, to buying Zanu (PF) membership cards to ensure their personal safety at illegal road blocks mounted by supporters of Mugabe.
This is particularly prevalent in Mugabe’s home area, Zvimba, near Chinhoyi, a centre of the tobacco industry – one of the country’s big export earners.
Here, independent newspapers such as The Zimbabwean are barred. Anyone seen reading these papers is automatically labelled an MDC supporter.
Post published in: News