By Promise Dube
Opposition political parties continue to face challenges to reach out to the electorate after the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) had its rally banned by police on Saturday.
The rally which was to be addressed by the party president Sibangilizwe Nkomo was slated meant to be held at Nyongolo village in Matobo District.
Speaking to CITE, ZAPU spokesperson Msongelwa Ndlovu said the reasons given to them were that, their notification letter was not detailed enough and they had to cancel the rally.
“They stopped our rally on the pretext that our letter of notification to the police did not state the colour of the bibs to be used by our marshals,” said Ndlovu.
“This is a new requirement designed to frustrate and derail our campaign as all our previous notifications did not include this bizarre requirement. The truth is that the authorities did not want a counter-attraction as there was another political gathering in the same area.”
The party spokesperson said some of the people were already at the venue and they had to inform them about the cancellation.
“We were only told the night before and couldn’t communicate with our members about the cancellation. We had to go and inform those who had made it to the venue,” said Ndlovu.
Msongelwa said ZAPU is determined to resist unjust restrictions by the authorities who pretend to be doing something that is lawful.
“ZAPU will continue complying with the laws and we are determined to expose and resist unjust midnight restrictions disguised as lawful interventions by the authorities. No amount of restrictions will stop our people from removing this inept, corrupt and incompetent government of ZANU-PF,” said Ndlovu.
