Paul Nyathi|POLICE and State Media reports claim that the widely condemned brutality by the police on MDC supporters in Harare on Wednesday was a mere procedural move to disperse an authorised gathering.

The police claim that the MDC supporters who were gathered outside the party offices to be addressed by President Nelson Chamisa disrupted traffic and harassed vendors along Nelson Mandela Avenue and First Street.

“Police ordered the party’s supporters to assemble inside the venue and vacate the streets but they defied the order,” claimed the State run Herald.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said: “The police engaged some MDC-Alliance officials including (Chamisa’s  spokesperson)Nkululeko Sibanda and asked them remove their supporters from the road but some of them became confrontational and stoned one police officer, who was injured and taken to hospital.”

Anti-riot police fired tear gas and attacked a crowd of opposition supporters with batons in the capital on Wednesday.

The crowd gathered outside the headquarters of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC) to hear party leader Nelson Chamisa’s planned “hope of the nation” speech.

A handful of opposition supporters danced and sang for several hours in the morning as police watched from a distance.

A balcony at the headquarters had earlier been converted into a makeshift podium after police barred the MDC from holding the event at the Africa Unity Square, the main venue of opposition protests.

A banner with a photo of Chamisa and public address equipment were perched on the balcony in anticipation.