Villages deserted as people flee violence
Makundwei Motsi Muzavazi, 26, of Imbwanhema village in Musana communal lands, is recuperating in a Harare hospital after being assaulted by a group of Zanu PF youths from Bindura last week. Several families from the area have since fled their villages. Muzavazi’s attackers accused him of being a member of the MDC. Musana falls under the Bindura parliamentary constituency where a by-election is to be held on 28 and 29 July, following the vacancy left by the death of Border Gezi, the MP, in a car accident in April. Zanu PF’s Elliot Manyika and Elliot Pfebve of the MDC, who are battling for the seat, have launched vigorous campaigns to win the by-election.
Several families in Imbwanhema village fled their homes after the youths descended on them last Thursday. The youths were being driven in a brown government Land-Rover Defender vehicle. An eyewitness, who preferred anonymity, said the youths moved from house to house, looking for specific people whom they claimed supported the MDC. When they arrived in Imbwanhema village they asked for Muzavazi. Sensing danger, Muzavazi ran away. However, the youths caught up with him and attacked him with chains and sticks, leaving him for dead. The youths went to his house and looted his property, setting some of it on fire.
Muzavazi’s brother, Takaedza, said his brother was taken to Makumbe Hospital but was later transferred to Parirenyatwa in Harare. The youths moved to the Mukwesha homestead next, but their intended victims, Wadzanai and his brother, Francis, had already fled. The marauding youths then set fire to the Mukwesha family’s household goods, including maize meal. The homestead was deserted when a Daily News team visited the village yesterday. There were heaps of ashes of burnt property and mealie-meal which was scattered on the ground. The headman, Timothy Kunaka, said many villagers were living in fear after the attacks.
Pfebve, who held an election campaign rally at Trojan Mine in Bindura yesterday, accused his rival, Manyika, of organising the violence in order to instil fear in the people in the run-up to the by-election. ‘The cases of violence are not isolated but systematic within the entire constituency,’ said Pfebve. In a related development, several MDC supporters who were attending a rally at Trojan Mine were beaten up by Zanu PF youths who arrived at the mine in a lorry. An MDC member who attended the rally said Manyika arrived at the mine ahead of the youths in a Defender vehicle, registration number 750 009B. Manyika allegedly ordered the youth to disembark before they attacked the MDC supporters.