One person died as bottles, stones, spears, and machetes were used in Sunday’s bloody pre-election violence in Zimbabwe’s midlands gold mining town, KweKwe.
Nelson Chamisa the leader of the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) was addressing thousands of supporters in Mbizo 4 when a group of people tried to disrupt the speech.
Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, CCC spokesperson, tweeted: “One person has suffered fatal injuries at the #YellowKwekwe where Zanu PF unleashed an orgy of violence in the middle of President Chamisa’s speech”.
She said the dead person was “pierced” in the side with a spear.
The ruling Zanu PF, which has presided over the shrinking of the once-thriving economy, is under pressure from the resurgent CCC that recently changes its name from “MDC Alliance”.
The MDC Alliance name had been usurped by a so-called Zanu PF proxy, Douglas Mwonzora, who successfully used the courts to grab the party name.
Mwonzora recalled from Parliament several MDC Alliance MPs, a move that has necessitated the hotly contested by-elections to fill the vacant positions.
Out went the red colours and in came the yellow as Chamisa rebranded his party.
On Sunday Kwekwe was yellow.
“This is the first time that Chamisa ordered us not to run away,” said a resident who witnessed the violence.
“One of the Zanu PF guys was knocked out cold and had to be carried on a stretcher.”
Even as bodyguards led the 44-year-old politician dubbed “Mukomana” away to safety Chamisa urged CCC youths not to run away.
Several CCC supporters were injured in the melee, but the disrupters appeared to have suffered more casualties,
The violence came ahead of next month’s by-elections.
A Red Cross medic and a volunteer carry an injured Zanu PF supporter
