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had their windscreens shattered following the fierce fight.
MDC-T on Saturday held its anniversary celebrations at White City Stadium where its leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai publicly apologised to a coterie of women he inconvenienced through his sex escapades while ostensibly searching for a new wife.
He said the journey he had travelled just to make his current choice had been long and stressful.
MDC-T Midlands provincial spokesperson Mr James Tsuro confirmed that the party’s supporters clashed with the gold panners on Saturday morning.
A witness said the MDC-T members stopped at Shangani Business Centre to buy some refreshments when they tried to force a group of gold panners to chant the party slogan.
Police were deployed in Shangani recently following a gold rush in the area about 60km along the Gweru-Bulawayo Road.
The witness said the MDC-T members, who had stopped at Shangani Business Centre, tried to force the panners who had just run away from the police to chant their party slogans.
“This did go down well with the panners who were already angry because they are always involved in running battles with the police,” said the witness.
“They then started verbally abusing the MDC-T party members while telling them to proceed with their journey and stop forcing them to chant their party slogan.”
Riot police were later called in to quell the ugly clashes.
“All the shops were forced to close as the fight took almost 30 minutes and the police later moved in and used teargas to stop the fight,” said the witness.
Mr Tsuro dismissed as false allegations that the party members had tried to force the panners to chant the party slogans when the fight broke out.
He said the party members were attacked when they tried to stop and buy some refreshments at Shangani.
“Our team was just attacked unexpectedly when they stopped at the business centre buying some refreshments,” he said.
“Some were injured when they stampeded to get back into their vehicle. A number of them were injured but only two were critical and were taken to Gweru Provincial Hospital.”
MDC-T spokesperson, Mr Douglas Mwonzora confirmed the incident, saying the party had engaged the Joint Monitoring Implementation Committee and the police on the matter.
Online Reporter