THE government still faces a major uprising by fed up
Zimbabweans despite foiling last month’s mass protests, expelled former Zanu PF
youth leader Godfrey Tsenengamu, pictured, says.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Tsenengamu — who now
leads the anti-corruption pressure group, the Front for Economic Emancipation
(FEE) — also claimed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa was increasingly under
pressure in Zanu PF, where some bigwigs were allegedly no longer backing him.
This comes as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is
trying to end Zimbabwe’s worsening political and economic crises, which have
once again attracted international attention, following the government’s
alleged breach of human rights during last month’s foiled protests.
Despite all the current local and regional efforts to lower
political temperatures in the country, Tsenengamu warned yesterday that the
government was still at risk of an uprising.
“All I can say is that everything that has a beginning has
an end. Mnangagwa must tread carefully. He must learn from history. The path he
has chosen is not right, and I don’t think that it is sustainable.
“Though at some point Ian Smith and (the late former
president Robert) Mugabe thought that they were going to stay in power forever,
their reigns came to an end.
“Those who lied to Mugabe and gave him a false sense of
security abandoned him and he was all by himself, and he died a bitter man,”
the forthright Tsenengamu told the Daily News.
“He (Mnangagwa) seems to have forgotten this so quickly.
This brutal system that he is using to purge others will be used against him in
the same way it almost finished him off in 2017 (at the height of Zanu PF’s factional
and succession wars).
“With the bigger part of the world making pronouncements on
the situation in our country, while on the other side there is an agitated
citizenry, Zanu PF knows that they are sitting on a ticking time bomb.
“They are just putting on a brave face … but they are on
the back foot,” Tsenengamu said further. What makes the leadership panic is also because of the way
they ascended to power. They are worried of a repeat of the same. They have no
peace of mind,” he added.
Since his expulsion from Zanu PF over allegations of
corruption that he made against some of the ruling party’s bigwigs, Tsenengamu
has become an arch critic of Mnangagwa and his government.
He told the Daily
News yesterday that besides the mounting pressure from opposition parties and
civil society, Zanu PF was dogged by growing in-fighting.
“2017 (Zanu PF purges which led to the November 2017
military coup) is already on repeat, but at a smaller scale for now. There is a
loss of trust among the leaders.
“Those being attacked are being realistic in the face of
the challenges that the country is facing. The majority know the truth but are
afraid of victimisation. So, they just pretend all is well.
“As far as I know, it is just a matter of time before this
ticking bomb explodes, because they can’t sustain this,” Tsenengamu told the Daily
News.
“The best way forward for citizens is to press on and not
look back. They must continue to raise their voices as a united force,” he
said.
All this comes as Mnangagwa, who ascended to power via a
popular military coup in November 2017, has come under growing pressure from
long suffering Zimbabweans who accuse him and his government of failing to mend
the country’s broken economy.
Last month, opposition and pro-democracy groups planned to
stage massive protests against the country’s worsening political and economic
crises, but were stopped by authorities who deployed security forces throughout
the country.
Rights groups have claimed that dozens of opposition
figures and activists have been tortured and assaulted in a retributive
exercise by suspected security agents.
On its part, the government has refuted the allegations —
claiming instead that the opposition is allegedly working with foreigners to
destabilise the country.
Meanwhile, MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti has
warned that Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises have now reached a
critical point that could soon lead to a bloodbath.
This comes after Mnangagwa vowed recently that the
government would flush out “terrorist” opposition groups that are allegedly
working with international players to “destabilise” the country.
Speaking during an online discussion last week organised by
South Africa’s Jacana Media, Biti said civil strife in the country was imminent
— adding that only international community intervention could stop a bloodbath.
“We are entering a very dangerous phase, a phase in which
those that are controlling the state know one language — which is repression,
violence and authoritarianism. They don’t know dialogue. They don’t know how to
interface with the people.
“As Zimbabweans, we have to defend ourselves in the
parameters and limits defined by the Constitution, Section 59 of the
Constitution.
“But our actions alone as Zimbabweans are not enough. We
need the agency, as well as the protection of international law,” Biti said.
“The action and activities of (South African) President
Cyril Ramaphosa, Sadc, African Union and the United Nations Security Council
are very key in international law.
“They have a duty to defend people where there is a
violation of human rights. The country’s president (Mnangagwa) a few days ago,
on the 4th of August made a presentation to the nation.
“In that presentation he used language that is dangerous.
He used language like ‘we will flush you out, you are dark forces’.
“The last time I heard that language was in February 1994
in Rwanda and a few months later in April 1994 about 800 000 people lay dead,”
Biti added.
“I see ominous signs and a closure of space. I see one
thing, a definitive attack on the citizens of Zimbabwe that will be very bloody
and very nasty.
“We as Zimbabweans, therefore, there is a limit to which we
can defend ourselves. We need the agency of the international community in
particular,” Biti said further.
Biti’s warning came a few days after Ramaphosa despatched
his special envoys to Zimbabwe — former vice president Baleka Mbete and
ex-ministers Sydney Mufamadi and Ngoako Ramatlhodi — to meet with Mnangagwa
after an international outcry over alleged gross human rights violations in the
country.
The envoys are set to return to Harare soon, to consult
with other stakeholders — including the opposition and civil society — with
South Africa saying Zimbabwe’s crises are beginning to hurt the regional power.
Daily News
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