Back to Index

Police disrupt CCDZ peace-building meeting at Dhirihori in Marondera East
Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ)
January 25, 2013

Police in Marondera disrupted a Peace-building meeting organized by Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ) at Dhirihori in Marondera East constituency. The police claimed that CCDZ was holding a political meeting. They cited the presence at the meeting of Hon Tracy Mutinhiri who crossed the floor from ZANU-PF and joined the MDC party led by PM Tsvangirai and other known MDC-T activists at the meeting. Ironically the meeting was also attended by some ZANU PF and other political party supporters from the areas surrounding the Dhirihori area.

The police officers accused CCDZ of holding an illegal meeting and told participants not to associate with NGOs because they are agents of the West. The meeting was attended by more than 50 participants drawn from the surrounding wards including political parties-ZANU-PF, MDC-T and Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD), churches, youths, women and community leaders.

CCDZ took a swipe at the unprofessional conduct by the Zimbabwe Republic Police details. In Masvingo East Chief Superintendent Mubaiwa denied CCDZ to hold a meeting at Nyika and Mupandawana Growth points on the basis that "they would disturb people from attending their fields since it's a raining season". He also stated that only seed and fertilizer distribution exercises were allowed in the area. CCDZ will not be deterred from their core business of promoting a peace and political tolerance.

Commenting on the disruption of the Marondera meeting, CCDZ director Phillip Pasirayi said: "This is clear evidence of the partisan conduct of police that we have always complained about. The much-talked about forthcoming elections will be meaningless if we still have the police and other state security agents behaving in a partisan manner. We urge the inclusive government to reign in these political activists who masquerade as professionals."

Pasirayi said that civil society will continue to raise awareness in preparation for the constitutional referendum and the elections. "There is a clear attempt by government agencies to silence civil society organization that are campaigning for a level-playing field ahead of the coming elections. The attack against civil society activists has intensified in the past few weeks. This is a well-calculated move by government agencies to muzzle vocal organizations", Pasirayi said.

Visit the Centre for Community Development fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP