Staff Reporter
Citizen Manifesto`s Briggs Bomba is reportedly convening a Civil Society Online Training under the title ‘The Internet and Political Protests in autocracies’ which is being attended by representatives from various rogue Civil Society Organisations countrywide, as they prepare to unleash violence ahead of the 2023 harmonised election.
The course which will run from 9 to 10 December 2021 will focus on ‘The use of internet in political protests, using internet and social media to remove autocratic governments, social media mobilisation and internet and civil disobedience’ among other courses. Trainers for the courses include, Nils Weidmann, Editor of EU politics and Gerald Schneider, Professor of Political Science University of Konstanz, Germany.
Schneider`s main areas of research include European Union decision making, the causes and consequences of armed violence, the international political economy of financial markets, bargaining theory and conflict management.
Notable attendees at the online training, include Crisis Coalition Chair Rashid Mahiya, Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe Advocacy Officer George Makoni, Wadzanai Mangoma of the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset), political activist, Pride Mukono, anti-government activists Ashley Pfunye and Dewa Stabile, Amalgamated Rural Teachers of Zimbabwe leader, Obert Masaraure, Citizens Manifesto co-ordinator, Tatenda Mombeyarara.
Mombeyarara and Makoni are among the people who were arrested by the Zimbabwe Republic Police in 2019 at the Robert Mugabe International Airport on their way from attending similar workshops in Maldives on tactics to abet violence in Zimbabwe.
The training in the Maldives was conducted by Centre for Applied Non-violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a Serbian organisation which also trained MDC activists who were involved in the co-ordination of the 14 - 16 January 2019 violent protests.
CANVAS was founded in 2003 by Serbian nationals Srdja Popovic and Ivan Morovic and has been involved in the training of anti-government activists in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Iran, Lebanon, Tibet, Ukraine and Venezuela.
The organisations have been training the MDC-Alliance to use the social media, to instigate members of the public to engage in civil disobedience and engage in unsanctioned demonstrations with a view to overthrow the Government.
The MDC-Alliance has been a violent party since its inception, which saw it forming Democratic Resistance Committees, which caused havoc targeting ZRP stations leaving a score of security officers injured. I
The party has also experienced massive intra-party violence which saw the late Trudy Stevenson, Elton Mangoma, Thokozani Khupe among others being assaulted by the youth militia known as the Vanguard, which was nurtured by the party.
The opposition party`s leader Nelson Chamisa is on record making inflammatory statements at most gatherings, calling his supporters to engage in anarchy, provoke and hurl insults to Government and Zanu PF leadership.
The MDC-Alliance has been working with Embassies of the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden to plot anti-government demonstrations, holding virtual and physical meetings with some rogue civic society organisations.
