[Norton is not far from where I grew up. Jan]

Norton – Suspected ruling Zanu PF party militants yesterday waylaid and severely beat up an opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party campaign team in the small town of Norton, 40km west of Harare, as political violence steadily increases across the country ahead of a key election next month. The 11 MDC activists were putting up campaign posters at Reinham school in the town when the suspected Zanu PF militants pounced on them. The militants also confiscated the posters and party regalia the opposition supporters were wearing and burnt the material. Norton falls under the Manyame constituency in which President Robert Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwawo is standing against the MDC’s Hilda Mafudze in the March 31 poll. Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira could not be reached for comment on the incident yesterday. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was also unreachable on his phone when Zim Online tried to contact him. But Mafudze yesterday said she had reported the attack against her campaign team to police in Norton. “This cannot be a free and fair election. How can the whole process be fair when one’s campaign team is beaten up and their regalia burnt by these thugs who belong to a party which claims it supports a free and fair poll?” Mafudze said. Yesterday’s incident follows a similar attack last Sunday by members of the Zimbabwe National Army on MDC members at Wengezi rural business centre in Manicaland province. The MDC members, who included three of the party’s candidates in the March poll, were beaten up by the soldiers who were in uniform, while returning home from the official launch of the party’s campaign in Masvingo. Increasing reports of attacks by state security agents and suspected Zanu PF militants against MDC supporters put into serious question promises by Mugabe and his government to ensure a violence free and democratic election next month.

From Zim Online (SA), 25 February
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com