Zimbabwean police on Friday raided the offices of the country’s main opposition party, the MDC, in search of ”subversive publications”. This comes a day after Mbeki proudly announced that talks between the MDC and the ruling party of Mugabe aimed at ending Zimbabwe’s political crisis would start ”soon”.
”More than 15 police officers, some in riot gear, raided the MDC headquarters in Harare this afternoon and carried out some search of what they claimed to be subversive material,” MDC spokesperson Paul Temba Nyathi said in a statement.
He said that after about an hour of combing through the offices, the police, who had a search warrant, took away ”a lot of our party material which is neither subversive nor prejudicial to the state in any way”.
Documents taken away included the party policy document, in-house magazines, workers’ telephone contact books and personal documents belonging to MDC staff.
”After encouraging remarks by (South African) President Thabo Mbeki yesterday (Thursday) indicating a commitment by (President Robert) Mugabe and (ruling) Zanu-PF towards entering into a process of dialogue, this latest anti-democratic act is a setback towards creating an environment conducive for meaningful inter-party dialogue,” said Nyathi.
Mbeki Thursday announced that talks between the MDC and the governing party of Mugabe aimed at ending Zimbabwe’s political crisis would start ”soon”.
MDC officials said although the party had always been ready for dialogue with Mugabe, there has not been much on the ground to show from government that it was now ready to formally meet the MDC.
Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria: ”I’m pleased to say the two sides have agreed to enter into formal negotiations. They will soon enter into formal negotiations.” – Sapa-AFP