The Financial Gazette

BULAWAYO — Matabeleland North has been turned into a battlefield for votes as ZANU-PF, aided by the State machinery, wages an overt war against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations, which dominate the province.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) established in recent findings that the area has become the most politically volatile region among the country’s 10 political provinces.
Over 40 political and human rights activists, according to ZLHR, have been arrested by police on trumped up charges since the beginning of the year.
The ongoing tussle between the three major political actors in Zimbabwe has been one of the most intriguing political contests in the country’s history whereby the dominant party in the inclusive government has resorted to using the State machinery against the other two governing parties in a bid to regain power.
Accusing fingers have been pointed at the police force, which is being accused by ZANU-PF’s rivals of favouring the co-governing party ahead of elections next year.
Police have maintained their stranglehold on the province by banning MDC-T rallies in Binga, Lupane and in the resort town of Victoria Falls despite a court ruling that gave the green light to the party to conduct their campaign rallies in the region.
It is understood that the latest police crackdown in the province is being coordinated by a senior police official.
The MDC-T suspects that the police were trying to slow down its campaign while disrupting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s government programme.
It also claims the ongoing disruption of their rallies was part of efforts to harm its leader, and force the MDC-T to quit the coalition government ahead of elections expected  next year.
The MDC-T has threatened to report the disruption of their rallies to Parliament, with the premier seeking an audience with President Robert Mugabe over police action.
Welshman Ncube, leader of the MDC splinter party, said that the faction was also affected by the police actions.
“In the past few months we had running battles with (assistant commissioner Edmore Veterai). He has arrested and detained Minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu. On our way from Victoria Falls he made me sit on the floor, telling the media that he was briefing us about their activities. It’s incredulous for a person of my stature to sit down on the floor while being addressed by a police officer about their business,” he said.
The police actions were being perceived by observers as a fresh sign of paranoia as the election campaign trail heats up.
Dumisani Nkomo, a political analyst, said the MDC-T must stay put in the inclusive government despite the alleged plots by ZANU-PF to muscle it out of the coalition.
“Police in Matabeleland are intolerant and they have been banning a number of non-governmental meetings and they are afraid that Gukurahundi atrocities are now being exposed; they are trying to cover up for (President) Mugabe,” said Nkomo.
Gukurahundi refers to the suppression by Zimbabwe’s Fifth Brigade — now disbanded — in the predominantly Ndebele-speaking regions of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces of supporters of the late Joshua Nkomo, the founding father of nationalist struggle for independence in Zimbabwe. The North-Korean-trained Fifth Brigade exec-uted an estimated 20 000 civilians. The violence ended after ZANU-PF and Nkomo’s PF-ZAPU reached a unity agreement on December 22, 1987 that merged the two parties to form ZANU-PF, with President Mugabe as leader of the party as well as of state and government.
National police spokesperson, Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, denied that the MDC-T’s rallies were banned by the police.
“What you are saying are lies, it is not in the interest of the police to comment on that issue. l am not obliged to give you a comment,” said Mandipaka. — Own Correspondent.