The ZRP denied the MDC-T permission to hold a single rally in Harare, but allowed Zanu PF to hold innumerable anti-sanction rallies across the country.
The police gave flimsy reasons for denying the MDC-T permission to hold a rally at Glamis Arena.
They said Zanu PF had already booked the venue and therefore it would be inappropriate for the MDC-T to have their meeting there. The police also cited their lack of manpower to cover political parties’ meetings.
Earlier, the MDC-T had tried to secure permission to hold their rally at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield but were confronted with claims that this venue had been booked for the whole year by Zanu PF. Really? — All of a sudden?
The police’s determination to stop MDC-T from holding meetings is not only illegal but is also a blatant reflection of the way the force has been politicised.
Why would a professional body stop the Prime Minister from holding a rally, and at the same time, allow the President’s party carte blanche to hold dozens of rallies on the same day?
This behaviour removes any pretence of the force being an impartial body that upholds its constitutional mandate of maintaining law and order in Zimbabwe.
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And more worrying is the fact that by each day, the police are increasingly openly aligning themselves with Zanu PF.
Yesterday police details simply watched as Zanu PF youths beat up people who turned up for the MDC-T’s rally at Glamis Arena, unaware that it had been banned.
Passers-by were also not spared with the youths. Again during the past two weeks, the police, turning a blind eye to Zanu PF officials’ transgressions, have arrested MDC-T officials at will on mainly trumped-up charges.
It is this abdication of their constitutional mandate that makes the police untrustworthy in the eyes of many right-thinking Zimbabweans.
