BY STAFF REPORTERS
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) supporters braved tear smoke, water cannon and buton attacks by police determineed to stop the opposition party leader Nelson Chamisa from addressing a campaign rally in Gokwe yesterday.
They fought running battles with police all day and Chamisa, who arrived in Gokwe just after 3pm, was forced to have a walk-around the town with hundreds of party supporters following him in defiance of the police clamdpdown.
Chamisa was accompanied by his deputy Tendai Biti, among other senior party officials.
He was mobbed by masses of party supporters, resulting in the closure of a Metro Peech and Browne wholesaler shops where he went to buy a bottle of water.
Police had earlier teargassed jubilant CCC supporters, who were waiting for Chamisa outside the wholesale shops.
Chamisa was in Gokwe town to address a scheduled campaign rally ahead of the March 26 by-elections.
But heavily-armed police with water cannons camped at Gokwe centre to prevent the rally from going ahead. Police claimed they did not have enough manpower to monitor the rally because other officers had been deployed to Kwekwe for a Zanu PF star rally addressed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Chamisa took to Twitter to express his frustrations.
“So low! But why? We were the first to notify the police about our Kwekwe and Gokwe rallies,” he tweeted.
