The incident, witnessed by The Zimbabwean , happened at Huruyadzo shopping centre in St Mary's constituency before the rally started on Saturday. Overnight, several party supporters had been injured in an attack by President Robert Mugabe's militants.
The women were walking to the venue of the rally dressed in party regalia when they were stopped by the Zanu (PF) gangsters wielding an assortment of weapons. They were verbally abused by the thugs using unprintable language before being forced to take off the T-shirts. Some were slapped and kicked in the process.
The MDC-T condemned the attacks. The youth chairman for Chitungwiza said the party would no longer take such attacks lying down but stopped short of telling party supporters to retaliate.
“Let this be the last time that we hear of such violence here,” he said. “We as the youth will not sit idly by while MDC members are being attacked.”
MDC-T provincial chairman for Chitungwiza, Alexio Msundire, told the rally that the party was fed up with the continuing attacks.
“There are ways by which we can protect ourselves from being attacked.
Running away is not one of them,” Msundire said, implying that besieged party members might fight back if attacked.
The MDC parties have become the target of a major onslaught by Mugabe's party, which has deployed members of the armed forces countrywide to direct the violence. Party officials at the rally said they were aware of the heavy presence of police, army and CIO agents of Zanu (PF) deployed clandestinely to cause chaos.
Recently, soldiers invaded parliament building and attacked MPs. Mugabe did not condemn the attacks.
The continuing Zanu (PF) violence is one of the causes of a major rift between the parties to the 2008 Global Political Agreement power-sharing deal. Mugabe has been condemned by regional bloc SADC for the attacks.
Post published in: News