The roadblocks are mounted on all major roads leading into the country’s towns and cities.
The police check vehicles and vet passengers, in what is believed to be an exercise to net opposition politics activists, following numerous arrests in recent weeks of MDC supporters.
Joshua Mhambi, who was part of Simba Makoni presidential bid team, said there was something fishy about the roadblocks.
“They are nothing but a witch hunting affair because they have realised that people that ZANU-PF deem a threat or nuisance to their stay in power travel at odd hours to avoid being abducted.
“As a matter of fact, Dumiso Dabengwa (Makoni supporter, former military commander of ZIPRA and cabinet minister) was stopped on his way from Lupane to Bulawayo at these roadblocks.
“They asked him to report to their command centre and he simply told them that anyone looking for him knows where to find him,” said Mhambi.Â
Lupane is situated some 200 kilometres north of Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, on the highway to Victoria Falls.
Dabengwa confirmed to CAJ News on Wednesday that he was stopped by the police at one of the roadblocks on the Victoria Falls-Bulawayo highway.
“I was stopped by policeman at a roadblock and they asked me unnecessary questions like where I was coming from,” said the former ZIPRA intelligence chief.
“We are just being extra cautious about people’s security because there is a lot of criminal activities that happen at night,” said
Mandlenkosi Moyo the police spokesman.
“Yes these are trying times in Zimbabwe but we do not use it as an excuse. We are just being a vigilant police force,” he added.Â
Closes sources within the security service revealed that the setting up of roadblocks were meant to sniff out suspected foreigners, mainly whites from the European Union (EU), foreign journalists and other individuals viewed to be anti-president Mugabe and Zanu (PF).Â
Most roadblocks are being mounted by both soldiers and police, who will be heavily armed in the case of any eventuality.Â
“In the just ended March 29 harmonised elections, we discovered that foreign journalists sneaked into the country posing as tourists, and this time around, we will sniff them out,” said one lieutenant in Hwange’s 12th Infantry Battalion–CAJ News.
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