OPPOSITION political parties have come out guns blazing,
accusing President Emmerson Mnangagwa of being blasphemous, stubborn and
vindictive after he likened himself to God while equating his rival, MDC leader
Nelson Chamisa to Satan.
“How can he dare compare himself to the Creator when he is
subjecting everyone in Zimbabwe to a living hell? Surely, God does not deliver
suffering to his own people,” MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume said.
“The illusion around dialogue which excludes the MDC has
already proven to be a political fallacy, many are pulling out because they are
aware that the approach will not create sufficient consensus.”
Mafume said the statements by Mnangagwa could easily cause
internal strife, and trigger violence against opposition supporters and the
party leadership.
“We have noted with concern a continued pattern of these
reckless statements coming from him in succession, a case in point is the
remarks he made in Rutenga when he made threats to unleash violence on citizens
for exercising their rights provided in section 59 of the Constitution,” he
said.
“It is, therefore, premature for Mnangagwa to use extremist
metaphors like ‘devil’ simply because the MDC holds different political views
from him. In any case, history has shown that these labels can easily incite
degeneration and unnecessary loss of life, especially coming from the leader of
a militant political outfit.”
Chamisa through his spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda, said he
would not engage Mnangagwa in a verbal exchange because he was more concerned
with defending the poor and delivering real change to Zimbabweans.
“President Chamisa is a prayerful and God-fearing leader
whose interests are to rebuild this country’s economy and society. He does not
equate earthly fiefdoms with the Kingdom of God. He is encouraged that Zimbabwe
is largely a God-fearing country and will remain so,” he said.
“Those who see themselves as analogous or similar to God,
will answer to God. The people’s president does not engage in unnecessary
public insults, he remains focused in talking about the issues that affect our
country, such as dialogue and all other action that can unlock political
illegitimacy and drive us towards economic stabilisation and growth.”
Daniel Shumba, whose party, the United Democratic Alliance,
pulled out of talks brokered by Mnangagwa, said the Zanu PF leader had shown
his arrogance and vindictiveness in making such a statement.
“That’s clearly an arrogant and vindictive view from a
President who claims to want to forester unity, but don’t take him seriously
for equating himself to God, that is just a limitation of descriptive English.
That is the best he could do under the circumstances,” he said.
Mnangagwa told journalists on Tuesday at the close of the
Zimbabwe-South Africa Bi-National Commission summit attended by his South
African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, that he will push on with dialogue
despite the withdrawal from the process by a number of political parties.
“We will not be swayed by the negative forces because even
the Lord upstairs was not able to keep his house in order, he had Satan. These
things happen. He still remains there as creator,” Mnangagwa said. Newsday
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