Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Harare Municipal Police, who instigated the riot in Mbare yesterday, are seen here no Friday raiding Fourth Street Bus Terminus in the City Centre. Yesterday, they were in Mbare, where one vendor at the open ground opposite Mupedzanhamo Market died while fleeing from them. This prompted one of the worst riots ever seen in Zimbabwe, with residents fighting running battles with riot police for hours despite having teargas thrown at them Harare, Zimbabwe, 10 November 2009 The crackdown by the overzealous and under-qualified Harare Municipal Police has now claimed the life of a vendor in Mbare. Godfrey Tonde, who was 25 years old, fell down while fleeing Municipal police, who fell upon him soon afterwards. It is not clear whether he was dead before they fell upon him or he died as a result of their physical action. All the same, residents in Mbare, a teeming high-density area of the capital of Zimbabwe, took up arms immediately after word spread that Tonde had died.  The residents blocked ...

Harare Municipal Police arrive this morning at the Fourth Street Bus Terminus to do battle yet again with forex dealers, vendors and touts. Once of them can be seen clearly carrying goods that have been confiscated from a vendor. The police are now maintaining a permanent presence at Roadport, with riot police parked two streets away. Harare, Zimbabwe, 6 November 2009 Early this morning, the Harare Municipal Police who fought running battles with vendors and black market foreign currency dealers at Fourth Street Bus Terminus (also known as Roadport) were back. They immediately started work, carrying off any wares they could lay their hands on as people ran away, some afraid of being caught in the crossfire and others abandoning their "duty stations". The police had driven straight into the rank itself where workers were coming off their minibuses and going to work. I chatted later on with some of the Municipal Police, who are vowing revenge and saying they will not let go of ...

This vendor had already packed up her wares at 2:30p.m. this afternoon, saying it was now too dangerous to continue working at the Fourth Street Terminus. Riot police had just scattered forex dealers and youths who had turned violent. Harare, Zimbabwe, 5 November 2009 A few moments ago there was chaos here in Harare at Fourth Street Bus Terminus, where soldiers rioted last year and clashed openly with tear-gas-wielding policemen. We got an indication that something was wrong around 1:30p.m when a blue Nissan Hardbody twin-cab offloaded a horde of youths just outside our offices on George Silundika Ave (we are opposite Raylton Club and just round the corner from the Bus Terminus). The youths were rowdy and the truck was being driven by a middle-aged woman. A few moments later, there was commotion at the Bus Terminus, with vendors and ordinary people running in all directions. We saw Harare Municipal police running down some young men. A few of them turned round and started fighting back...

This is a bloody slipper belonging to one of the protesters who were savagely beaten yesterday by Zimbabwe Riot Police in Bulawayo. They were commemorating the International Day of Peace. Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 September 2009 Here's the latest news on Zimbabwe's feared riot police, who appear to continue behaving as though the Agreement between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, which guarantees freedom of assembly, does not exist. Activists of the organisation Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), were beaten up for attempting to commemorate the United Nations International Day of Peace! This was yesterday, 22 September 2009! The police dispersed them and in the process, one of those protesting had to run through broken glass, resulting in her feet being cut badly. WOZA says a senior policeman in the Bulawayo area, upon seeing the protesters regroup, told his men that they had not beaten them hard enough. This is par for the course in Zimbabwean society. The riot police are trained like a...

Riot Police first seperated the two camps, ZANU PF and MDC-T and then herded them outside the Harare International Conference Centre where this was taking place Once outside, the police circled the rowdy supporters (here we see the ZANU PF supporters circled to prevent further clashes with MDC-T supporters. The conference was shelved and no word yet on when it will resume, with Mugabe still demanding that the Kariba Draft be the only draft on the table.