Fresh violence erupted in Chiweshe district this week as 50 homes belonging to known MDC supporters were burnt down by ZANU PF militias.

Expressing concern over the situation the MDC MP for Mazowe central, Shepherd Mushonga, told SW Radio Africa that their supporters and activists were being driven out by the militias, led by a well known district coordinating committee chairman named as Gatsi.

The MP said over 80 teachers had also fled the violence that erupted soon after the MDC announced it was disengaging from ZANU PF a week ago. Chiweshe lies about 60km north of Harare and is traditionally known as a ZANU PF stronghold.

‘The situation is grave. Our supporters are being driven out by ZANU PF militias. Through a well-timed brutal assault unleashed over the weekend, many MDC activists have fled their homes and have taken refuge in neighbouring areas. These militias again remind us that they will stop at nothing to maintain their empires of doom,’ Mushonga said.

The violent offensive against known MDC sympathizers has also seen militias publicly and coldly beat up teachers and headmasters and chasing them away from their schools.

Mushonga, whose constituency borders the affected areas in Chiweshe, said teachers and headmasters had fled mostly from Chaona primary school and Dzingamvura primary and secondary schools.

‘We are talking of three schools with an intake of close to 1000 students each and a staff compliment of 30 teachers each. They are being told that their principal (Tsvangirai) has disengaged from ZANU PF and that they too (teachers) should also disengage from the schools,’ Mushonga said.

Mushonga, a lawyer by profession, said he was worried the absence of teachers would affect students who are due to write their final examinations beginning Monday next week. He has also raised the issue with the ZANU MP for the area, Retired Major Cairo Mhandu.

‘Mhandu cannot control the situation and it’s now free for all as he’s powerless. The militias now operate with impunity, arrogance and blatant violence,’ added Mushonga.

The people of Chiweshe are being punished for voting for the MDC during last year’s harmonized elections, especially those from Chaona village. It has been a flashpoint between MDC activists and ZANU PF militias since then.

Chaona has witnessed some of the bloodiest scenes of political violence in Zimbabwe in the last decade. On the evening of May 5th, 2008, three days after Mugabe’s government finally released the official results of the March 29 election, 200 men from the ZANU PF militias rampaged through the village.

By daybreak ten people lay dead and the injured bore the hallmarks of a new kind of political violence. Mushonga said women were stripped and beaten so viciously that whole sections of flesh fell away from their buttocks.

Apart from forcing people to drink paraquat, a deadly herbicide, the militia and soldiers inflicted serious injuries by dipping their knobkerries and sticks into the chemical, before beating their victims. This caused the serious wounds not to heal and many of those beaten died months later, in agony.

Those who recovered had to lie facedown in hospital beds for many weeks, and sometimes months. The militias also used genital mutilation in their attacks. The official postmortem report on the Chaona MDC activist Aleck Chiriseri, listed crushed genitals among the causes of death. Many other men died the same way.

Written By: By Tichaona Sibanda
23 October 2009

SW Radio Africa