a nine-month old baby who fell as a result of the assault and became
unconscious. The victim’s neighbours managed to resuscitate the baby and she
was taken to hospital. The case was reported to the police and the perpetrators
were arrested and were expected to appear in court on 19 January 2016.
On 19 December 2015, an Agritex extension officer was harassed and
intimidated by Isaac Neshamba, who is the local Zanu-PF chairperson. The
Agritex officer was harassed for establishing a maize demonstration site at a
perceived MDC T supporter’s field. The perpetrator publicly threatened the
victim warning that he would “deal with him”. The Agritex worker is
fearing for his life, it is reported.
On 20 December 2015, in Mudzi North a Zanu-PF member went to Kotwa
Resource Centre for a meeting together with another Zanu-PF activist. The
two were chased away by Peter Homwe and David Maguma who told them not
to use the Zanu-PF hall as they were suspected to be aligned to the People First
party.
On 30 December 2015, Knowledge Zangira a Zanu-PF activist from Mudzi
North met an MDC T activist who is a tailor and asked him to sew him clothes.
The tailor explained to Knowledge that he could not sew the clothes as he
wanted to go to church. Knowledge threatened the tailor with death in 2018 on
allegations that he was an MDC-T supporter.
Mashonaland West
Two cases of intra party violence were recorded within the MDC-T in Norton and
Chegutu East. Within Zanu-PF, conflict escalated with some members facing
accusations of belonging to the People First. This report carries various cases of
violence experienced at Zanu-PF restructuring exercises for instance at Sengwe in
Hurungwe. Another trend observed in December was the continued dabbling in
partisan politics by traditional leadership. A chief in the province was accused of
having appointed only headmen with known Zanu-PF allegiances.
Highlights:
On 4 December 2015, a fight nearly erupted at the district restructuring
exercise at Sengwe in Hurungwe West. A dispute arose when some senior
district members lost their positions as chairpersons and secretaries of Sengwe
District to alleged supporters of former MP for the constituency, Temba
Mliswa. They accused the newly-elected members of wanting to destroy the
party from within. Mliswa confirmed to ZPP that party members associated to
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