MDC Accuse Police of Firing Live Rounds

Nelson Chamisa, the leader of Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has taken to Twitter to accuse the police of firing live rounds at an event they held in Marondera, to the east of the capital, Harare.

Chamisa said “Gunshots and canisters… So shocked by the behaviour of the police, armed with guns and weapons, as they besieged the venue and started taking aim at us as we were planting trees at Dombotombo clinic in Marondera today.

“Had to take cover.  I can’t get this excessive use of violence”.

Spokesperson for the MDC, Nkululeko Sibanda, told journalists the police opened fire as party leaders arrived for a tree planting event.

But the police said they only used teargas cannisters to disperse the crowd because they were preventing people from getting in to the Dombotombo clinic.

Sibanda reported that four people had been injured.

The MDC have accused President Emerson Mnangagwa and his ruling ZANU-PF of imposing a de facto ban on all their activities. 

The government deny this, claiming the MDC are trying to sow political dissent during an economic crisis.