Opposition parties have urged Zimbabwean authorities to end deception and refrain from sponsoring groups that cause violence, resulting in a culture of politically motivated violence, noting that the suspects in most cases of violence are youth affiliated with the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) and Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) made these remarks following Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s call for peace and unity ahead of this year’s elections at Chief Maduna’s installation ceremony in Filabusi on Saturday.
“I wish to highlight to this gathering that the country will be conducting its harmonised general elections this year, the president believes we can successfully run these elections in peace, unity, love and humbly,” Chiwenga said.
“We need to appreciate that we belong to one country and therefore are one big family. There is no sense in perpetrating violence for the sake of political expediency. Let us love each other and respect the call by our president to remain a peace-loving united people who live together in harmony.”
CCC, on the other hand, was eager to point out that on February 26, last year, Chiwenga warned them the ruling Zanu PF party would “crush the party like lice.”
“It’s like Satan standing on a pulpit and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing genuine there,” said CCC Bulawayo interim Provincial Spokesperson, Swithern Chirowodza.
“When we talk about Gukurahundi, Chiwenga was the very commander responsible at Brady Barracks (now Lookout Masuku Barracks) and failed to protect Ndebele soldiers who died that time. Then on August 1, 2018, he was still in the army that killed people. When he was now in government, he went a step further to say to the effect that CCC will be crushed like lice, after which a supporter was killed at a rally.”
Chirowodza claimed that Chiwenga’s inciteful sentiments prompted a machete-wielding gang to disrupt a CCC political rally at Mbizo 4 shopping centre in Kwekwe in February last year.
“On February 27, 2022, the gang attempted to prevent people from attending the rally. They not only used machetes but beer bottles, iron bars, spears and bricks to attack supporters while Nelson Chamisa was giving a speech,” he said.
As a result, a 30-year-old Mboneni Ncube died after being stabbed, while at least 22 others were seriously injured.
MRP National Spokesperson, Velile Moyo, characterised sentiments made by Zanu PF senior officials as “turncoat politics.”
“We will continue hearing such from the ruling party going forward until the elections. They will sweet-talk the electorate into believing they as a party stand for unity and oneness. Yet we all know that Zanu PF stands for nothing but violence, plunder and disunity,” he alleged.
Moyo alleged that VP Chiwenga, like President Emmerson Mnangagwa, did not hesitate to preach unity when visiting Matabeleland, yet were the ‘architects of division.’
“The most interesting thing is both Chiwenga and Mnangagwa will not stop preaching unity and telling people that we are one and must not be divided when they know very well that they are the authors of disunity through their evil policies of marginalisation and segregation,” he said.
“They further use people like Mzilikazi to try to make people believe that we share commonalities yet they know they have a history of brutalising the same descendants of Mzilikazi. These politicians must try to walk the talk and not keep deceiving people.”
The MRP spokesperson alleged that when elections come, Zanu PF sends its “youth to intimidate and cause chaos and force people to react.”
“We know what Chiwenga said last year is true to the character of Zanu-PF, that of brutality. Let them open up the democratic space and allow people to express themselves and stop their mastermind politics of deception,” he said.
In Insiza last October, scores of CCC members were attacked and injured by suspected Zanu PF supporters while coming from a campaign trip in Ward 4.
The assailants who used sticks, logs, fists, and stones during the attack are believed to be the same group that attacked other CCC supporters in Matobo the previous day, since both districts were holding by-elections to fill in vacant seats following the death of two Zanu PF councillors.
After the political violence in Insiza, seven CCC members including Bulawayo proportional representation legislator, Jasmine Toffa, had to seek medical assistance at a private health facility in Bulawayo.
