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Tafara Shumba

Shona elders have an age-old embodiment of wisdom that goes, “Rina manyanga hariputirwi mumushunje,” loosely translated to mean that an animal with horns cannot be wrapped. By interpretation, the adage means that no matter how much one tries to lie or hide something bad, the truth will eventually prevail.

This has been the scenario in Zimbabwe for over four months. The MDC Alliance has been frantically attempting to wrap a large horned beast, which, nevertheless came out in the open this week.

This did not surprise anyone as the writing was already on the wall. Indeed, Dorothy Allison, a prolific writer was very prophetic when she said, “Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.”

On 13 May this year, the MDC Alliance leadership announced that the trio of Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova was arrested for participating in an illegal demonstration during a Covid 19 induced lockdown. Later in the day, that party’s leadership announced that the State had abducted the trio, an allegation that torched a storm on social media with the Western embassies and agencies issuing statements condemning Government for the alleged abduction.

The hype on social media even attracted the attention of the international community.

Two days later, the trio was found at Muchapondwa Business Centre in Bindura. Suspiciously, one of the alleged victim’s mother comes from that area.

The MDC Alliance claimed that the trio had been tortured and pictures to validate their claims were extensively circulated on social media though you needed some superior opera glasses to see the purported injuries on the exhibited naked bodies of the female activists. The State instituted a probe that subsequently revealed that the abduction story did not add up.

Even so, the opposition and their benefactors sustained their abduction narrative on social media.

Although a lie runs faster than truth, its legs are very short. Indeed, a lie has short legs especially in this digital era. This week, the abduction claim was debunked as a choreographed hoax after the police used a cellular phone tracking technology to track the trio’s movements.

The technology together with the video surveillance established a number of facts that conflict the activists’ official statements recorded at the police.

For example, contrary to their claim that they were arrested at a police road block along Samora Machel Avenue on their way to the CBD after shopping at Marimba Shopping Centre, the technology revealed that they were at a demonstration in Warren Park and never used Samora Machel road. Neither did they shop at Marimba Shopping Centre. The technical surveillance clearly placed the trio elsewhere during the time they claimed to have been abducted.

What raises suspicion is their stopover at the Counselling Services Unit, a rabid Government knocker owned by the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights (ZDHR), itself a sworn detractor of same. Additional mistrust is triggered by their visit to the Old Mutual building where Nelson Chamisa’s office is.

The visits were made during the time they were reported to have been abducted. One does not need to be clever to conclude that Chamisa was involved in the contrived abduction scheme and so were the CSU and ZDHR. ZDHR provided medical services to the trio after their re-emergence.

The latest revelations vindicate cynics of the abduction story who from the onset viewed the feigned abduction as a stage-managed diversionary tactic destined to disconcert the Government. It appears the Western embassies were in it as well, considering how swiftly they went into overdrive on social media condemning Government and demanding the safe return of the women.

The same embassies have not said a word about the latest development. But what they must know is that when truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.

Every citizen has every reason to be angry considering the seismic damage the allegations can potentially cause. These are the same allegations that gave rise to the now waning narrative that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe.

The South African delegation and the Russian envoy, Nikolai Krasilnikov among others, have recently dismissed that narrative. Government must throw to every believer of the crisis narrative, to visit Zimbabwe and assess the situation rather than viewing it through the eyes of the detractors.

Even with this irrefutable technical evidence, the MDC Alliance continues to maintain their abduction story, maybe as a face-saving tactic. Interestingly, the people who are making the loudest noise on social media have no iota of knowledge to the developments.

They are just being angry on behalf of the women who themselves are not lost to the gravity of the issue. This is the reason why they have tried to skip the country in connivance with ZDHR, under the facade of seeking further treatment abroad, the same modus operandi that Dr Peter Magombeyi employed.

They have been seeking divine intervention to evade prosecution. The social media is awash with their pictures at some apostolic sect shrines.

Even in their recent National Standing Committee meetings, the MDC Alliance leadership always raised fear that the trio was going to be jailed. They were even privy to the incriminating video clip before it was made public.

The trio will have their day in court and it is the only platform that will clear them if they are innocent, not the social media. Faking abductions with a view to inviting international wrath on Zimbabwe must attract a severe sentence that will deter plotters and pawns of that political Machiavellianism.

Dogged by a myriad of factional challenges and a fading political fortune, the MDC Alliance has resorted to falsifying abductions as a new formula to regain sympathy from the erstwhile benefactors. Use of fakery as a political strategy to malign the ruling ZANU PF dates back to the formative days of the MDC.

Prime examples include a case of a Magunje woman, Brandina Tadyenemhandu who was alleged to have been beheaded by ZANU PF supporters in the full glare of her two children in 2002.

However, all the concocted stories never brought political profit for the opposition. History has taught us that people don’t learn from history. The opposition has recurrently failed to pull the wool over the people through fakery.

One wonders why they are still repeating the hackneyed and failed ploy. This is the reason why Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Chamisa himself faked attempted abduction in 2018 near Ruwa while coming from a thank you rally in Marondera. The poorly performed theatrics did not sustain their abduction narrative. A series of faked abductions followed but were all so unsophisticated that they failed to convince anyone. They had no legs at all.

Even where a suspect was lawfully arrested, the opposition would claim that they had been abducted. In the MDC Alliance circle, abduction is used interchangeably with arrest.

The case in point is that of Hopewell Chin’ono who was arrested for inciting violence. The opposition went into overdrive with misinformation, maintaining that he was abducted for reporting on corruption in Government.

Even the G40 honchos have jumped on the bandwagon to vilify the country. Jonathan Moyo has been posting names of members of a purported ferret team that he said was responsible for abducting citizens. His fakery was exposed after he included a deceased on the list.

His fellow G40 kingpins in South Africa rigorously attempted to hoodwink the host government to intervene in Zimbabwean ‘crisis.’ Unfortunately, South Africa refused to buy the propaganda and instead viewed the situation in Harare as challenges which they said were not unique to Zimbabwe.

It’s high time the MDC Alliance drop the dirty antics for the greater good of the country. There is no reason and profit that ZANU PF can get from abducting a mere citizen like Dr Peter Magombeyi, Tawanda Muchehiwa, MDC Alliance Councillor for Karoi Urban Ward 4, Lovender Chiwaya and even the three women who are of no consequence to the political existence of the ruling party.