Jabulani Sibanda a threat to peace says MDC-T

Movement for Democratic Change leader - Morgan Tsvangirai - says he is taking seriously complaints by villagers in Masvingo that self-styled war veterans' leader Jabulani Sibanda is terrorising them ahead of the crucial elections set for next year and that grain is being distributed in a partisan manner and will take the matter to Cabinet this week.

Tsvangirai who is also Zimbabwe's Prime Minister said this while touring the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) projects in Zaka West, Masvingo province at the weekend. The CDF projects are an initiative brought about by the Minister of Finance and MDC Secretary General, Tendai Biti to enable legislators to embark on developmental projects in their respective areas.

The villagers told Tsvangirai that Sibanda was in Masvingo province on a Zanu-PF campaign programme dubbed; "Operation Kubudirana Pachena".

They said Sibanda was threatening the villagers with death if they continued supporting the MDC formations. All the four Zaka parliamentary seats and one senatorial seat are under the MDC after the party heavily defeated Zanu-PF in the 2008 elections.

Tsvangirai received reports that the Zaka community was unhappy by the notorious Sibanda's acts of terrorising villagers.

Addressing thousands of villagers, Tsvangirai urged the villagers to desist from violence and live in harmony. He appealed to all political parties to live and interact with each other in harmony irrespective of their political ideologies. "The different party leadership of Zaka should co-exist in peace and allow every political party to hold its rallies freely without interference," said Tsvangirai.

"The MDC does not condone political violence and urges the responsible authorities to take a hard-line stance on all the culprits by bringing them to book".