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Activists arrested in Zim
02/03/2008 11:44 - (SA)
Harare - Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a dozen supporters of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for allegedly carrying banned weapons, state radio said on Sunday.
The twelve were arrested on charges of "public violence" in the town of Chitungwiza, a hot bed of support for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) south of Harare.
Those arrested included Marvellous Khumalo, who is the MDC candidate for St Mary's suburb in Chitungwiza in parliamentary polls on March 29.
Police allege Khumalo led a group of 100 activists on a door-to- door campaign in Chitungwiza, and that some of them were carrying weapons like clubs and axes.
They are also alleged to have stoned the house of the state- appointed acting mayor of Chitungwiza. The former MDC mayor of Chitungwiza was suspended by the government in 2005.
The MDC dismissed the police charges against Khumalo and accused the police of working in league with ruling Zanu-PF candidates in the area.
"These (arrests) are machinations to victimise our candidate so that they render our campaign comatose," MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa in a telephone interview.
Last month police banned the carrying of clubs, axes, bows and arrows and other traditional weapons in Harare, Chitungwiza and the southern province of Masvingo in a bid to curb political violence in the run-up to the polls.
On March 29 voters will be going to the polls to elect a new president, parliamentarians and local councillors in the first joint election of its kind in Zimbabwe.
For the first time in 28 years of uninterrupted rule President Robert Mugabe is himself facing a challenge from two strong contenders: the MDC's Tsvangirai and former finance minister Simba Makoni.
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