Government has threatened to arrest MDC leader Nelson
Chamisa and other opposition officials pushing for the ouster of President
Emmerson Mnangagwa from power.
Information deputy minister Energy Mutodi yesterday said
government would not hesitate to send to jail “criminals” instigating for the
removal of government through protests and civic disobedience to sabotage the
regime.
His comments followed threats of protests by the opposition
over the deteriorating situation in the country.
“If anyone wants to take the law into their own hands and
engage in such activities so as to discredit the government, the law will take
its course and criminals will be jailed, even if they are leaders of political
parties or whatever,” Mutodi said in apparent reference to the MDC leader,
whose party has announced plans for what it terms the “final push”.
But Chamisa said he would remain unfazed despite the
threats on his life and/or arrest.
“These threats are becoming too common and the people
issuing them are just common criminals who have no interest of our country at
heart,” Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda said.
“Their irresponsibility is a direct result of their incapacitation
and we simply must ignore such naivety. You must remember that after ED’s
(Mnangagwa) blue-eyed boys attempted to shoot the president (Chamisa), we have
not received calls from the ministers, the police or anybody to try and explain
the situation and that is an act of complete irresponsibility.”
He said Chamisa was “a national asset” and a threat on his
life could not be treated like something normal.
“It is a threat to the security of our country because we
are talking about the people’s president. When they shot at him on Sunday, it
was the people of Marondera that said, ‘president, this issue must not end
here. We can’t stop doing the right thing because the Zanu PF police will
disrupt’,” Sibanda said.
“They said let us move on. It is not just the president who
is unstoppable. Taking from Marondera, it is the people of Zimbabwe that are no
longer stoppable.”
Meanwhile, MDC vice-president Tendai Biti yesterday met
with diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe to brief them on the situation in the country
and what transpired in Marondera on Sunday.
“We briefed them on the Marondera situation. We gave them a
chronology of events. We told them there was no meeting, but it was just a
tree-planting event,” Biti said.
“They wanted the facts because government said there were
no gunshots. The fact of the matter is there was live ammunition. The whole
story doesn’t hold water. Even if they only released teargas, as they lie, why
do that?” Newsday
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