The mayor of the opposition-controlled capital city municipal council said he had to flee a state funeral on Friday after being threatened with death.
Harare Mayor Elias Mudzuri said he was attending the funeral of Higher Education Minister, Swithin Mombeshora, when he was set upon by about 200 ruling party militants.
They jeered at him, seized the keys and documentation of his mayoral limousine and threatened kill him and torch the car. They took his driver hostage and refused to return the keys.
”When I went to talk to these people to let my driver go he was very shaken up and they threatened to kill me,” Mudzuri said.
”The police did nothing to help,” he said.
Mudzuri rode back to his offices in a city council truck and the driver was eventually allowed to leave in the limousine. President Robert Mugabe officiated at the funeral at Heroes’ Acre, a national shrine for politicians and fighters in the
guerrilla war that led to independence from British rule in 1980.
Mombeshora (58) died of suspected heart disease on Tuesday and was declared a national hero at his state-funded funeral.
Mudzuri was not invited to the funeral but attended because the Harare mayor was traditionally an honored guest at state funerals in the city. He was elected to head the Harare council in city polls last year.
In January, he was detained by police for two nights for allegedly holding a political meeting declared illegal under the nation’s stringent security laws. Mudzuri, who was not charged, said the meeting was held to hear city taxpayers’ grievances on municipal services hit by acute fuel, food and other shortages of imports, including medication for city health facilities.
Government opponents accused police and army units on Friday of continuing retaliation against participants of a crippling national strike that shut down most of the economy on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The strike was called by the opposition to protest alleged repression by Mugabe’s administration and food and gasoline shortages.
Opposition lawmaker Roy Bennett said state agents and army troops stormed his farm outside Harare on Thursday and killed a striker accused of rioting. He said they also used whips and riot sticks to beat 30 of his workers.
Opposition representative Paul Themba Nyathi said troops, police and ruling party militia raided the homes of several opposition party activists, who allegedly helped arrange the strike.
Civic and human rights groups said some 400 people were arrested during the strike and in its aftermath. Police put the figure at 180.
The protest was the largest since Mugabe’s 2002 re-election for another six-year term. Observers said the elections were marred by intimidation and vote-rigging. – Sapa-AP