Harare
In May Harare was a hive of political activity and also a centre of politically related conflict.
The main drivers of conflict in the province included the contentious issues of land/housing
cooperatives, factional fights and the One Million Man March.
Highlights:
On 1 May Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) held its Harare Provincial seminar at Christian
College Budiriro 1 shopping centre; the party was building the capacity of its district
and provincial leadership in a bid to find ways of recruiting more people to join the
party. TZ is reportedly targeting ZimPF supporters in its recruitment drive. ZimPF has
gained a lot of support from the people of Glenview south. Attendance at the training
was low. It is reported that only 60 people attended.
Inter party conflict continues to rear its ugly head with some clashes becoming
violent. For instance it is reported that on 1 May the Glenview South political youth
district commissar for Zanu PF Archford Mavhimira approached ZimPF member
Donald Chimatira and attacked him on the head with an unknown weapon. Chimatira
was addressing members of ZimPF at Zaoga Shed behind Glenview 3 shopping centre
when Mavhimira dressed in Zanu PF regalia pounced on him. The ZimPF supporters
manhandled Mavhimira and as Chimatira also fought back. Mavhimira then armed
himself with a pick and pole but was locked in a house by Prince Hombarume another
Zanu PF youth who later apologised to Chimatira and his team who then got back to
their meeting. Mavhimira then left the house saying he was going to report the matter
to police but did not return until Chimatira and team finished their meeting at
18:00hrs. Later on Mavhimira then resurfaced in the company of some Zanu PF
youths who ordered him not to fight Chimatira and his team since they live close to
each other and have worked with him when he was still a member of Zanu PF.
On 15 May, factional fighting within Zanu PF intensified in Mabvuku/Tafara. There
was a Zanu PF meeting held at Zvidhinha in new Tafara. During the meeting a fight
broke out between Zanu PF youths from Tafara South, Caledonia Farm led by the
Zanu PF district chairperson, Munyaradzi Nyamukondiwa and youths from new
Tafara led by the district chairperson Funwell Mutasa. Mutasa’s faction supported one
only identified as Kahari to be sworn in as the Chair of the provincial coordinating
committee but the Nyamukondiwa faction did not support the idea. A fight broke out
between the two groups, Tafara south had about 100 youths and new Tafara had about
85 youths but there were no reported injuries.
There are reported cases of people who were forced to attend the planning meetings
for the One Million Man March. For example on 21 May in Epworth, Zanu PF was
having a planning meeting for the march. Two identified men who were cycling past
the Zanu PF office were forced to stop and attend the meeting. They were forced to
chant slogans of the party by the party officials led by one Mudada. They were also
forced to denounce the MDC-T party and other parties. The two were later released at
the end of the meeting.
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