VILLAGERS from Madzivhe in Beitbridge West have accused
Zanu PF activists of roping in war veterans and prophets in their door-to-door
campaigns to “sniff out” MDC Alliance supporters.
The villagers told MDC Alliance spokesperson Welshman Ncube
during a campaign rally in the border town on Tuesday that the ruling party had
intensified its intimidation campaign in the past few days.
“They [self-proclaimed prophets aligned to the ruling
party] would claim they had been shown a vision that we [villagers] would vote
for MDC Alliance and we must stop it,” a villager claimed.
Another villager said: “When we tell our grandmothers to
vote and remove Zanu PF, they quickly say they fear being killed by Zanu PF as
Gukurahundi memories are still fresh.
“They prefer to continue suffering. War veterans and
prophets are telling people that cameras would be installed at voting booths to
monitor us. These prophets say they have powers to prophesy who I will vote
for, so people are scared of removing Zanu PF.”
The villagers opened up after Ncube asked them to explain
why they kept voting for the ruling party in previous elections.
Villagers spoke of how communities in Beitbridge had been
traumatised by Zanu PF violence since Gukurahundi with many people believing
that they would be punished if they voted against the ruling party.
Contacted for comment, Zanu PF Matabeleland South
chairperson Rabelani Choeni scoffed at the intimidation claims and challenged
the affected villagers to report the matter to police.
“I am not aware of such; is it that they report issues to
the newspapers or they are supposed to report to the police? I do not know
anything about that,” Choeni said.
All Beitbridge constituencies have remained under Zanu PF
control since the birth of the opposition MDC in 1999.
Zanu PF is known for politicising food aid and intimidating
known and suspected opposition supporters, particularly in rural areas and in
other cases resorting to violence to sway the rural vote. Newsday
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