BY MOSES MATENGA
THE MDC has claimed that State security agents have been rattled by party leader Nelson Chamisa’s address on Tuesday and have activated their machinery to silence the opposition countrywide.
MDC deputy spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka alleged that the party had it on good authority that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government had put in motion a campaign targeting MDC officials and supporters.
“As despondent Zimbabweans brace for action to consign poverty and end their suffering, the Mnangagwa regime is planning to engage in nationwide terror tactics and abductions in a vain attempt to cow and intimidate a determined people,” he said, citing alleged impeccable sources within the Joint Operations Command (JOC) in Harare.
“President Chamisa’s call for nationwide action has shaken the regime to the core. The regime is now planning violence, night abductions and an assortment of terror tactics against innocent Zimbabweans in a vain attempt to stop an idea whose time has come.
“The regime has now fallen into its default mode of violence. Impeccable sources said the meeting held by JOC early this week had put in place elaborate plans to abduct and torture MDC leaders and party youths in the various townships in Harare so as to engender fear in the country in a desperate bid to stop Zimbabweans from engaging in peaceful action to express their displeasure at the parlous economic situation.”
Tamborinyoka said intimidation and terror tactics would not work.
Chamisa addressed his party supporters on Tuesday, where he called for action and also real dialogue between his party and Zanu PF, including the military.
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Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana laughed off the MDC claims.
“Firstly, government does not plot any acts of terror against anyone. Our role is to protect those who operate legally within our borders,” he said.
“The MDC Alliance is an entity that has a legal right to operate in Zimbabwe without breaking the law. So they will be protected by the State.
“But some of their utterances and claims, like this particular one, reflect delusions of persecution and an exaggerated sense of self-importance. After Mr Chamisa’s forgettable speech to a paltry crowd, one can understand these attention-hogging efforts to draw some kind of traction from what proved to be a damp squib of an event.”
There was violence in Mbare on Wednesday as youths from Zanu PF and MDC fought for turf in one of the country’s most populous high-density suburbs.
Zanu PF claimed three of its party supporters were injured, while three MDC supporters were reportedly arrested.
According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the three who were arrested are Jonathan Taiziwei (25), Cleopas Chinodya (32), who both reside at Nenyere Flats, and Elia Mutsindi (28) of Budiriro high-density suburb.
ZLHR said the three were charged with assault.
“ZRP officers alleged that Taiziwei, Chinodya and Mutsindi, who are informal traders operating in Mbare, assaulted some Zanu PF supporters, who were clad in the ruling party’s regalia after they visited their stall, where they operate from claiming to be conducting a clean-up exercise in the high-density suburb,” the lawyers said.
MDC chairperson for Harare province, Wellington Chikombo called on his counterpart, Oliver Chidawu, the acting chairman for Zanu PF in the capital, to call for peace and rein in his youth.
“Thuggocracy and tomfoolery in Zanu PF has reached celestial levels. I implore on my counterpart to stop his unemployed and unemployable from charging like bulls in a China shop,” Chikombo said.
“I urge him as my brother to stand up for tolerance, moderation and respect for others. Exclusionary politics will lead us to chaos and violence. Our tolerance is what makes Harare.”
