Budiriro schools shut down as Mugabe forces children to his rally

By Lance Guma
18 May 2006

Last year in May the Zanu PF government destroyed the homes and vending stalls of people in Budiriro and other parts of the country. On Thursday Robert Mugabe’s heavily armed entourage thundered its way into the same community asking for their votes in the run up to Saturday’s by-election. For good measure he brought a couple of outdated computers and donated these to some of the schools in the area. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa spent the day driving around in Budiriro and told Newsreel he could not believe Mugabe had the audacity to show up in the constituency after what his security forces did last year.

According to Chamisa most schools in the area were shut down, as pupils were frog-marched to attend Mugabe’s rally in Budiriro 2. Chamisa says the area was under siege the whole day with heavily armed military and police personnel moving around. The Zanu PF leader decided to hold a rally after last week’s attempt by Vice President Joyce Mujuru, which flopped due to poor attendance. Chamisa says it’s clear the move was ‘damage control’ and to ensure they had the crowds, all schools and businesses in the area were shut down. He says ruling party supporters were moving around and forcing residents to attend Mugabe’s rally.

The problems for the opposition do not end there. Apart from revelations by its legal department that 3000 new people might have been suspiciously added to the voters roll, government has also ordered a media blackout on the MDC. It’s reported that some journalists with the state broadcaster might lose their jobs for covering an MDC meeting during the week. Chamisa told Newsreel that the journalists have been asked to write up reports on why they defied the blackout and proceeded to cover the meeting. As if that was not enough the acrimonious split in the MDC ranks has resulted in two candidates, Emmanuel Chisvuvure (Tsvangirai) and Gabriel Chaibva (Mutambara) using the same party name. Despite these odds, Chamisa remains confident they will retain the parliamentary seat.