…Police ban CCC rally citing lack of manpower
Brighton Chiseva
MASVINGO – As the nation drift towards the March 26 by-elections, political parties are preparing for the contest which many people believe could be the yardstick to measure how each party is going to fare in the 2023 general elections.
Campaigns have already reached boiling point in many areas and a lot has happened including violent clashes as witnessed in Kwekwe.
In Beitbridge CCC and Zanu PF clashed recently over the venue after Zanu PF youths organised a meeting at the same venue which CCC had booked and was granted permission by the police.
Masvingo has once again released another version of drama where the big three political parties; Zanu PF, CCC and MDC-Alliance are all preparing to have a rally at Rujeko grounds in Masvingo Urban.
Zanu PF District Coordinating Committee (DCC) Chairperson Tawanda Dube said their rally had been sanctioned and they will visit all the wards with by-elections in Masvingo urban.
“Our rally is on Sunday and we will be visiting all wards with by-elections in Masvingo town starting with Rujeko,” said Dube.
Zanu PF provincial spokesperson Ophias Murambiwa concurred with Dube and said they applied for their rally in Masvingo and accused CCC of lying that Zanu PF wanted to disrupt their rally.
“We applied for our rally in time but CCC members do not want to follow procedures and what I know is that they were told to find another date since we had already applied for ours. They are just cry babies who think they can tarnish our party name by lying,” said Murambiwa.
On the other hand Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has been struggling to secure approval from the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to have a rally in Rujeko that will be addressed by party president Nelson Chamisa.
Masvingo District CCC Secretary General Faustino Murambasvina said their party rally has been sanctioned but they have been advised to change the venue to Rujeko grounds so that they maintain distance from the Zanu PF rally.
CCC Masvingo district chairperson Advocate Martin Mureri earlier said they were yet to be given a response to their application to have a rally on Sunday in Rujeko.
“We are yet to have a response from the police, we applied for Sunday and we still have a few days to go so we will wait for their response,” said Mureri.
However, TellZim News established that the officer commanding Masvingo District Simangaliso Dube has since written to CCC prohibiting the rally.
Dube said Zanu PF had two rallies in Masvingo on the same day and a sizable number of police officers will be providing security at the two venues and could not separate more staff for a third rally.
“Masvingo Central Police District is hosting two Zanu PF rallies which are booked on the same municipality area at two different venues at Mucheke and Mamutse stadia on the same date as yours, on the 20th of March 2020. Hosting on a third rally on the same date would not be able to cope due to resource constraints.
“The police district has already drawn manpower from the surrounding police stations to provide enough safety and security in respect of those two rallies to an extend of leaving skeleton staff manning our police establishments,” reads part of the letter.
The letter also claimed that they had also considered the fact that Zanu PF had applied and got approval first and claimed they had received reliable information that there could be tensions which could lead to injuries to people.
“Further, I have received credible information on oath to the effect that tension and discontentment is brewing among the electorate as we draw nearer to election dates. There might be public disorder or disruption and there is a threat that the public meeting will result in injury and destruction of property due to convergence of the public meeting,” read the other part of the letter.
Efforts to get clarification from Mureri were futile as his mobile number went unanswered for several times.
On the same note, Ward 7 (Rujeko) MDC Alliance candidate Gladys Chuma said they have also applied for a rally in Rujeko on Saturday but were still waiting for police clearance.
“We have applied to have our rally on Saturday but the police is yet to clear it and we are still waiting for their response.
“President (Douglas) Mwonzora is supposed to address party supporters in my ward but at this point we are not sure about anything. Maybe we will get approval, maybe not, but we applied to have our rally three weeks ago,” said Chuma.
Masvingo urban Ward 7 has always been contentious as it has for long been considered a CCC stronghold, with some powerful Zanu PF officials having been quoted saying they want to reclaim the ward.
Posters about the CCC Rujeko rally are already circulating on social media as party supporters claim the rally will go on as scheduled.
