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Fungi Kwaramba Political Editor
A DEVIOUS agenda by the opposition to effect regime change on July 31 disguised as an anti-corruption march will be met with countervailing measures that will ensure that the will of the people as expressed in the 2018 harmonised elections will be respected, a top Government official has said.

With the opposition parties, led by the troubled MDC-Alliance, desperate to revive their dimming political fortunes, a July 31 so-called march against corruption was mooted, but information gleaned from various sources revealed that at the centre of the web are Western embassies, churches and some powerful businesses that would like to use the day to illegally remove the Government.

However, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana said such nefarious machinations will be thwarted as the only way a Government can be changed in Zimbabwe, midterm is through constitutional process, using Parliament.

“This is not what we have here, they are scared of going to Parliament because they know they don’t have the numbers, because they know it doesn’t have a buy-in of the people, it doesn’t have a buy-in from all the constituencies we have in this country, it is a Harare thing, where a certain number of constituencies voted against Zanu PF.

“They lost the national vote and the same losers in Harare want to change the same Government they didn’t vote for in the first place. What we have is a subversion of the constitutional order, tell me of a Government under the sun that will allow such things to happen, I don’t know of any,” said Mr Mangwana.

When President Mnangagwa took his Oath of Office in 2018, after defeating the MDC-Alliance in an election that was certified free and fair by international observers, he pledged to safeguard the country’s Constitution not only in “what he does, but also in ensuring that we remain a constitutional order and that everything that is happening within these shores is constitutional,” Mr Mangwana said.

“What is being planned for July 31 is unconstitutional and it will not be allowed to happen. The State has apparatus that are in place to ensure that the constitutional order obtains. They are all constitutional organs, the police are a constitutional organ, you will find their space in the constitution, the military is constitutional security organ, so is the State security, their role is State security, the security of the State within its borders and the security of the State without the borders and everyone will just do their jobs,” said Mr Mangwana.

Apart from the demonstrations being ill-timed, as they are being planned at a time when Zimbabwe is witnessing a disturbing surge in the number of Covid-19 infections, they are also based on a fickle opposition narrative that ignores the strides Government has made in fighting corruption.

“There is nothing anti-corruption about the protests, as you can see, everyone is mobilising with the view of overthrowing the Government, we have now listened to a change of rhetoric, a change of the message which is now based on a transitional authority. The national transitional authority is not an animal that exists in our Constitution under any form or shape. It’s a position that has been adopted by certain people, it’s a position that has been adopted by certain churches, certain civic societies,” he said.

Inadvertently letting the genie out of the bottle, Mr Jacob Ngarivhume, who is leading a pot-pourri of personalities in organising the July 31 march, said the “church and civil society will play an active role in facilitating the process of setting up a National Transitional Authority (NTA) that will guide Zimbabwe towards a new and exciting era” something that has been expressed by MDC-Alliance leaders like Mr Tendai Biti since 2016.

“Unfortunately they have let the cat out of the bag. They wanted to disguise an effort to overthrow the Government as a peaceful democratic demonstration or protest, it was not. What we are dealing with here is subversion, people want to overthrow the Government in a way that is not constitutional”.

Since losing the 2018 elections, the MDC-Alliance has employed several tactics to subvert the will of the people including organising violent demonstrations in the country’s major towns. However, peaceful Zimbabweans have for the most part ignored their treacherous machinations.