Tsvangirai barred from Chiadzwa

Tsvangirai wanted to visit villagers displaced by the mining operations as part of his weekend tour of Manicaland Province.

Unconfirmed reports said Manicaland governor’s office had been given an instruction by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to bar Tsvangirai’s tour because the PM had not been granted permission.

Zanu PF supporters had also mobilised to disrupt the premier’s tour. On Friday Tsvangirai had told his supporters in Buhera that he would visit Chiadzwa.“I am not visiting the mines but I am going to visit the resettled people to find out how they are surviving,” he said on Friday.

But a source who was part of the PM’s delegation that included Labour and Social Services Minister Paurina Mupariwa and her deputy Tracy Mutinhiri said they wanted to assess the conditions under which the villagers were living.

“We have cancelled the intended meeting with the resettled people in Chiadzwa,” the source said.

“We are informed that Zanu PF has mobilised to disrupt the meetings like they did during (Edgar) Tekere’s funeral.

“To avoid confrontations, we found it fit not to go there.”

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Zanu PF supporters heckled Tsvangirai when he tried to address mourners at Tekere’s Mutare home last month in another demonstration of political intolerance.

However, Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka yesterday evening tried to downplay the incident claiming the PM had no plans to visit the area.“The PM had no plans to visit Chiadzwa this time,” Tamborinyoka said.

“He was visiting the vulnerable people in Manicaland and tomorrow he will visit Chisumbanje.”

Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu was not answering his mobile phone yesterday when The Standard sought his comment.

Last year government barred MPs from the Mines and Energy portfolio committee from touring the diamond fields Chiadzwa on a fact finding mission.

There have been persistent reports that Zanu PF officials are involved in the smuggling of diamonds in the area and alleged human rights violations.

Meanwhille, after a tour of irrigation schemes, old people’s homes and vulnerable children, Tsvangirai told this paper that the trip had shown him the extent of the collapse of social institutions.

“I say that this is a ground evaluation of the extent of degradation of social institutions and also the need to work and rehabilitate them,” he said.