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Riot police raided the home of a Zimbabwean opposition lawmaker in the Harare suburb on Saturday and arrested 24 others who were holding a party meeting with him, party and officials said.
Costa Macingauta, his wife and 17-year-old daughter were beaten by police at their home in the Budirillo suburb south of Harare before being taken away, an official with the Citizens Coalition of the Largest Opposition (CCC) said.
Police said the meeting was unauthorized and those arrested would be charged with violating public order and morals.
“We have confirmed the arrest of CCC activists. They were attending unauthorized meetings,” police spokesman Paul Nyaty told AFP. He did not want to comment on the accusations of beating a member of parliament and his family, but assured that details of the operation would be provided on Sunday.
Opposition parties and rights groups have recently accused the country of a crackdown ahead of this year’s general elections.
CCC spokeswoman Fadzayi Mahare accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of using the police against political opponents.
Mahele said a large number of police officers violently broke up the meeting after besieging Matingauta’s house on Saturday, adding that another influential CCC parliamentarian, Amos Chibaya, had been arrested.
“Armed police beat Macingauta’s wife and daughter and set up barricades on the road to his house…We want elections, not war,” she said.
We want elections, not war,” she said. The rules governing public order do not apply to such private meetings, she said.
In Zimbabwe, President Emerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded President Robert Mugabe in 2017 after a military-backed coup, seeks to reduce poverty, curb inflation and end chronic blackouts. , dissatisfaction is growing.
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