Top ZCTU officials picked up by the police in Rusape

By Tichaona Sibanda
12 September 2006

Two senior Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union officials based in Rusape have been picked up by the police as authorities begin their crackdown on leaders of the planned anti-government protests, scheduled for Wednesday. The two ZCTU officials, both National Railways of Zimbabwe employees, were picked up on Monday and Tuesday respectively from Vengere suburb in the town. There are reports other ZCTU officials in the province have gone underground to avoid being arrested by state agents.

A source who phoned us from Rusape on Tuesday said he witnessed at least five security agents bundling one of the ZCTU officials into a police truck before driving off at high speed to an unknown destination. The source added that some of the agents in the town spent the last two days intimidating shop owners by enquiring if they would open their businesses on Wednesday.

‘This action is meant to intimidate the shop owners. Some of them are obviously developing cold feet over this but the majority of people here are raring to go. Everyone is suffering and we need to point this out to the government,’ said our source who asked not to be named. He said they were still in the dark about the whereabouts and safety of the two officials as the regime has promised to crush the protests. The country’s security agents were put on high alert over the weekend with security minister Didymus Mutasa warning that ‘various arms of the state responsible for security are ready for them.’

Rusape is Mutasa’s home town and he is well known in the area for crushing any dissent against the government. But the ZCTU secretary-general vowed that the protests would go ahead despite the threats from Mutasa.

We got reports that on Tuesday evening police in trucks and accompanied by water cannon patrolled the high density areas in Masvingo Town. They reportedly used loud hailers to instruct businesses not to close on Wednesday and for workers to ignore the call by the ZCTU to march to the Town Centre. The town is reported to be tense.