Sibanengi Dube: Zanu PF struts off its violent signature in Harare
By Sibanengi Dube
Everything that the MDC is complaining about Zanu PF is turning out to be true. In the midst of political contestation, Zanu PF has fallen into the trap of confirming every word being uttered against them by their arch rival the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance.
The ruling party is not even making any effort to prove the MDC wrong.
The maleficent and insane mass thrashings of MDC supporters who flocked to the party headquarters to hear their leader Nelson Chamisa deliver the Hope of the Nation Address serves to confirm that Zanu PF is scared of the electorate.
This is consistent with the opposition party’s claim that the ruling party was out of tune with the electorate and never won elections. A party that enjoys popular support would never resort to vehemence but will fall back on its popularity when faced with any challenge.
The ugly battering of citizens which the world witnessed in the streets of Harare is a genuine signature of Zanu PF as it strutted off its DNA.
No amount of resources seem to be spared by the corned regime whenever starving Zimbabweans congregate to seek solutions to the political and economic problems ravaging Zimbabwe.
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is ticking all the action plan boxes of an illegitimate regime. MDC has literally been banned and all forms of gatherings have been outlawed. This is a sad development in such a modern period.
The beleaguered regime seems to have abandoned all efforts to solve the human inflicted suffering in the streets of Harare, Bulawayo, Chipinge, Gwanda and Chiredzi. There is no solution in sight to curb rampant starvation in the villages of Chivi, Tsholotsho, Filabusi, Mwenezi and Mberengwa.
The embattled regime is only resorting to their last option of bullets, tear gas and baton sticks, to maintain their access to the national treasury. What matters most to them is just sustaining their presence at the feeding trough arena. They are using bullets, tear gas, shamboks and shamhu dzine munyu to continue their capture of the national treasury and resources.
Renaming all streets of Zimbabwe towns after ED is neither a solution nor a priority. At this rate some small towns like Zvishavane, Karoi and West Nicholson might end up with street names of ED’s dogs and cats.
These are undisputed actions of a regime which is hell bent on punishing the entire nation for voting MDC Alliance. Kwanzi ndezvavo izvo, vakatinyaudza tovakwatura. Only a fool will miss such a straightforward interpretation. If the majority of Zimbabweans love ED as he claims, why then will he return such love with baton sticks, live bullets and teargas? Is this a normal reciprocal response?
A phony character who arrogated to himself the soul of Zimbabwe is mistaking the people’s cry for an immediate relief as an opportunity to batter them more into fatal submission. How does anyone explain the vicious conduct of riot police to innocent souls seeking word of hope from President Chamisa?
Some overzealous ‘state hooligan’ was captured on camera tackling fleeing women who are old enough to be their mothers. Another muscular fool in police uniform had the audacity to unleash his booted foot on a distressed thin lady. Some women with children on their backs and in clear positions of surrendering in savaged baton-sticked.
One wonders if the baton stick wielding and spear waving gang are genuine members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police who are bound by police ethics. No sane police officer trained to protect unarmed and innocent citizens can adopt such a militia conduct only expected from a dissident personality.
Their behaviour was worse than that of MaShurugwi, a gold panning militia under the command of ED’s Minister of State Security Owen Ncube. The colossal proportion of violence which was visited upon women and children makes Boko Haram and Banyamulenge look like saints.
This is reminiscent of the kind of violence which were subjected to Soweto students on 16 June 1976 by the Apartheid regime. The Soweto uprising was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.
The apartheid cared less about black students because they didn’t need their votes to superintendent over the affairs of South Africa.
The white oppressors viewed the adolescents as ‘brood of vipers’ disturbing their opulent lifestyle in South Africa. The same can be said about Zanu PF. The ruling party of gorillas sees the electorate as an irritating lot which needs to be violently kept under check.
Sibanengi Dube is a Zimbabwean journalist based in South Africa
