By Luke Tamborinyoka
The Zanu PF-sponsored vigilante groups popularly as MaShurugwi have wreaked havoc in the countryside with top MDC leadership losing their close relatives to the politically-connected militia which is certainly enjoying protection from high offices in government.
The machete-wielding vigilante groups have run amok in the countryside and many Zimbabweans have had their kinsmen callously beheaded by the notorious group.
Some in the MDC’s top leadership have lost their close relatives to the vigilante groups who are going around the country demanding money and other largesse from innocent Zimbabweans.
Vice President Lynnette Karenyi Kore has lost her 41-year old uncle Liberty Dadirai Chimwoyo who was murdered in the Hot Springs area near Odzi River in the Nenhowe area of Chimanimani in Manicaland province.
He sustained fatal head injuries following machete-attacks by youths linked to the MaShurugwi terror gangs that have gone on a nation-wide rampage and plunged Zimbabwe into a deep state of national insecurity. VP Kore is currently attending the funeral of his uncle in Chimanimani.
The party’s vice national chairperson, Job Sikhala has had two of his uncles brutally attacked by these machete-wielding Zanu PF apparatchiks. One of them, Yeweight Senzere, died on the spot last week in Mvuma and Hon. Sikhala is attending Senzere’s funeral in Chivi in Masvingo province.
Hon. Sikhala’s other uncle, Elvis Matsikidze, is battling for his life in the intensive care unit at Gweru General Hospital.
The machete-toting vigilante groups have gone on the rampage in the country, amid reports of a serious fall-out between Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantine Chiwenga, with the former reported to be banking on Mashurugwi as a personal army to serve personal political interests.
Mnangagwa is reportedly suspicious of the allegiances of the rank and file in the army, despite picking the entire command element of the security forces from his Midlands province.
Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Philip Valerio Sibanda, Zimbabwe National Army commander Edzai Absolom Chanyuka Chimonyo, the Air Force of Zimbabwe’s Air Marshall Elson Moyo and the Central Intelligence Organization’s boss Isaac Moyo all hail from the Midlands
province.
They are also reported to be Mnangagwa’s close relatives.
MaShurugwi have wrought serious insecurity and if the menace is not stemmed, the country could plunge into chaos.
What Zimbabweans desperately need is a true people’s government that can guarantee their personal security, which security is enshrined in the country’s Constitution, which Constitution the people made themselves and affirmed in a referendum.
Luke Tamborinyoka is the Deputy National Spokesperson of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
