Elijah Chihota

President Mnangagwa has exposed the shenanigans of the MDC Alliance and how it orchestrated the 14 January 2019 violence which left a trail of destruction mainly in Bulawayo and Harare. The President made the revelations while addressing a rally in Rutenga last Saturday.

“We saw that the January violence that was organised by the MDC Alliance was being backed by NGOs. So we are investigating those NGOs that led to the destruction of a lot of properties and looting of businesses,” said the President.

“After the drubbing the MDC received at the hands of ZANU PF during the 30 July 2018 harmonised elections, the MDC had been plotting to unleash violence and slow down the country’s economic recovery programme.

“There are puppets that they have been creating in the country that move around preaching violence,” said President Mnangagwa.

The trail of destruction amounted to more than half a billion dollars. Supermarkets were looted with some being burnt in a bid to conceal the looting by destroying closed circuit television recordings of the looters.

Law enforcement agents were not spared in the attacks as one police officer in Bulawayo was killed while 78 others suffered various injuries.

Since the formation of the MDC in 1999, NGOs had been working closely with that party acting as its commissars. When Government introduced the Political Parties Finance Act which barred political partied in the country from receiving financial support from external donors, the MDC cried foul and NGOs became the new conduits of channelling funds to the puppet political party.

After the MDC Alliance leadership was fingered in the violence which rocked Harare on 1 August 2018 during a destructive demonstration staged by that party’s members against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), the NGO’s roles now include organising protests for the party to give the impression that the MDC Alliance was not involved.