Kadoma residents forced to pull down satellite dishes

By Staff Reporter
20 June 2008

Residents from the mining town of Kadoma awoke Friday morning to the sound of Zanu PF thugs demanding they pull down their satellite dishes or risk having their homes burnt down. On Thursday Newsreel reported a warning by Kadoma Central MDC MP, Editor Matamisa, who said Zanu PF youths bused in from the nearby Patchway Mine were planning a campaign of violent retribution in the area. This followed a daring rescue by MDC youths of a fellow colleague who was being tortured at a base, 50 meters away from a police station.

Frightened residents hastily took down their satellite dishes after the Zanu PF mobs moved around the suburbs to enforce their demands. They accused foreign news stations, accessed via satellite, of misinforming Zimbabweans on the political situation in the country.

The operation, code named ‘Dzikisai Madhishi (Take Down Your Dishes),’ was initially reported last month in rural Matabeleland areas, like Gwanda and urban centres like Mbare in Harare. In Kadoma the first victims were residents of the local police camp, which houses the families of police officers. A resident told us that even Zanu PF supporters were not spared and were also forced to take down their satellite dishes.

A woman told us that all the men from nearby Venus Mine were forced to join the Zanu PF mobs in ‘a war against the residents of Kadoma.’ Two trucks arrived in the area to collect Zanu PF youths, but in the end all the men in the area were told to jump onto the trucks, or face retribution later. Many Kadoma residents on Friday refused to venture outside their homes, in an attempt to avoid getting caught up in any incidents of violence.

Meanwhile Newsreel understands the MDC is expected to place a series of political campaign adverts on several South African TV stations, after the state controlled ZBC refused to air them. The operation to bring down satellite dishes is now also being seen as an attempt to block people from seeing those adverts.

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