ZIMBABWE — HARARE - Zanu-PF youths on Thursday assaulted Marondera Mayor Farai Nyandoro after laying siege to a venue of a youth public meeting called to discuss Zimbabwe's deepening political crisis in the fallout of the SADC summit.

 

At least four youths were critically injured when the Zanu-PF mob, numbering over four hundred, filled up the Mbuya Nehanda hall in Marondera and stopped the public meeting, which had been sanctioned by police.

 

The meeting, called to discuss the topic, 'Worsening political situation: Interventions by the youths' was violently attacked by the Zanu-PF youth militia and war veterans, resplendent in party regalia.

 

 

 

 

The Youth Agenda Trust public meeting had pooled key resource persons from civil groups Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Student Christian Movement, ZINASU and speakers from the two political parties, MDC and Zanu-PF.

The Zanu-PF youths, chanting liberation war songs, barricaded the venue, vowing that the meeting, which they alleged was plotting to discuss regime change, would not happen. Participants, including the mayor were attacked and chased away.

 

The mayor has been rushed to hospital and is in a critical condition. A kombi ferrying the resource persons has been stoned and extensively damaged.

The militia attacked youths who had been preparing the venue, injuring them and damaging equipment worth quadrillions of dollars. The militia then moved around the area in vehicles attacking anyone seen travelling towards the venue of the public meeting.

 

At least three youths sustained serious injuries, among them Taurai Musara, Peter Nyadembera, Tito Pearson and the mayor.

Organisers attempted to seek the intervention of the police, but there was no cooperation, ZimDaily was told.

An officer at a police station in Dombotombo referred all questions to Oliver Mandipaka, the police spokesman in Harare, who we could not reach for comment.

Lawrence Mashungu, the national chairman of the Solidarity Students Trust, told ZimDaily that it was baffling that some people were taking the law into their own hands despite clear guarantees in the power-sharing agreement between the main political parties guaranteeing greater freedoms.

"Even though these politicians are talking we are not seeing any commitment to terms of the deal," Mashungu said.

 

"In the Memorandum of Understanding, one of the fundamental issues is the freedom of assembly, it’s one of the things we need to see, but they are barring public meetings."
Meanwhile police in Bindura have refused to sanction another public meeting ostensibly because "all political gatherings have now been banned."

Security sources said Zanu-PF was now back in combat mode, and would now seek to pummel the MDC and all its allies to neuter any pocket of resistance as the party pursues its arbitrary rule following firm indications by the MDC that they will not join the unity government as a junior partner.

 

 

JOKE OF THE DAY - This is a true story happened in Kadoma a few months ago.

 

A man was hitch hiking on a very dark night, in the middle of a storm. The night was rolling by and  there was hardly a car on the road.

 

The storm was so strong that he could hardly see his feet in front of him. Suddenly a car came towards him and stopped. Without thinking, he got in and closed the door, just to realise that there was nobody behind the steering wheel.

 

The car moved off slowly. He looked ahead and saw a curve in the road. Scared, he started praying, begging for his life. He was terrified. Just before hitting the curve, a hand appeared through the window and turned the steering wheel.

 

The man, now paralysed with fear, watched how the hand kept appearing everytime they got to a curve. Gathering all his courage, he jumped out and ran to the nearest lights he could see. Wet and in shock, he went into a bar and asked for a Castle.

 

After drinking it, he told everyone of the horrible experience he had just had. Everyone was silent when they realised he was crying. About half an hour later, two men came into the bar and on seeing the terrified man, one of them said to the other, 'Moyo ndizvo, that's the idiot who got into the car when we were pushing!!!!!!

 

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