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Zanu
PF supporters brutally assault nine teachers' union officials
Patricia Mpofu, ZimOnline
February 20, 2008
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2742
Harare - Nine
Zimbabwe teachers' union leaders were on Tuesday hospitalised after
they were severely assaulted and tortured by militant supporters
of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party.
The ZANU PF
supporters abducted Progressive
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general Raymond
Majongwe and his colleagues as they distributed flyers on the streets
of Harare denouncing the collapsed state of education and urging
teachers not
to report for duty until their salaries are reviewed.
They were taken
to the party's Harare provincial headquarters on the east of the
capital's central business district where they were severely assaulted,
incurring serious injuries, according to their lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe.
However, in
a bizarre twist the police did not arrest the ZANU PF militants,
instead turned on the PTUZ leaders who they are charging with violating
a tough government law prohibiting the publishing or distribution
of information considered subversive to the interests of the state.
"All the
nine are hospitalised in Avenues Clinic (a private hospital in Harare)
under police guard," Mugabe said.
Police spokesman
Wayne Bvudzijena said he was unaware of the incident and unable
to comment.
The beating
and torture of the union leaders comes as political pressure group,
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition (CZC), warned on Tuesday that a repressive environment
marked by intimidation and organised violence had effectively reduced
next month's elections to an exercise to simply validate Mugabe's
controversial rule.
The CZC, which
is an alliance of civic groups, churches, women's groups, the labour
and student movements campaigning for a democratic settlement to
Zimbabwe's crisis, said because of an unfavourable environment polls,
would neither serve the interest of democracy, the country nor the
people.
Zimbabwe is
due to hold joint local government, parliamentary and presidential
elections on March 29.
Analysts say
an unfair playing field coupled with political violence and intimidation
of opponents guarantees Mugabe's government victory at the polls
despite clear evidence it has failed to break a vicious inflation
cycle that has left consumers impoverished and the economy in deep
crisis.
Mugabe - who
turns 84 next week and is seeking another five-year term to complete
more than three decades at the helm - denies his government is responsible
for Zimbabwe's collapse and has promised a landslide victory in
March to once again prove he has the backing of ordinary Zimbabweans.
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