Youth militia of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party went on the rampage in Harare on Thursday, smashing windows and destroying property at the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The youths also blockaded an entrance to Parliament and threatened to kill a white MP who, in a fit of anger, had thrown the justice minister to the ground earlier in the week.
Riot police who arrived took no action against the Zanu-PF youths, but instead arrested four MDC members for unspecified reasons, according to the opposition party.
The furore began on Tuesday when the justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said the forefathers of an MDC MP, Roy Bennett, were ”thieves and murderers”.
An enraged Bennett charged through the aisles of the parliament’s debating chamber, grabbed Chinamasa, shook him and threw him to the floor. Other Zanu-PF MPs jumped up and attacked Bennett until order was restored. One cabinet minister, Eliott Manyika, allegedly pulled out a gun.
Mugabe’s ruling party has been quick to seize on the incident and use it to stir up sentiments against white Zimbabweans and the opposition.
In the eastern border city of Mutare, near Bennett’s constituency, hundreds of Zanu-PF demonstrators forced eight white-owned businesses to close, local residents said. – Guardian Unlimited Â