By Evangelist Tesedi
A few days ago, the social media platforms were awash with news that violence had broken out in Murewa with as-yet-to-be-identified political activists being captured on video assaulting villagers in the district obviously because they had a different political viewpoint to the one that the perpetrators have.
The video has since gone viral, sparking a huge outcry from all and sundry who have continuously followed Zimbabwean politics.
When such incidents take place, we know there are those that have the propensity to run to the media and point fingers at the ruling Zanu PF and accuse the party of being behind the orgy of violence.
To them, Zanu PF is the only party that has the wherewithal to be violent. It is the only party that has violent activists within its ranks.
The violence in Murewa, however, will prove these doomsayers wrong as it has become apparently clear that it was not in actual fact Zanu PF members who assaulted those villagers but members of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party led by the usual self-serving and self-anointed leader of the opposition, Nelson Chamisa.
To an ordinary analyst, Chamisa is the present-day version of an ego-centric and individualistic devil as shown in Isaiah 14:13-14 KJV.
It is either him alone and nobody else as shown even in the bastardised version of what the abbreviations CCC stand for which his supporters have now changed to mean Chamisa Chete Chete (Chamisa only and no one else).
He has urged his supporters to adopt the Mango Strategy- something that instructs CCC members to adopt the green outside while remaining yellow inside approach.
It is common cause that Zanu PF uses green as one of its principal colours and this is a clear statement calling on CCC members to masquerade as ZANU PF and commit barbaric acts in order to soil the name of the ruling party.
Zanu PF chairperson for Mashonaland East, Daniel Garwe has indicated that his party was not in any way linked to the perpetrators who had claimed they were acting on behalf of unidentified bosses elsewhere.
“Apart from the disgusting physical abuse captured in the video, the Province is disturbed by allegations that the perpetrators are ZANU PF members acting on behalf of unidentified bosses.
“The Province hereby distances itself from the individuals in the viral video. They are neither members of ZANU PF Mashonaland East Province nor any known affiliate and were clearly hired to further nefarious agendas including soiling the image of His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Second Republic,” said Honourable Garwe.
The Mashonaland East chairperson added: “It is therefore presumptuous, hasty and even sinister, to rush to brand them as ZANU PF members given that we are in an election season often fraught with all sorts of chicanery.
The opposition Citizen Coalition for Change’s propensity to stage-manage “political violence” incidents ahead of elections is well documented and some of their senior officials are currently before the courts for such lies. The possibility that the Murewa incident was also stage-managed to draw negative international attention should not be discounted at this point. As a Province, we urge all citizens to wait for accurate pronunciations from the Zimbabwe Republic Police which is currently conducting investigations,” Garwe added.
To take off the cover and expose the real perpetrators of this uncouth act, one needs to refresh their memory to the time when the opposition party was formed and also examine what the leader of the party said in line with his party’s modus operandi going into the pre-election period so as to understand why we are witnessing these sad developments of violence in Murewa and others yet to come.
At its launch, the official name of the party that was sold out to the people out there was Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC).
It was crafted in order to convince the electorate and the generality of the populace that this was a huge grouping of people from all walks of life in Zimbabwe that were converging in order to foster change in the governance matrix of this country.
It was a huge jump from the pursuit of democracy that had become synonymous with the opposition political parties in Zimbabwe.
In most instances, when political parties are formed, one expects to see or hear what the structure of the party would be so as to understand the other stakeholders involved in driving the party’s vision and ideology.
Surprisingly, the resultant party had no structures, no systems, no order and no democracy…
It would be important to understand that in such a scenario where there is no structure
and no known leadership, violence usually rears its ugly head as those within the party want to use violence to cow down the hapless members of the party, especially women and the youths, into submission and to force them to dance to their own whims and caprices.
I believe that in the broader sense, the CCC leader needs to re-focus his purpose to be in the political game and wear the opposition shirt altogether.
If one looks at South African landscape, Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has been busy at work for the last couple of years calling the African National Congress (ANC) government to order and pointing at the very shortcomings that the government has had in the manner in which it has been running the affairs of the South African economy.
He has raised pertinent issues such as the land reform issue.
He has spoken about the economic issues affecting South Africa and has been vocal on many issues that have been of concern to South Africans.
Chamisa should have taken a leaf from Malema’s way of doing things.
The reverse seems to be true with the young man as his only obsession is power. He is fixated on state power and continues to dream of himself in power one of these days.
I believe that, as I alluded earlier, he should be more interested in keeping ZANU PF in check and managing urban councils well as compared to the chaos and collapse in service delivery that has come to be associated with our local authorities, especially ones running our cities and towns.
Chamisa should be telling us how he aims to rid the urban local authorities of the corruption that has become endemic in the local authorities and how they think, as a party, they can restore the glory of the local authorities to their yesteryear state.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.
Evangelist Tesedi is an analyst who comments on socio-political issues based on Spiritual Revelation.
He can be contacted on e-mail: evantesedi@gmail.com
