Police deployed large numbers of security forces around President Robert Mugabe’s official residence in the capital on Monday as an opposition ultimatum to government was set to expire.
The country’s main opposition the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party have gaven President Mugabe’s government until today to address a series of demands which include the restoration of law and order and an end to alleged state-sponsored violence.
It has warned that if the government failed to meet the demands, the MDC would march on the State House.
An AFP correspondent saw an unusually high number of police milling around street corners leading to the State House located on the outskirts of the central business district.
Police were deployed in groups of around a dozen at each street corner.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi has said the government took the opposition threats ”very seriously” and warned that anyone trying to stir unrest would be ”dealt with severely”.
Police set up road blocks along main roads leading into the city, stopping buses and searching commuters. The ultimatum expires as results from crucial weekend
by-elections, preceded by a period of violence and tension, are due to be announced.
Meanwhile, Gibson Sibanda, vice president of the MDC, was arrested on Monday morning, party officials said.
MDC national executive member Eddie Cross said Sibanda was arrested at his home in the western city of Bulawayo at 6am. No further details were immediately available but Cross said that the arrest was ”thought to be the start of a wider crackdown
on the leadership of the MDC prior to a new series of mass actions designed to put pressure on the government to initiate talks to resolve the present economic and political crisis in the country.”
At the weekend Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi warned that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai would be arrested for ”fanning violence.”
He is already on bail on charges of treason, with two other top MDC leaders, for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.
The party’s national executive was due to meet on Monday to adopt a strategy to bring Mugabe’s 23-year rule to an end by ”peaceful mass action.”
The MDC has given Mugabe until Monday to respond to a 15-point ultimatum to restore the rule of law.
Mugabe responded with a warning that the MDC would be ”consumed in fire”. – Sapa-AFP