There was violence today in Norton as it emerged that independent candidate, the former Zanu-PF member, Temba Mliswa, had a lot of support ahead of the 22 October by-election. Police had to fire tear gas to disperse crowds. A rally he was scheduled to address was reportedly attracted more than 3,000 people, triggering alleged Zanu-PF youth to block him from addressing the rally.
Tweets posted on Twitter had pictures of riot police, with those on the ground saying the situation had turned violent:
ZRP disrupted Mliswa's rally in Norton. Mliswa had an estimated crowd of 3000 pple while ZANUPF had 300 & they stoked chaos pic.twitter.com/PAJURpEiRm
— mmatigari (@matigary) October 15, 2016
War vets and opposition join hands to support @NortonElection for Norton elections
— Elias Mambo/Zim Morning Post 🇿🇼🇲🇼 (@elias_mambo) October 15, 2016
I was in Norton a few hours ago, atmosphere was very tense, people were being teargased after police disrupted a peaceful Temba Mliswa rally
— Nyasha Mukapiko (@NMkapikoh) October 15, 2016
Zanu PF moment of truth as @NortonElection is threatening to run away with the constituency https://t.co/pXVkYChzCV
— Elias Mambo/Zim Morning Post 🇿🇼🇲🇼 (@elias_mambo) October 15, 2016
Some of the pics from the #Norton rally@crisiscoalition @ZLHRLawyers @crisiscoalition @JessieFMajome @Wamagaisa @ZimHRNGOForum pic.twitter.com/fwg1kinurl
— Heal Zimbabwe (@HealZim) October 15, 2016
Mliswa was barred from addressing the rally by Zanu pf supporters linked to Zanu pf candidate#Ronald Chindedza@rashidmahiya1 @Wamagaisa
— Heal Zimbabwe (@HealZim) October 15, 2016