Tsvangirai detained again and rallies blocked by police
By Tichaona Sibanda
6 June 2008

State security agents on Friday detained MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai on his way to a rally in Umzingwane from Bulawayo, in Matebeleland South province.

This was barely 48 hours after he was detained for nearly eight hours in Lupane, Matebeleland North. On Friday Tsvangirai and his convoy, that included his deputy Thokozani Khupe and party chairman Lovemore Moyo, were stopped at a roadblock at Esigodini south of Bulawayo. He was detained and taken to Esigodini police station.

The police held him for close to three hours and admitted they were acting on instructions from the top. After their release, the convoy was ordered to go back to Bulawayo. A security detail with Tsvangirai confirmed to Newsreel he had arrived safely in the city.

There are reports authorities have stopped Tsvangirai from campaigning ahead of the 27 June election run off. The order banning his rallies came after police released him from detention.

Nqobizitha Mlilo, the party’s spokesman, said the detention showed another shameless and desperate act by Robert Mugabe’s regime to frustrate Tsvangirai's campaign for the election run off.

Condemning his detention, Mlilo said it was clear the regime was determined to do everything to try and subvert the will of the people of Zimbabwe. He laughed at suggestions by the police that Tsvangirai was causing a great deal of commotion in the region.

‘If he’s causing commotion it means a lot of people are coming out to meet their president. It confirms he’s popular with the people and that he’s now the darling of the people, so they shouldn’t be blocking him from meeting the people,’ Mlilo said.

He added; ‘But no amount of harassment can change the fact the time for change, and change that the people of Zimbabwe can trust, has arrived. The people of Zimbabwe are determined, against all odds to restore their dignity, and on the 27th of June, they will finish off Mugabe and his cronies.’

Earlier this week on Wednesday Tsvangirai and his campaign team were detained at a police station in Lupane. No charges were brought against him after extensive questioning.

International observers for the election run off are now expected to fly into the country beginning on Saturday. The MDC had called upon the Southern African Development Community to send in observers a month before the poll.

Sam Sipepa Nkomo, the MDC MP elect for Lobengula in Bulawayo said the presence of observers in the country was ‘very crucial.’ ‘We need them now so they can be able to see for themselves the kind of carnage that Zanu-PF is leaving in its trail,’ Nkomo said.