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Tawanda Mangoma in Chiredzi
MDC-Alliance president Mr Nelson Chamisa on Sunday threatened unlawful change of power in the country, suggesting that President Mnangagwa would not see off his constitutional five-year mandate. The opposition party has threatened to roll out violent and unlawful protests after its forthcoming elective congress, amid indications that groundwork for the violent disturbances has been laid including trainings conducted in and outside the country involving civil society actors.

Mr Chamisa’s plan is understood to be predicated on making the country ungovernable so as to force a negotiation for the creation of the so-called transitional authority.

Ironically, Mr Chamisa has refused to take part in the ongoing national dialogue involving political parties that contested last year’s elections.

Addressing his supporters at Tshovani Stadium, Mr Chamisa said he will lead his supporters in not abiding by the Constitutional Court ruling which declared President Mnangagwa the duly-elected winner of the July 31 polls of last year.

“When we finish our congress, we are pushing for a five-point plan; number one let’s kill and deal with the issue of illegitimacy. You (President Mnangagwa) were not voted by the people, but rather selected by the Constitutional Court and us we were voted by the people,” he said.

“We must bind the Constitutional Court decision, legality and legitimacy so that we see that people are respected and we go and undertake dialogue on that.”

Mr Chamisa said after removing President Mnangagwa, they would want to formulate a transitional mechanism that would rule the country.

“We have a deadlock of someone who was selected by the Constitutional Court and someone who was elected by the people. How do we negotiate a transitional authority which will resolve pressing issues? (President) Mnangagwa does not want that, but he will come. I told President Ramaphosa (Cyril, of South Africa) and President (Mogweetsi) Masisi (Botswana) that Mnangagwa must come to the negotiation table kicking and screaming,” he said.

“We will then undertake a transitional mechanism then we put in place reforms. We don’t want to go into another election without agreeing on reforms. Doing the same thing over and over again is the definition of insanity. We don’t want elections which are rigged and this transitional mechanism will solve that.” Mr Chamisa said they want to push for the disbanding of Zanu-PF by the imposition of illegal sanctions that push Zimbabweans to rise against their Government.

“They are saying sanctions are behind the economic meltdown, yes, sanctions and Zanu-PF must go. They work hand-in-hand, when there is a Zanu-PF Government there will be sanctions,” he said.

“We have said we don’t want sanctions on our country, but sanctions can only go when we remove Zanu-PF for which Zanu-pf invited sanctions. I told those in America that yes we want to see normalisation of relations, but mark us, judge us on our reform agenda.”

He said they will notify President Mnangagwa as of when they will start undertaking their protests.
“We will not be silenced, we know they are saying Chamisa wants to demonstrate, when our demonstration time comes we will not do it in hiding. We will tell Mnangagwa and we will give him a list of our demands. Will you join me if we say let’s go for demonstrations,” quizzed Mr Chamisa to party members.