THE MDC has called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stop meddling in the popular opposition’s affairs through attempts to link the party to non-existent terrorist plots.
This comes after the State controlled Herald newspaper has carried reports that party leader Nelson Chamisa was planning to unleash acts of terrorism in the next coming months.
In a statement Friday, MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume accused the Zanu PF led government of attempts to create opposition discord while failing on its roles to confront the country’s challenges.
“We see this as an attempt to attack and annihilate dissent,” Mafume said.
“The economy is crumbling, fuel shortages continue unabated, cash shortages, electricity and water rationing is the order of the day, and the military government knows that people will complain,” said Mafume.
The Herald wrote this past week, that MDC had in recent months been plotting on acts of civil unrest in the coming few months adding that some foreign organisations were coordinating workshops and trainings in Zimbabwe.
It further wrote that after the trainings, the groups briefed Chamisa on their activities.
Mafume dismissed the claims.
“The MDC places it on record that President Chamisa has not received any reports about any civil disobedience trainings.
“The President (Chamisa) only receives reports from party organs and his staff.
“We are however concerned by the unwarranted, dangerous and malicious conspiracy theories being peddled by The Herald against the civic society, the people’s party of excellence and the people’s President Advocate Nelson Chamisa.
“These cannot be taken lightly. The so-called trainings are a creation of Zanu PF and the military state,” Mafume said.
Instead, Mafume criticised President Mnangagwa for continued creation of theories that criminalised constitutionally guaranteed ways to express genuine grievances by the suffering masses.
“When some such theories were propounded in the not so distant past, at least 17 people ended up losing their lives at the hands of the State.
“We are concerned by attempts to criminalise citizen activity and engagement, coining terms intended to equate demonstrations to acts of terrorism and banditry. Such are the ways of dictators,” read the statement.
He urged Zanu PF to fix the economy, adding, “therein lies a powder keg, the people will reclaim the great Zimbabwe.”
