Messages From Zimbabwe

ZNU 110 released. Today I stay with the bulletin theme. It allows me to cover so much more ground in a limited time…

It can be heard in the player below, in the multiplayers in the right hand sidebar (of The Bearded Man blog), or here, whilst can also be downloaded from here.

Take care.

‘debvhu

Today some 300 MDC activists took part in the distribution of flyers in Sezinda and Tshabalala High Density Suburbs in Bulawayo. They spent the whole morning doing this and then returned to the home of the candidate for the City Council where a meal had been prepared for them. While this was underway the home was raided by the Police who took the Chief Election Agent, the Councillor and the Chairlady of the Ward into custody for “holding an illegal meeting”.

A lawyer was called and after 5 hours the three were released with the threat that the Police would proceed against them “by summons”. A Senior police officer at Tshaballa Police Station refused to identify himself or give his force number to the lawyers. This is an offence under the Police Act.

I said to the Police that we could not campaign under these circumstances.

They responded by saying we could dish out flyers but nor door to door. They also said that they required 3 full days notice of all political activity. At least 6 plain clothes police details were involved in this operation. It was clear their intention was to intimidate – they did not achieve this at all.

The Makoni Rally was sparsely attended – drove past at 14.30 hours and I guessed that about 5000 people may have been in attendance. Tomorrow is the Mutambara group who not only call themselves MDC but also use the same symbols and colours.

(Source: by email)