Several Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activists were allegedly arrested and detained in Lower Gweru on Sunday while attending a memorial service of slain party member Mboneni Ncube.
Ncube was fatally struck with a spear by suspected ZANU PF supporters at a CCC rally in Kwekwe in February 2022.
Posting on X, Promise Mkwananzi, the spokesperson of a CCC faction loyal to the party’s former leader Nelson Chamisa, said:
Hundreds of people attending Mboneni Ncube’s memorial have been arrested and are currently being held in Gweru.
The regime’s panic has reached self-destruct levels. We urge citizens to continue carrying out lawful and peaceful programmes.
Earlier, on Sunday, Mkwananzi claimed the police were blocking people from attending Ncube’s memorial, and all vehicles, including those not headed to the memorial, were being turned back. He wrote:
Police are blocking people from attending Mboneni Ncube’s memorial. All vehicles, even those not necessarily headed to the memorial are being turned back and denied to pass through going about their business, including routine commuter omnibuses ferrying commuters between Gweru and Lower Gweru.
A systematic program to deny and block lawful meetings and gatherings of those suspected to be opposition supporters and sympathisers is emerging.
These bans and arrests are a violation of the country’s supreme law the constitution as most of the banned activities are private activities taking place within private spaces.
On Saturday, five members of the National Democratic Working Group (NDWG), a political group led by former Zengeza West MP, Job Sikhala, were arrested in Kuwadzana, Harare.
The NDWG said its arrested members were distributing monthly food handouts to less privileged Kuwadzana residents.
More: Pindula News