by STAFF REPORTER
POLICE have banned an MDC event in Mbare where party leader Nelson Chamisa was today expected to make announcements regarding his position on participation in future talks with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
In a statement, deputy party spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka said police claimed the event could not proceed because they were busy with the schools that are opening this week.
He said the MDC national leadership met and decided against confrontation with the police.
“For fear for their lives against this brutal dictatorship, and given what this regime has done before, we have decided to postpone the Agenda 2020 event to next week on Tuesday at a venue to be announced,” Tamborinyoka said.
“But this does not mean that we are complying with the dictatorship. We have given the regime due notice of all our constitutional activities and they have denied us the chance to exercise our democratic rights.
“This is a peaceful event, a mammoth event on this year’s national calendar that is set to be attended by ordinary people as well as diplomats in which the party will lay to the people its agenda for the year, including its programme of action as well as the party’s programme of activities for the year.”
He said the MDC noted a disturbing trend where the police were routinely proscribing the party’s events and treating the party as a banned organisation.
“We have postponed the event because the regime was budgeting for a clash, for blood and for violence and as a party we will not sacrifice the lives of innocent Zimbabweans,” Tamborinyoka said.
“I reiterate that we are reviewing the position of whether we should continue to comply and co-operate with unjust laws and unjust requirements that are inimical to democracy. We have postponed our event because we do not want any sideshow.
We want to give Zimbabweans a chance to hear the party’s calendar of critical targets for the year that will address the key challenges affecting the ordinary people as well as the party’s plan to rescue the nation out of the current morass.”
National police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Blessmore Chishaka last night said he would seek clarification from the police regulatory authorities.
