HARARE- Zanu (PF) is stage managing acts of violence against its own supporters in order to justify a planned crackdown against the MDC-T, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais party has said. MDC-T spokesman in Manicaland province Pishai Muchauraya said Zanu (PF), working with traditional leaders, police and the military, has in recent days stage managed acts of violence in Tsvangirais Buhera home district. The Zanu (PF)-controlled Herald newspaper last Thursday reported that politically motivated violence had resurfaced in Buhera district after seven homesteads belonging to supporters of President Robert Mugabes party were set on fire and destroyed.
But Muchauraya said some of the reported cases of political violence in Buhera were stage managed by Zanu (PF). He said: All the reports that we hear about violence in Buhera are not correct. Zanu (PF) supporters and officials want to tarnish the name of the MDC by burning their own houses in order to soil our name. We are not a violent party. Violence is found in Zanu (PF). They want to use the so-called attacks as an excuse to crackdown on innocent unarmed civilians.
Zanu (PF) spokesman Timothy Masawi was not immediately available for comment on the matter. However, sources told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that the attacks were stage managed and choreographed by two senior army officers, a Major Svosve and an unnamed senior Airforce of Zimbabwe officer. Sources claimed that vehicles owned by the two army officers were used by Zanu (PF) mobs during the staged arson attacks, while the owners of the homesteads were given time to remove their belongings before the homes were set on fire.
Human rights groups have expressed fears that the ongoing constitutional reform exercise or any new elections in the future could trigger a fresh round of political violence because Zanu (PF)s structures of violence, including youth militia and war veterans remain deployed in the districts.
Post published in: News