Official who threatened Chamisa says he is ‘too Zanu PF to be arrested’

An overzealous Zanu-PF official who incited party supporters to kill opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa and his supporters said he is ‘too Zanu-PF to be arrested” over the issue.

Abton Mashayanyika, also nicknamed Bhito, a Bishop in the Habakkuk Apostolic Faith Mission made news last week after a video of him inciting party supporters to violently assassinate the opposition leader trended.

“When we say down, down with Chamisa. It means he must be killed. When you respond you should do so knowing that I’m saying so and so should die. Down with CCC,” he declared.

In an interview with The Standard newspaper on Saturday, Mashayanyika clearly said he was a war collaborator and he was not going to withdraw his threats. He further stated that he was ‘too Zanu-PF to be arrested’.

“Who will arrest me? Me? I am ready to die for Zanu PF, but that will not stop me from saying ‘down with sell-outs’,” Mashayanyika said.

“That’s politics to say they must be killed.

“If they are opposing Zanu PF they are also saying Zanu PF must be killed. I do not like those people because I am a war collaborator.

“I fought in the liberation war that took over the country from white colonisation. Now some people come and want to give back the country to the whites. We can’t let that happen.”

“Yes, I am a bishop but I am more of Zanu PF than I identify myself as a church leader.

“When are the police going to come? I am not afraid of them,” he said.

“I am a Zanu PF member and am not afraid of getting arrested.

“Tell them there in Harare that I am not afraid. I have been a staunch Zanu-PF supporter since (Rhodesian prime minister Ian) Smith’s time.

“But I am a war collaborator.

“I will not let the country go back to the hands of the whites. We can’t let it go on like that and I still insist that I will continue supporting (President Emmerson) ED Mnangagwa.”

In an interview, opposition activist Pride Mkono castigated Zanu-PF for the culture of impunity.

“Zanu PF thrives on lawlessness and impunity, it allows its most garrulous members to break the law carte blanche. That a person can threaten to murder another person and no action is taken is testimony beyond doubt as to that party’s murderous conduct.

“The least the police could have done was to call him in for questioning but that was not done because he is protected by Zanu-PF. What is however lost to the police and Zanu-PF is that such statements can result in instability which is a direct threat to national security.

“Activists like (Obert Masaraure) are arrested and locked up for tweets while criminals who threaten death walk free showing selective application of the law.”

This comes at a time when several opposition activists including CCC legislators Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole are jailed over allegations that they incited violence at the funeral wake of murdered CCC activist Moreblessing Ali.

The two along with 13 others have spent more than a month in prison without trial.