Zimbabwe: Political Intimidation and Bribery by Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe

20 November 2012
ThinkAfricaPress

Footage obtained by Think Africa Press documents political intimidation and bribery in Zimbabwe.

Think Africa Press has obtained secretly-filmed footage that appears to show the use of political intimidation and bribery by Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party. The video, filmed in 2011 and still very relevant, shows a ZANU-PF official warning a group of Zimbabweans against voting for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and threatening violent retaliation.

Speaking at a ZANU-PF meeting in Muzarabani South, Mashonaland Central Province, MP Edward Raradza assures the gathering (which includes the party's youth militia and war veterans) that "nothing can stop us from doing what we want".

Raradza goes on to tell those seated, "if we hear that you are MDC we won't forgive you" and warns the local headman against allowing an MDC meeting to take place in the area. He adds that ZANU-PF will withhold the benefits of local projects and food from MDC members unless they "come back home" to the ZANU-PF.

The ZANU-PF MP then uses biblical examples to defend ZANU-PF violence, quoting a story in the bible in which people who repented too late were buried on the spot, and claiming that even Jesus beat people in the temple.

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