News / National
Police block Khupe rally
04 Oct 2017 at 03:27hrs | Views
POLICE on Saturday dispersed a rally that was being addressed by MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe at her rural home in Siganda, Bubi.
Khupe - who is at loggerheads with her principal Morgan Tsvangirai over an alliance deal inked by leaders of seven opposition parties, including the MDC on August 5 - was in the company of the party's national chairperson Lovemore Moyo and suspended national organiser Abednico Bhebhe.
Khupe, along with Moyo and Bhebhe, are fiercely opposed to Tsvangirai's move to form the MDC Alliance - a union of seven opposition parties that have joined forces to challenge long-ruling President Robert Mugabe in the 2018 election.
Sources who were present at the rally said Khupe was meeting villagers as part of feedback engagements on the on-going Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise.
The Southern News understands that while she was addressing the gathering, police descended on the crowd and threatened to teargas the attendees.
The law enforcement agents accused Khupe and team of conducting a meeting without a police clearance.
Moyo confirmed the incident, describing the action by police as overzealous and unnecessary.
"When I arrived, I found that police had already dispersed the villagers, their argument was that we didn't seek police clearance for the party meeting," he told Southern News.
"This was an internal party meeting. This is the issue we have always been debating, because these overzealous State agents are now abusing this thing called Posa. I am sure they can even disperse family meetings," he said.
"Unfortunately, we have to live with it until we remove this animal called Zanu-PF. As long as they are ruling, we will continue having these problems."
Posa is an acronym for the Public Order Security Act.
Efforts to get a comment from Khupe were fruitless but her personal assistant, Witness Dube, said: "The meeting was convened by the party structures as a BVR exercise feedback meeting but police dispersed us."
Khupe - who is at loggerheads with her principal Morgan Tsvangirai over an alliance deal inked by leaders of seven opposition parties, including the MDC on August 5 - was in the company of the party's national chairperson Lovemore Moyo and suspended national organiser Abednico Bhebhe.
Khupe, along with Moyo and Bhebhe, are fiercely opposed to Tsvangirai's move to form the MDC Alliance - a union of seven opposition parties that have joined forces to challenge long-ruling President Robert Mugabe in the 2018 election.
Sources who were present at the rally said Khupe was meeting villagers as part of feedback engagements on the on-going Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise.
The Southern News understands that while she was addressing the gathering, police descended on the crowd and threatened to teargas the attendees.
The law enforcement agents accused Khupe and team of conducting a meeting without a police clearance.
"When I arrived, I found that police had already dispersed the villagers, their argument was that we didn't seek police clearance for the party meeting," he told Southern News.
"This was an internal party meeting. This is the issue we have always been debating, because these overzealous State agents are now abusing this thing called Posa. I am sure they can even disperse family meetings," he said.
"Unfortunately, we have to live with it until we remove this animal called Zanu-PF. As long as they are ruling, we will continue having these problems."
Posa is an acronym for the Public Order Security Act.
Efforts to get a comment from Khupe were fruitless but her personal assistant, Witness Dube, said: "The meeting was convened by the party structures as a BVR exercise feedback meeting but police dispersed us."
Source - dailynews
