Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Report — Of Stuffed ballots and Empty Stomachs
shouted that he was an MDC member and that maize should not be sold to him. It is alleged
that one of the people who was there then approached the victim and asked him what his
business was, to which the victim replied that he only wanted to buy maize. Someone then
shouted out that others near the victim were also MDC supporters. ZANU(PF) youths at the
maize distribution centre then started to assault these people. The youths surrounded the
victim and, as he tried to run away, he tripped and fell. The youths then trampled on the
victim. The youths dispersed after onlookers eventually intervened fearing the attackers
would kill the victim.
7. A then pregnant victim claims that in Murehwa on 23 April 2005, while at home, she heard
someone calling her by her name and when she went out to check on the visitor, she saw
about 9 men. They assaulted her with sticks accusing her of being Tsvangirai’s (the MDC
leader) prostitute. She tried to escape but as she ran away she fell and she was kicked all
over the body. She miscarried 4 days later.
Evictions and expulsions
In its April Report the NGO Forum carried details of some 53 people being forced to leave
their homes because they were MDC supporters. Such reports were received from all around
the country including Bindura, Chegutu, Chikomba, Chinhoyi, Guruve, Lupane, Mount
Darwin, Rushinga and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe. Two typical reports received by the NGO
Forum are these:
1. At the beginning of April the victim was forced out of Bindura for being an MDC activist.
He had to relocate to Harare while another victim was allegedly forced to close down his
business in Madziva. He also says he had to flee his home because of threats of violence
issued against him for being an MDC activist.
2. In mid April a man was evicted from his home in Muzarabani while another man was
assaulted by ZANU-PF activists because they support the MDC and also because they were
MDC election agents in the parliamentary elections. They were allegedly ordered to go and
live in Harare “because that is where MDC people live”. They had to relocate with their
families.
Similar reports documented by other agencies include these:
1. In April 2005 more than thirty families were allegedly evicted from three farms in
Hurungwe East, in the course of a witch hunt by ZANU(PF) party supporters to sniff out
people who had actively campaigned for the MDC during the elections. The evictions were
allegedly spearheaded by a person known as Machinga, a ZANU(PF) activist, with the
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