Midnight raid on Bulawayo MDC offices

By Lance Guma
13 September 2005

There was high drama at midnight on Sunday when four unidentified men tried to break into the MDC regional offices in Bulawayo. An alert security guard raised the alarm by screaming for help and several guards stationed at nearby shops came to the rescue.

An activist who spoke to Newsreel says it is no coincidence that a vehicle with government number plates had spent the day monitoring activities at the office. The same vehicle used during the raid had spent the day parked in an alley leading to the back gate of the offices.

At midnight on the day, a truck parked at the front hooted to attract the attention of the guard. While this was happening several men disembarked from a car positioned at the back gate and tried to force their way in. Security guards then tried to call police to intervene but the phone numbers at Central police station went unanswered.

Although they managed to remove the sheeting on the gates they were not able to break in and were forced to flee by a growing number of nearby guards. The following day after the incident, between 1pm and 5pm, the same car from the previous night was again carrying out surveillance with three men known to work at Magnet House, the Bulawayo CIO offices.

MDC officials dismissed the incident as the usual intimidation by state security agents.