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Herald Reporters
ZANU PF and veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle yesterday warned opposition parties that are working in connivance with some Western embassies to subvert the will of the people through illegal demonstrations that any such attempts will be met with equal force.

In separate Press conferences, Zanu PF acting spokesperson Cde Patrick Chinamasa and Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairperson Cde Chris Mutsvangwa said no amount of noise making will break the determination and boldness of the country’s leadership.

This comes after the country’s opposition parties have been fronting little-known Jacob Ngarivhume of the obscure Transform Zimbabwe party and political activists in the mould of Hopewell Chin’ono to lead protests to subvert a constitutionally-elected Government on July 31 under the guise of anti-corruption demonstrations.

“Zanu PF is alert to the fact that when this pandemic knocked on our doors, our detractors earmarked us to succumb to Covid-19 and postulated wrongly that this pandemic was going to leave a trail of unburied corpses rotting in the streets.

“They were so confident because of the manner in which the same detractors have incapacitated our health system through illegal sanctions. However, our leadership has steered us thus far and rendered those false prophecies and devil’s wishes unfulfillable”.

Both Chin’ono and Ngarivhume have been arrested on charges of inciting public violence.

Having watched their prophesies of doom coming to naught, the doomsayers then roped in opposition parties to embark on demonstrations, notwithstanding the threat posed by the novel pandemic, Cde Chinamasa said.

“Zanu PF is alive to the fact that some of these detractors through their embassies have already started to incite their proxies and stooges in the civil society to engage in a demonstrations and violate the already existing regulations so that our cases could become unbearable.

“As Zanu PF, we speak a bold NO. We will not stand and fold our hands watching, while hostile forces organise to put our people at risk. No. Zanu PF fought for everyone so that we live peacefully and co-exist. Even as we defer on the developmental discourse, Zanu PF will never allow our people to be manipulated by neo-colonial elements in our midst, to engage in dangerous unbridled political theatrics and risk spreading or contracting Covid-19. No. It’s high time those planning violence know that this country has authorities and there is no vacuum nor vacancy at any level of those authorities from the lowest level of authority to the Presidency. Let that be known unambiguously,” Cde Chinamasa said.

Speaking on the same issue, Cde Mutsvangwa said the demonstrations stank of a devious plot of wanting to subvert the will of the people expressed in the 2018 elections won by President Mnangagwa.

“That triangle of power; that holy trinity of power, (comprising of) the people, the security establishment and their war veterans is firmly united in support of our President Mnangagwa — the constitutionally elected President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

“We hold elections periodically since independence indeed as a liberation movement even when we were at the verge of military victory in 1979. The international community said the best practice is to come to power through elections because we were very confident of the support which the people gave us which we had mobilised during the war.

“We went into the election in 1980 and we won overwhelmingly and we have kept to that tradition of elections. Why am I saying this? There are people who think that they can change governments extra-constitutionally before elections — the likes of Ngarivhume, (political activist) Hopewell Chin’ono and many people behind MDC of Chamisa. Chamisa you lost an election, your party lost an election, elections are coming in 2023. Bide your time if you can organise, which you are not capable of.

“Any other recourse to try to seize power outside of the vote will be met with total resistance, will be met with force for force because you are trying to use violence to seize power, it will not be allowed; that’s what we say to the people who are talking about July 31. We say this because we experienced demonstrations that never yielded power from Ian Smith to the liberation movement to Zapu and Zanu to the Patriotic Front,” said Cde Mutsvangwa.

The war veterans leader said Zimbabwe brooked no dissent and any party that wishes to subvert the will of the people must find another country.

“Our MDC dreamers, if they think they want to seize power here, they must go and look for a safe country somewhere else. When they are on this soil of Zimbabwe it will not happen because the defence and security apparatus which we fought for and gave birth to will be there to defend the Constitution of Zimbabwe. And I want to welcome and hail the decision of our security forces when they issued the statement publicly and unequivocally supporting the President to say that they will not tolerate an extra constitutional change of governments.

“This is a loyal force to the Government of the day which is Zanu PF, to the President of the day, which is President Mnangagwa and they are loyal to the people of Zimbabwe and through that they defend the people of Zimbabwe through the Constitution and that’s what is going to happen and we are warning anybody who is trying to go against the Constitution that you will pay the price because the defence and security establishment will be there to address such kind of miscreant behaviour,” Cde Mutsvangwa said.

Several organisations that include the church, civil society and some opposition parties have condemned the planned demonstrations saying they reek of a hidden agenda to remove the constitutionally elected Government of President Mnangagwa.