RIOT cops called in to disperse Zanu PF supporters after violent clashes erupted in Centenary, Mashonaland Central province Tuesday night were left with no option but fire warning shots to prevent them from completely overrunning the town.
The cops were called after camps belonging to bitter rivals, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe and businessman Tafadzwa Musarara, viciously attacked each other in the immediate aftermath of the election.
Sources from the volatile province, considered by the ruling party to be its citadel of power, said the violent clashes started after Musarara trounced Kazembe at the local district, prompting jubilant street celebrations by his supporters.
Sources said Musarara’s supporters, upon getting wind of the favourable result, broke into song and dance as they raced through streets in the farming town.
This did not go down well with Kazembe’s supporters, who – armed with logs and stones – descended on them.
Musarara’s supporters however stood their ground and fought back, briefly turning Dandamera suburb into a battlefield.
“Riot police fired shots yesterday to quell violence at Dandamera. Musarara’s supporters started to celebrate on the streets of the high-density suburb, and this incensed the Kazembe supporters who then pounced on them,” an official from the province who witnessed the drama said.