Staff Reporter
As the nation inches towards the Harmonised General Elections with reputable survey institutions predicting the ruling party’s victory, the opposition and their western benefactors have consequently gone into panic mode and have already gone in overdrive to prepare for post-election violence.
A source within the main opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) confided in this publication that the US embassy sent 24 activists to Washington to undergo a training that borders on terrorism.
“Twenty-four opposition activists drawn from various Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) travelled to Washington DC under the auspices of the United States (US) Embassy to attend a course on activism strategies from 13 June to 18 June 2022. The activists were hand-picked from various CSOs to attend the course.
"The activists travelled under the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) and they were drawn from various CSOs. The core business of the trip is to undergo a course on activism strategies and all the 24 received a copy of their course outline before departure. The outline includes petrol bomb making, mobilization strategies, social media activism, managing a mob and types of communication tools," revealed the source who was supposed to be part of the group but dropped after he failed medical examinations.
Upon their return, the source said the 24 would be expected to be the frontline CCC activists. He said about 300 youths had so far gone for training through YALI since 2018. He urged the security agents to be very alert and keep their eyes on the youth that are being sent out for training under the auspices of the US Embassy.
A political analyst, Moreblessing Mambo said the Afrobarometer survey had sent the opposition and their funders at sixes and sevens.
“This clearly shows that CCC is preparing for its defeat in the 2023 elections. This comes after Afrobarometer round 9 survey findings revealed that 51 percent of Zimbabweans still trust President Emmerson Mnangagwa to lead the nation,” said Mambo who is also a local university lecturer.
Apart from the confirmation by Afrobarometer, CCC is said to have been doing its own surveys which have been pointing to a dismal defeat in the upcoming 2023 elections.
Mambo said it was the reason why the opposition was sending people to be trained on activism so that when ZANU PF inevitably wins the 2023 Harmonized General Elections next year, they will be geared to dispute the results through post-election violent protests.
It has become a tradition for the Nelson Chamisa led opposition to dispute elections results regardless of regional and international endorsement. In August 2018, Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC-A) now CCC partook in violent protests, pushing to enter into the Rainbow Towers and shouting angry slogans at the gates, disputing results that were not yet announced. The protests were so violent and chaotic such that six people lost their lives and a dozen more suffered serious injuries. Chamisa later on admitted that the riots were a moment of madness on the part of MCD-A supporters.
