The opposition party members, however, allege that the
youths who disrupted them are from the ruling party Zanu-PF.
The campaign team was led by aspiring Cowdray Park
constituency Member of Parliament Pashor Sibanda and also comprised Jasmine
Toffa, Ntandoyenkosi Ndlovu, Lezina Mohammed, and other party members.
Cowdray Park is Bulawayo’s biggest residential suburb which
was made a Constituency following the recently conducted delimitation process.
The constituency grabbed the attention of many after
Finance Minister Prof Mthuli Ncube was fielded as the Zanu PF Member of
Parliament candidate.
In an interview with CITE, Sibanda narrated that their team
was attacked while having a debrief after conducting their door-to-door
campaign.
“We were doing our door-to-door campaign in Ward 28,
Cowdray Park. We were distributing our fliers and talking to residents. When we
were done we then regrouped to have a debrief of the exercise and plan on our
next campaigns. That was when a kombi full of rowdy youths just stopped where
we were and attacked us,” Sibanda said.
“They started pelting us with stones. They caused a lot of
chaos. We quickly dispersed and some of our members jumped into their cars and
drove off. Some members remained behind, but eventually the attackers left. As
we drove away we drove past a roadshow that was being conducted by Zanu-PF. We
realised that the attack was deliberate on their end to ensure that when they
come to the ground there would be no CCC activity.”
Sibanda said as such conduct is a violation of peace and no
party should be disturbed from conducting their campaigns.
“This is surely an admission of defeat. How do you disturb a peaceful meeting being held by people. Our party believes in peaceful campaigns and peaceful elections. Zanu-PF should not act like they have monopoly over violence. We just choose peace,” he said. CITE
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