HARARE – Police on Friday banned MDC leader Nelson Chamisa from launching a national clean-up campaign, first announced on February 21.
Chamisa wanted to launch the programme to encourage people to pick up litter in their neighbourhoods and workplaces in Chitungwiza.
Police in open trucks and on foot patrolled neighbourhoods and shopping centres in Chitungwizwa on Friday, ready to stop the MDC event.
Responding to the party’s notification of the event, sent on January 23, police suggested that Chamisa and his supporters should instead participate in a similar programme launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2018.
“We are of the opinion that you join others in the Presidential Clean Up which is carried out on the first Friday of every month. Thank you in advance for your cooperation,” Chief Superintendent Sekayi Mujiwa, the officer commanding Chitungwiza police, wrote to the MDC on January 30, a day before their intended launch.
Mnangagwa launched a national clean-up campaign in December 2018, but many Zimbabweans have ignored it.
Chamisa, speaking on January 21, said his party would launch its own national cleaning programme he called ‘Jekesa Zimbabwe’.
He was expected to outline plans for that clean-up programme in Chitungwiza.
Police have banned several MDC events over the last year after expressing fears that they could be launch pads for popular uprisings against the regime of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, which has brought economic ruin in the country.
