Opposition Bulawayo Proportional Representation legislator, Jasmine Toffa, has narrated how she was brutally attacked by suspected ZANU PF activists on Monday while on a campaign mission in Insiza.
Toffa and other CCC members were in Insiza’s Ward 4 campaigning for their party’s candidate, Augustine Gumede in Saturday’s by-elections when they were assaulted.
Speaking to CITE, Toffa said the assailants attacked them using sticks, logs, fists, and stones. She said:
They asked who I am and I said I am Honourable Toffa and they said Honourable Toffa from where?.
They then took logs and hit me. One of them made a karate pose and hit me straight in the face. A fully-grown man!
Two women were carrying logs with which they assaulted me. One of them tried to frighten me as if I were a child and I asked: ‘Are you sure of what you are doing?
They said, we don’t want anybody else here (except for ZANU-PF leaders) and I said why then did you allow them to go to Nomination Court?
Why did you allow them (voters) to register? Why didn’t you simply declare that you wanted a ZANU-PF person? It was just terrible.
She said Zimbabwe is still a long way off from being considered a democracy as it lacks the rule of law. Toffa said:
There is clearly no rule of law, clearly, the constitution is just a piece of paper that is used to the ruling party’s advantage.
It is not applied fairly. It’s not something that anybody can rely on. It also means that democracy is not part of our governance.