3.1.4 Midlands
In the Midlands Province, the use of traditional leaders to further ZanuPF partisan interest
was the highlight of the month.
A Mberengwa East Chief, Beta Mataruse, assigned his kraal heads to go door to door to
establish those who had received the Covid-19 vaccine.
Chief Beta informed those who failed to produce the vaccine cards that they would not get
any government aid and that they would not be able to vote in the 2023 elections.
As a result, villagers besieged the local health centers for the vaccine.
The pronouncements by the chief triggered a wave of fear and anxiety as Zanu PF activists
used this to pronounce that those who did not get vaccinated were opposition MDC
Alliance members and that violence of the scale of the 2008 bloody elections would befall
them.
In 2008, Zimbabwe experienced one of its worst election violence when Zanu PF lost to the
MDC-T and there was a systematic onslaught of opposition MDC-T members that left over
200 dead and thousands injured and displaced. No healing and reconciliation has
happened since then.
In Gokwe-Nembudziya constituency, skirmishes took place during the voting process,
adding that resultantly, resulting in the arrest of some machete-wielding youths.
Midlands is the hotbed of machete wars, and these are a manifestation of the heavily
politicised and chaotic artisanal mining activities in the province.
The machete gangs have been a useful tool to Zanu PF’s coercive campaign methods for
years.
Gokwe-Nembudziya Member of Parliament and Gokwe North DCC chairperson Justice
Mayor Wadyajena confirmed to a local newspaper that a driver and aide to one of the
party’s senior officials in the district were arrested, and that he had to go to the police
station to ‘rescue’ a party official who had been falsely accused by a rival camp.
He said two officials linked to the senior party official paid admission of guilty fines.
Wadyajena disputed having gone to the police to seek refuge.
“I went as DCC chairman to solve the dispute between parties and in the process, secured
the freedom of a kidnapped guy, falsely accused of hiding papers. The hired machetewielding criminals were arrested and locked up. Gokwe North says no to violence and
intimidation,” Wadyajena told the newspaper.
This smacks of interference in the work of the police.