Wave after Wave
JUNE 2021
2.3
Provincial
highlights
Harare Metropolitan | ‘They are terrorists’
The State continued to target civil society leaders and opposition activists in a bid
to silence dissent. On 12 June President Emmerson Mnangagwa urged former
liberation fighters to be wary of the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa which he
branded a terrorist organisation that was “pro-violence” and “anti-people”.
Speaking at the launch of empowerment programmes for war veterans in Harare,
Mnangagwa claimed the MDC Alliance was anti-democratic and antidevelopmental. He said, “Let us all remain astute and vigilant, aware of the
asymmetrical tactics of the opposition, in particular, the MDC Alliance whose
character resembles that of a terrorist organisation. The MDC Alliance has nothing
democratic about it. It is anti-constitution, anti-development and anti-people, but
pro-violence and destruction. Let us remain vigilant and be wary of the MDC-A,
which is anti-people and anti-democratic.”
Matebeleland North | Aid as a political weapon
Aid continues to be the most widely used weapon of choice by Zanu PF in their
campaign, with cases prevalent in Lupane East. In one of the incidents, a Zanu PF
activist, Tryphine Khumalo was moving around threatening people in Khatshana
village to join Zanu PF. She was in the company of three men and they were
registering people into the party cell group book and they were also using the
social services book.
In another incident in Binga North, ward 9, Chief Saba instructed all village heads to
send through names of opposition supporters to him so that he would ‘deal with
them’.
Matebeleland South | Slogans
In Gwanda South at Stanmore during a community meeting it was reported that a
Zanu PF activist, Simpson Sibanda, forced community members to recite Zanu PF
slogans. Sibanda said that anyone found to be supporting the opposition would be
punished and evicted from the area.
It is reported that in Manama village in Gwanda North, Zanu PF activists are
mobilizing voters using a new program of recruiting war collaborators. The
program is meant to recruit war collaborators who were left out during the 1997
payout exercise. The vetting process of the war collaborators has been taken over
by Zanu PF activists instead of the Department of War Veterans. In one incident it
was reported that Janice Nare spoke openly during a meeting that the exercise was
a Zanu PF campaigning tool to gain five million voters
Manicaland | Aid as a political weapon
In Chimanimani, Zanu PF hijacked council works programmes by taking over the
recruitment processes. Zanu PF local officials took over the recruitment of the
general and casual workers for a road rehabilitation programme that began early
June in Chimanimani and they only took in those who are in the Zanu PF branch
structures. The partisan recruitment not only interfered with the human resources
procedures of the council, but also whittled the power of the council over the
workers, who were insubordinate, claiming they owed their allegiance to Zanu PF
and not the council.
All of this is clearly part of the scheme to use all available resources and platforms
to coerce people to join Zanu PF ahead of 2023 in violation of the freedom of
association.
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