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RRRV2023|National Outlook
ZIMBABWE PEACE PROJECT MONTHLY MONITORING REPORT
AUGUST 2021
We are monitoring the situation across the country and political activities
have already begun. As part of our campaign to monitor the electoral
environment, we have launched our #RRRV2023 campaign to ensure
Zimbabweans are able to Resist, Reject and Report political Violence.
When opposition presidential candidate Hakainde Hilichema won
the presidential election in Zambia, and the incumbent, Edgar
Lungu immediately conceded defeat, the development sent tremors
across the Zambezi.
Before long, the Harare administration was making responses to the
effect that if ZanuPF and particularly President Emmerson
Mnangagwa, lost the 2023 election, they would not concede.
President Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba, using his
pseudonym, @Jamwanda2, tweeted that Zanu PF would not hand
over power to MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa if he were to
win the next election.
Tweeted Charamba,
“Kwaa kufunga kuti madhara ehondo anongopfeka hovhorosi kuti
Chamisa agotonga hake??? Imika imi, ityai Mwari!!!!”
Loosely translated, this meant, ‘do you think these war veterans just
wear overalls so that Chamisa can govern? Come on, revere God!!!!”
As if that was not enough, President Mnangagwa repeated the same
sentiments while he was officiating the opening of an oxygen plant
in Mutare.
“Let me tell you even before you ask me, if anyone ever dreams of
what happened in Zambia happening in Zimbabwe, come back to
your senses and brew some beer”
Early on, main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa of the MDC
Alliance, spurred on by the opposition victory in Zambia, declared
that he had a ‘sweet smell of victory in his nostrils’
The history of Zanu PF not conceding defeat is well documented.
In 2008, Morgan Tsvangirai, now late, won the first round of the
presidential election ahead of long-time ruler Robert Mugabe.
As Tsvangirai and Mugabe went for their second round, Zanu PF, the
military and intelligence began an orgy of political violence
targeting opposition supporters, leaving over 200 dead and
thousands injured and displaced.
President Mnangagwa has admitted to having been behind the idea
of the 2008 election run-off, which, as is documented, turned out to
be one of the bloodiest phases in Zimbabwe’s electoral history.
It is within the context of such history that the statements by
Mnangagwa and Charamba cannot be taken lightly.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project therefore joins other pro-democracy
actors in calling for the respect of the will of the people.
Opposition politics is not a crime, and it is within the right of every
Zimbabwean to participate in any political activity of their choice.