THE Zanu PF national security department, which has been gripped by fear of losing the 2023 elections, has produced a report citing land barons links with the party as its possible undoing ahead of polls.
The department’s report was presented at the conference in
Bindura last week. The department is headed by Lovemore Matuke.
It said land barons links to Zanu PF were a serious danger to its
electoral campaign at a time when the party was under siege from the
“ever-scheming” opposition and Western countries that it said had revived their
regime change machinations.
The report accused the MDC Alliance of working in cahoots
with Western embassies to intensify negative narratives against the ruling
party.
“In a nutshell, the regime change agenda is still much
alive,” the report read in part while making reference to the agenda they
alleged started last year.
“Sensing imminent collapse owing to implosion within the
MDC Alliance party in liaison with other detractors and with the assistance of
some Western embassies intensified the narratives of legitimacy and economic
crisis in Zimbabwe, and attempted to occupy the streets of all urban centres
through protests, to make the country ungovernable and oust the Zanu PF
government.”
It alleged that the idea was to “violently remove a
constitutionally elected government through illegal means”.
Zanu PF also said the opposition was taking advantage of
the economic crisis bedevilling the country and the “legitimacy crisis” to hold
protests across the country leading to the removal of the governing party from
power.
“Also cited was the aspect of economic challenges which
detractors are terming an economic crisis whose gravity deserved intervention
from international players,” the report added.
“The other narrative was that of ‘legitimacy crisis’ whose
focus was for Zanu PF to engage a particular opposition party in order to reach
an agreement that would see the conception of a ‘transitional government’ to
take over from the Zanu PF government until the 2023 harmonised elections.
“This is despite the fact that the Zanu PF government is
working with other opposition parties under Polad (the Political Actors
Dialogue.)”
Zanu PF is also afraid of failing to reclaim the urban
seats, with the report showing that there was suspicion that land barons, who
duped people of millions of dollars, were affiliated to the ruling party.
“The issue of land barons, especially in Harare and other
urban centres has remained a thorny issue. It has remained unresolved to the
extent that there are boundary disputes, especially between Harare and
Mashonaland East province, and they have created uncertainty as beneficiaries
fear to lose their residential stands gotten from land barons.
Land barons have gone scot-free and this has disheartened
the electorate to a greater extent more so the majority of land barons are
alleged to be members of the party.”
Zanu PF is accused of creating chaos in Harare and using
land to canvass for votes.
A report by the land audit commission led by Justice Tendai
Uchena exposed Zanu PF officials for using land to garner support ahead of
elections, but nothing has been done to bring the criminals to book.
Zanu PF is also fretting over the penetration of the
opposition into rural areas. MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisa is on a
countrywide tour of rural areas to woo voters ahead of the 2023 elections.
Newsday
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