It`s not by coincidence that the opposition party has scheduled their so-called demonstration starting from 16 August to coincide with the 39th Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which will be underway in Tanzania.
Their main objective is to embarrass President Mnangagwa so that Zimbabwe is put on agenda at the Summit.
The 39th SADC Summit and preceding meetings will take place in Dar es Salaam, in the United Republic of Tanzania from the 5th to the 18th of August, 2019 where President Mnangagwa is expected to assume the chairmanship of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
The troika for the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation comprises of H.E. President Edgar Chagwa Lungu of Zambia as Chairperson of the Organ, his predecessor President João Lourenço, of Angola and President Mnangagwa as the incoming Chairperson of the Organ.
MDC demonstrations and their illegitimacy issues comes against the background that SADC and the African Union (AU) already endorsed President Mnangagwa`s leadership and the 2018 general election results and has largely ignored the western funded opposition party.
While it is well known that peaceful demonstrations are a constitutional right in Zimbabwe, some opposition elements are abusing that right by pandering to violent protests.
The planned demonstrations by MDC will as usual end up being violent and destructive, painting a picture that all is not well in the country.
MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa recently boasted that upon completion of their national congress which was held in Gweru, he would mobilise his party supporters to participate in a demonstration meant to unlawfully remove President Emmerson Mnangagwa from power.
In August 2018, Chamisa and allies who include his deputy president, Tendai Biti incited citizens to protest against the Government and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), claiming that they were defending their vote.
Also, in January 2019, the same opposition outfit, together with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU), organised a national shutdown, where they burned and destroyed Government properties including tollgates and police camps. Time and time again, the MDC has proved that it cannot hold peaceful demonstrations and the planned demos will be no different.
It is an open secret that the MDC are using political activists and NGOs aligned to them to revolt against the Government through protests as evidenced by the arrests of four civil society activists; George Makoni, Frank Mpahlo, Tatenda Mombeyarara and Gamuchirai Mukura at the Robert Mugabe International Airport upon their arrival from Maldives, where they were being schooled in subversive manoeuvrings.
Political violence negates peaceful coexistence, law and order. In addition to security concerns, it militates against the consolidation of democracy and social coexistence. This in turn impact on the social and economic wellbeing of the nation and creates imbalances in social relations.
Thus, the MDC planned demonstration will threaten peace in the country and chase away potential investors who may want to do business in Zimbabwe, leaving the country’s economy worse that it is. The MDC has the propensity of sabotaging Government programmes so that the people will revolt against it and the current economic challenges have given them a new lease of life in a strategy that has failed to work for the past 20 years.
Recently, the MDC Deputy National Chairperson Job Sikhala was arrested and charged with subverting a constitutionally elected government which is a crime against the State. Sikhala had told MDC supporters at a rally in Masvingo that the opposition party was going to overthrow President Mnangagwa and his Government before his term of office expires by 2023.
Recently in Malawi protestors demanding the resignation of Jane Ansah, the head of the southern African nation’s electoral agency whom they accuse of helping rig an election to keep Peter Mutharika as president turned violent and looting of shops ensued, prompting clashes with the security forces in the capital, Lilongwe. In addition, several police cars were torched by the rioters. Like in Malawi, the MDC hooligans are on record of looting shops and causing civil unrest through their violent protests.
Peaceful demonstrations do not exist in the MDC vocabulary and the security forces will have to protest innocent citizens from the planned mayhem.
