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ZANU PF intimidation increases in Chipinge district
Tichaona Sibanda, SW Radio
September 21, 2011

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news210911/zpfintim210911.html

Villagers in Chipinge district in Manicaland province have been ordered to submit their names to village heads and threatened with death if they fail to comply.

The threats came from two of ZANU PF's losing parliamentary candidates in the 2008 elections. Central Committee member Enock Porusungazi lost to the MDC-T in Chipinge South, while Tobias Matanga fared badly next to Prosper Mutseyami of the MDC-T in the Musikavanhu constituency of Chipinge district.

But the two ZANU PF officials teamed up on Saturday and distributed notebooks to village heads in the two constituencies and gave them instructions to list first names and surnames of villagers in their areas, dates of birth and identity numbers.

On Monday the two ZANU PF members went around the constituencies, this time directly approaching the villagers and telling them of their 'decree' issued to village heads.

Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC-T spokesman for Manicaland, told SW Radio Africa that villagers were also told to specify their political affiliations to the village heads.

'These two constituencies are under the MDC-T and the villagers have been alarmed with this new development that the MP for Musikavanhu has had to leave Parliament and travel back to the district. We understand Porusungazi and Matanga were specific when they issued these threats. They gave the villagers a choice, that if they do not comply it's either they vacate the area on their own volition or they will be booted off or more seriously, killed,' Muchauraya added.

The MDC-T said it takes the threats seriously because Porusingazi has a reputation of dealing ruthlessly with all known MDC supporters. The party said they can only guess what the duo intends to do with the information.

'There is a possibility they may want to pass on the information to the militias and the CIO, or they may want to approach the registrar general and use the information to delete MDC activists from the voters roll.

'Chipinge is a drought prone district so it will be easy for them to identify MDC supporters and exclude them from drought relief programs. We do not want to take any chances, therefore we are going to report this to the police, write to JOMIC as well as to the Zimbabwe Election Commission and inform them of the situation in Chipinge,' said Muchauraya.

The Makoni South MP however dispelled any fears that the two ZANU PF members, whom he described as 'deranged', stand any chance of wrestling back the two seats.

'I can liken their actions to kicks of a dying horse, that can be very dangerous, but overall they don't pose any threat as far as the race for votes is concerned,' the MP said.

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