Tomorrow's demo hangs in the balance

There is a growing fear among opposition political parties in general and MDC-T in particular that the demonstration slated for tomorrow may fail to take place owing to court restrictions, MDC-T insiders have revealed.

This follows yesterday's violent demonstration that resulted in the destruction of property and injury to some members of the public when the party's youths ran amok in the CBD, ransacking shops and setting alight police and ZBC vehicles.

"The chaotic scenes that visited the CBD yesterday may have given ZANU PF the legitimate right to question the wisdom of the courts granting demonstrators the right to demonstrate. In all fairness, considering that tomorrow's demonstration is supposed to include all the eighteen political parties that have subscribed to the possibility of a coalition against ZANU PF, including the youths that participated yesterday, one cannot guarantee that there will be no repeat of what we saw," said one insider.

Another source who is a member of the party's national council that went up in arms over the unilateral appointment of two more vice presidents by Morgan Tsvangirai, regretted the institutionalisation of violence by the MDC-T presidency.

"I have said it before and I will say it again. The presidency has institutionalised violence and when these youths are not confronting ZANU PF, they turn their energies on fellow party members and to rein them in is proving quite difficult. This explains why even the spokesman appears to have taken a soft approach because if he rebukes them in public, they will attack him in public also," he said on condition of anonymity.

Obert Gutu, the MDC-T spokesperson, has been heavily criticised by the generality of Zimbabweans for nonchalantly dismissing evidence that the party's youths partook in the wanton destruction of property and infrastructure in yesterday's unsanctioned violent demonstration. Instead, Gutu has ascribed blame on phantom infiltrators and state security agents.

Gutu's attempt to deflate responsibility away from his party's notorious youth wing has been dismissed by Michael Chideme, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president, who has urged the opposition party's spin doctor to own up. "We call upon political leaders, community leaders and leaders of demonstrations to restrain their followers. We also expect the leaders to issue a statement condemning the barbaric act," said Michael Chideme, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president.

A prominent Harare lawyer has opined that Government has a legitimate case should it so choose to seek an interdict against opposition political parties' demonstration on the basis of concern over public safety.

"Police are there to maintain law and order and should they feel that this law and order is likely to be severely compromised, the Police may ask Government to take the issue up with the courts which may oblige, "she said.