Staff Reporter
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) violence continues to escalate as the nation gears towards the 2023 Harmonised General Elections slated for next month.
A source who spoke to this publication revealed that one CCC activist, Farai Chireya, assaulted a Zanu Pf campaign team member, Ephraim Saungweme at Zindoga shopping centre in Waterfalls.
“It is so sad to note that the CCC continues to unleash violence despite President Emmerson Mnangagwa`s call for peace during and after the elections. On 23 July 2023, one well known CCC activist who is also on record of perpetrating violence in the capital`s suburbs, Farai Chireya together with six other CCC activists battered one Zanu Pf campaign team member, Ephraim Saungweme.
“Saungweme was pasting President Mnangagwa`s posters in the company of two other Zanu Pf members, Mark Muchabaiwa and Forever Association of Zimbabwe (FAZ) Trust member, Nigel Tarega. Chireya went on to break Saungweme`s spectacles and made threats of violence against the Zanu Pf campaign team, claiming that Zindoga was a no go area for Zanu Pf,” reported the source.
The source further indicated that Saungweme took the matter to the Police in Waterfalls. Investigations surrounding the matter are underway.
Relatedly, CCC activists, Itai Mapurisa of Manyame Park, St Mary`s in Chitungwiza was arrested on 23 July 2023, for defacing President Mnangagwa`s poster at Vito shops in St Mary`s. Circumstances are that, Mapurisa was spotted tearing down President Mnangagwa`s campaign poster in St Mary`s by FAZ volunteer who effected a citizen`s arrest before handing him over to ZRP St Mary`s Chitungwiza Police Station.
Meanwhile, the CCC party is known as home to political violence as witnessed by a number of violent incidents, including the violent attacks in Mbire Constituency, Masvingo, Mashonaland West, Marondera and Chirumhanzu.
On 4 June 2023, four CCC activists fatally attacked and left for dead a Zanu Pf Chasunga District Secretary, Anyway Chiukise in Mbire constituency,
On June 13, 2023, Voice of America (VOA) carried a report which revealed that 39 CCC activists were charged with political violence over the demolishing of Zanu Pf party offices in Nyatsime, Chitungwiza.
