THE MDC-T yesterday accused a top police officer of organising villagers to stage a demonstration last Thursday against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, accusing him of depleting the water table in his Buhera rural home after he drilled a borehole.
STAFF REPORTER
The demonstration, where only the State media was invited, was staged on the eve of a field day Tsvangirai held at his Humanikwa Village last weekend.
A handful of villagers turned up brandishing placards written in perfect English denouncing the MDC-T leader for drilling a borehole deeper than those of his neighbours.
In a statement yesterday, MDC-T said the named senior police officer was trying to embarrass Tsvangirai to further his political ambitions.
“That Zanu PF’s aspiring candidate for Buhera, who is also a police inspector, chose to abuse poor villagers and the junior police officers who escorted the charade of hapless villagers, is not only theheight of notoriety, but clear abuse of office by the Zanu PF activist-cum-senior police officer,” the MDC-T said yesterday.
“It is shameful that the well-known Zanu PF charlatan takes advantage of a “platoon” of ill-informed villagers to walk 4km to demonstrate against an issue of no relevance to them, let alone an issue they have no knowledge about.”
A list of 23 villagers who allegedly participated in the demonstration was recently handed to NewsDay and sources said none of them were Tsvangirai’s neighbours.
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MDC-T said it was aware of the plot to tarnish Tsvangirai’s image ahead of elections expected in March next year.
“This charade is one among many such Zanu PF-calculated efforts to humiliate the MDC president ahead of the 2013 plebiscite,” the party said.
“We are aware that Zanu PF has incredibly invested $100 million, obviously looted from the diamond fields, in a media campaign blitz to character-assassinate the MDC president.”
Zanu PF has in the past dismissed accusations that it has a slush fund operated by State security agencies to decampaign its opponents ahead of the polls.
Efforts to get a comment from the police were in vain at the time of going to Press last night.
Commenting on the demonstrations, Tsvangirai said the borehole was meant to serve the community and no one was ever barred from using it.
He urged people in the community to co-exist and desist from violence as that would attract avenging spirits.
