Elliot Manyika faces arrest over Bindura political violence

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Opinion Zone

29 August 2006

By Lance Guma

Zanu PF National Commissar and Minister without portfolio Elliot Manyika faces possible arrest over political violence in Bindura last week. Police officers in the mining town have revealed that Manyika, who is the local MP for the area, has been implicated in a reign of terror stretching back to May this year.

On Friday 9 Zanu PF supporters were arrested after the burning down of 4 houses belonging to MDC supporters Thursday morning. A 19-year-old irrigation assistant at the wheat farm in the area was also killed during the skirmishes.

Junior officers at Bindura police station are said to be itching to do their job and bring the MP to book but senior officers are still stalling on the matter. Its thought wide consultations are taking place on the matter, which has been further complicated by the fact that some of those arrested have pointed to Manyika as the sponsor of the violence.

It will also be hard for Manyika to prove his innocence given public statements at a recent rally that all MDC supporters had to be flushed out of Mashonaland Central. According to a Tsvangirai MDC spokesperson in the area Elliot Manyika and Ephraim Masawi, the governor for the province, are leading a reign of terror. A by-election in Rushinga and approaching local government elections have raised the political stakes in the area.

The MDC say they have fielded candidates in all 28 wards of Bindura for the first time and this has angered Manyika and Zanu PF. Two Sundays ago at Burnside Farm, Zanu PF youths frogmarched people from surrounding compounds to a rally addressed by Manyika. MDC supporters were pinpointed and made to stand up during a naming and shaming exercise. Those identified were then targeted Thursday morning.

An MDC official told us they are still awaiting the post-mortem result on the dead teenager but the police are already saying he might have been killed by thieves trying to still irrigation equipment at the farm. The coincidence is hard for the opposition officials to swallow and until the post-mortem results are out they have adopted a wait and see attitude.

Meanwhile its alleged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) officials at the local office are not yet ready for any of the elections due. Officials have told the opposition there is no money to conduct the poll.

Speaking from behind a single desk in a run down rented house, the ZEC representatives have told MDC officials that no one even knows when the elections, initially due for 19th August 2006, are going to be held.- SW Radio Africa

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