POLICE officers are laying siege at the opposition MDC’s headquarters in Harare, the Morgan Tsvangirai House, blocking officials from both the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC and those from the Nelson Chamisa-led party from entering, as the fight for the control of the party and its assets rages.
BY STAFF REPORTER
Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi could not immediately comment on why police have besieged the party offices since Tuesday and promised to give a position later.
But when NewsDay visited the party offices early on Thursday, a police truck was parked at the entrance of the party headquarters with armed officers milling around.
Our news crew witnessed officers forcing people who were near the offices to the ground, some of them who had no connection to the opposition party.
MDC Alliance secretary general, Chalton Hwende said he did not know why the police were there, but said a group of youth, allegedly linked to Khupe went to the Morgan Tsvangirai House on Wednesday trying to get access into the building claiming they were now in charge.
“I don’t know why the police are there, but I have heard there were some known youth aligned to Khupe who went there and tried to get access,” Hwende said.
MDC sources said the building, formerly Harvest House, did not belong to the MDC but was registered under a trust, hence, attempts by the Khupe faction to take over the building were an exercise in futility.
The party spokesperson, Daniel Molekele said party officials will continue to work at home, because of the 21-day lockdown being implemented in order to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus and because the police had denied entry to some of its officials.
MDC Alliance vice president, Tendai Biti was denied entry into the building by the police when he wanted to address a media conference after the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday.
Biti ended up addressing the media at his Milton Park offices.
