Back to Index

The struggle for democracy in the political minefield of Zimbabwe
A story of the political violence experienced by Blessing Chebundo, MDC MP, Kwekwe
Blessing Chebundo, MP
October 08, 2003

Download this document
- Word 97  version (298KB)
- Acrobat PDF version (89KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

My story starts with the Zimbabwe Constitutional Referendum, held on the 12th February 2000, which saw President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF getting its first national defeat in the Political Arena and thereby setting the tone for Zimbabwe's political violence.

Sensing danger of a political whitewash by the newly formed MDC, Zanu PF gathered all its violent political might to crush the young MDC Party and its supporters. By voting against the changes in the Zimbabwe Constitutional Referendum, the people of Zimbabwe had taken heed of the call by the combined efforts of the MDC and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and had demonstrated their intolerance to the misrule of the prior 20 years by Zanu PF. As is already known, the first targets were the white commercial farmers, their workers and the MDC activists. The whirlwind of political violence began with an opening bang in February 2000!!

I had worked with Paul Themba Nyathi both under the NCA and since the inception of the MDC, during the peoples pre-convention. Pre-convention is the period for intensive coordination of Civic Society organisations leading to the birth of the MDC. Paul was a member of the MDC's interim National Executive Committee (NEC), whilst I was the Interim Provincial Chairman for Midlands North. I had been chosen in absentia at the first Provincial Meeting on 27th May 1999. Members of the interim NEC were allocated Provinces to work with and Paul was allocated Midlands North.

On the 18th of March 2000, I had arranged for a meeting at the Sandawana Theatre with local Kwekwe businessmen, which included white commercial farmers. The theatre was full to the brim, with the majority of the participants being whites. This was an indoor meeting of members from a cross section of the community. Most of our meetings were held in the open and attended by huge numbers of people from all walks of life. The guest speakers at the Sandawana Theatre Meeting were Paul Themba Nyati, now a fellow MP and MDC spokesperson, and Jim Brown, a white commercial farmer and MDC activist from Mashonaland Central.

Half way through the Sandawana Theatre Meeting, a group of war veterans stormed the Theatre and started harassing and beating up people. The Sandawana Theatre is about 100 metres from the war veteran's offices, and about 500 metres from the Zanu PF Office. What had transpired was that two Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) operatives had attempted to enter the Theatre under the guise of being business people. When turned away they got upset and went to inform and incite the war veterans to attack people in the Meeting. A fight then ensued between the war veterans and the people attending the Meeting. When the police came, they did very little to arrest the perpetrators other than just to restrain them. The war veterans stole about 150 MDC T-Shirts, and later having donned them left for the commercial farms where they attacked farmers. Our Team, together with a few war veterans, went to the Police Station Charge Office where statements were recorded. Amongst the MDC white farmer activists was a young man called Ian Elsworth, whose father was gunned down the following year by war veterans at his Kwekwe farm. Ian was seriously wounded in the shooting. Two of the suspected murderers, Mr Masunda and Mr Sebastian Tshuma, were leaders in the attack at the Sandawana Theatre.

After the police recording of statements of the Sandawana skirmishes, we learnt that the MDC Youths had organised themselves and made a follow up to the War Veterans' Offices where they recovered some of the stolen T-Shirts. In doing so, they left a trail of destruction of windowpanes and furniture. Later on in the evening, the war veterans went on a spree of destruction of property belonging to suspected MDC sympathizers and supporters. In the process they nearly axed to death a white KweKwe Hotel patron, who was, in fact, a South African Contractor. He was flown to South Africa for treatment. During these raids, a Company called Birdale Electrical had its petrol tanks bombed. This was allegedly to punish the Director of the Company, Mr Dolf Landman, who was seen at the Sandawana Meeting.

The following morning, 19th March 2000, police came for me at my workplace, Sable Chemical Industries, where I worked as the Chief Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety Officer. They took me to the Kwekwe Central Charge Office where I was questioned in connection with the war veteran's office attack. Later on, another nineteen local MDC leaders were picked up and for the next three days we were kept in police cells before being taken to Court where we were exonerated. Amongst the team were the District Chairman, Mr Abraham Mtshena, who was also doubling as our Campaign Manager, and Mr William Chanza, who later became the only MDC Councillor following a bye election in one of the Wards in 2001. However, the police did, not 'touch' all the known Zanu PF operatives and war veterans who committed acts of violence, property destruction, assaults, rape and murder.

Download the document to read more

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