adminMidlands Bureau Chief
THE Officer Commanding Police in the Midlands, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charles Makono has said the province continues to enjoy peace with only a day to go before the holding of the harmonised elections tomorrow.Addressing local journalists at his offices at the Midlands Police Headquarters yesterday, Snr Asst Comm Makono said the police had deployed enough manpower to man the province’s 1 349 polling stations and conduct normal police duties.
The Midlands police boss dismissed as fiction reports in the recent Daily News on Sunday that violence broke out in Mberengwa.
“Midlands continue to enjoy peace in all its districts ahead of the harmonised elections on Wednesday (tomorrow). We have enough personnel for normal policing duties and we expect the post-election period to be peaceful as well.
Reports that violence flared up in Mberengwa are not true. There is no violence in Mberengwa. The province is peaceful,” he said.
Snr Asst Comm Makono said Mberengwa North Constituency has two cousins who are contesting for the seat, Cde Tafanana Zhou (Zanu-PF) and Mr Takavafira Zhou (MDC-T).
He said Mr Takavafira Zhou was recently attacked by a group of angry villagers at Gwengwena Business Centre in Mberengwa after he allegedly divulged secrets surrounding the Remba people’s circumcision ceremonies.
“The Remba (or Lemba) community to which both cousin brothers belong conduct their traditional ngoma-lungundu in winter. It is taboo among the Remba to talk about what happens at ngoma-lungundu. Apparently, Mr Takavafira Zhou is said to have been going around talking about what happens at ngoma-lungundu.
This irritated the villagers and the local chief, Maziofa. On 21 July, Takavafira was at Gwengwena Business Centre in Mberengwa when a group of villagers who were apparently irritated by his divulging ngoma-lungundu secrets threw stones at his car. Another villager quickly intervened and saved Mr Takavafira Zhou.
He went and reported the matter to the police and the matter is being investigated. This had nothing to do with politics but rituals,” said Snr Asst Makono.
Snr Asst Comm Makono also dismissed reports from the MDC-T camp that Zanu-PF had set up campaign bases which, allegedly are led by local war veteran, Cde Biggie Chitoro.
He said it was unfortunate that the MDC-T camp was alleging that Cde Chitoro was leading Zanu-PF youths to harass them when he was in fact bedridden.
“How can Cde Chitoro lead youths at these suggested bases when he is bedridden? The man is not feeling well. Journalists should do research first before coming up with such allegations. In the same story, it is further alleged that in Mberengwa East, a hut belonging to MDC-T’s Godfrey Dzivakwi was burnt down by an alleged group of Zanu-PF supporters who were led by a councillor Bankie. What is interesting in this case is that the suspect and the complainant belong to the same party, MDC-T.
The suspect is aligned to the candidate who lost in the MDC-T primaries while the complainant is aligned to the candidate who won the MDC-T primaries for the Mberengwa East parliamentary seat. Their beef has a background of witchcraft accusations at the centre stage,” said Snr Asst Comm Makono.
The senior police officer in the Midlands urged people to stop misleading others on the situation prevailing in the province during election time.
He said there were a few isolated cases of violence in the province which did not warrant massive media attention.
“There is largely peace in the Midlands. There are many posters of rival political parties and independent candidates that are displayed all over the streets of our cities. We have a few minor cases of people who are arrested for pulling down rivals’ posters but we have not recorded any major case of violence.
“However, we have people who are making false reports of violence. To say someone is leading a gang of youths in perpetuating violence in Mberengwa when that person is bedridden is quite mischievous,” said Snr Asst Comm Makono.
Meanwhile, Snr Asst Comm Makono said the police have completed deploying their officers to all the constituencies in the Midlands ahead of the harmonised elections tomorrow.
Snr Asst Comm Makono said the police officers were now moving from the constituencies command centres to into their respective polling stations.
There are 1 349 polling stations in the Midlands.
“We have deployed police officers to all constituencies and out of the 1 349 polling stations in the province, 910 of them are already occupied. We expect to have completed the deployment of officers to polling stations by evening time (yesterday evening),” said Snr Asst Comm Makono.
Online Reporter