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Soldiers disrupt census trainings in Bulawayo
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
August 08, 2012

A group claiming to be soldiers today allegedly caused chaos at the Bulawayo Province Census command centre, housed at the Bulawayo Polytechnic ostensibly to prevent the induction of enumerators. The group also reportedly disrupted census-training workshops that were taking place at the college. This follows reports of similar occurrences in Harare and Mutare yesterday as soldiers defied a cabinet directive that soldiers will only be used as enumerators in their places of work.

According to sources consisting of teachers and headmasters from Bulawayo Province, the group of over 50 men, who were in plain clothes, prevented would be enumerators from entering the Bulawayo Polytechnic where recruitment and induction of enumerators was taking place and maintained a vigil throughout the day to ensure that the workshops and recruitment did not go ahead. Witnesses told Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) that they were not sure whether the group genuinely consisted of soldiers, but said they felt it was connected to powerful people as the police did not pitch up to disperse the group and allow the training workshops and recruitment to go ahead.

BPRA is concerned that these events are an indication that Zimbabwe is degenerating into an outpost of lawlessness with the relevant authorities looking aside as hooligans impede on national processes. The association calls upon the police and other interested parties to take concerted efforts to ensure that order is restored in the census preparations so that the exercise can continue.

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