Zanu PF election agents bombed Highfield office?

By Staff Reporter

HARARE – Disgruntled Zanu PF election agents who have not received their allowances since the controversial July 31 elections may have been behind the September bombing of the Zanu PF offices in the Harare suburb of Highfield.

The Zanu PF-owned Jongwe Printers and its party offices were allegedly firebombed with the damage spreading to the Grocery World Supermarket. Since then two MDC-T activists Ishmael Kauzani and James Chidhakwa have been arrested and questioned in connection with the bombing.

But a disgruntled election agent who worked for Zanu PF during the elections told Nehanda Radio that several election agents and professional service providers have been going to the party provincial offices seeking payment for their services but all they have been getting are rude answers from officials.

“Zanu PF hired over 15,000 election agents and a few professional service providers promising to pay them soon after elections. They also bussed youths to various constituencies and dumped them soon after they cast their votes. It’s pretty obvious this is a huge pool of disgruntled people,” the election agent said.

“They were left with no food or shelter; many female youths resorted to prostitution to raise money for transport back home. It is believed Zanu PF is also bullying professional service providers who offered them services during the 31st July elections,” the election agent added.

On Tuesday the MDC-T’s secretary for defence and security in the youth wing, Ishmael Kauzani and his wife were picked up by the police and detained at the Harare Central Police Station. Last month MDC-T Youth Assembly executive, James Chidhakwa, was also picked up for questioning before being released.

Also in September a mother and her one-year-old son were arrested in connection with the bombing. Thirty-two-year-old Spiwe Pambayi was arrested and kept in custody for two nights, together with her son Clifford Mbewe.

Pambayi is said to have been picked up after an informant allegedly told police that she had boasted that the “fire-fire operation yatakaita nezuro yakabudirira,” which the police translated to mean “the fire-fire operation that we conducted yesterday was a success”.

But as an MDC-T press statement in September suggested “Zanu PF need to look within their own circles” if they are to find the culprits who firebombed their offices. In the meantime MDC-T officials continue to be arrested with no meaningful evidence linking them to the bombing.