By Mapozho Saruchera
I still remember watching a live broadcast of the beginning of the inversion of Iraq by the United States of America, Britain and several coalition allies on 20 March 2003. As bombs exploded, I thought to myself – how many people, who have nothing to do with the differences between the then US President, George W. Bush and former Iraq Leader, Saddam Hussein, were dying at that moment?
The US told all who cared to listen that the invasion was part of a declared war against international terrorism and its sponsors following the September 11 terrorist attacks. However, since the invasion, the US Government’s claims that Iraqi had weapons of mass destruction and links with al-Qaeda have been discredited – the invasion of Iraq was based on lies and a similar scenario is being cooked up for Zimbabwe.
MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa, knows that no amount of demonstrations will directly remove the current constitutionally elected Government. The question then becomes, why is he going around the country psyching up people for mass demonstrations to achieve the impossible?
The opposition leader has declared on many of the ongoing MDC thank-you-rallies that, the day he will speak (command people to take to the streets) the walls of Jericho will fall (all hell will break lose). This is in sharp contrast to his claims that the forthcoming demonstrations will be peaceful and also reveals what the demonstrations are actually meant to achieve – render the country ungovernable through violence.
With hindsight of the Arab spring in Libya, where demonstrations were met with military force, and the uprising escalated into a civil war which later saw NATO-led forces siding with the rebels, one can safely argue that Chamisa intends to perpetrate so much violence hoping that Government will respond heavy handedly enough to prompt an invasion of Zimbabwe by countries that have been sponsoring the regime change agenda. Logic follows that Chamisa expects to be installed as president after the invasion basing on his unsubstantiated claims that he worn the July 2018 elections, which he lost to President Mnangagwa – otherwise how will one explain Chamisa’s utterances that, “if you give us (MDC) a chance (to govern) this (economic revival) will not take time,” outside electioneering .
In a bid to generate the above mentioned lies, Chamisa told attendees at a rally in Marondera that he was being harassed by state security agents, who were following him everywhere he went. To give this claim gravity, Chamisa and company stage managed a kidnapping somewhere in Ruwa and recorded the whole event. The opposition leader, who was supposed to be the victim, could be seen trying to enter the alleged abductors’ car on his own – yes, I mean without anyone forcing him to do so.
The intended effect was to obviously portray President Mnangagwa’s Government as infringing the rights of Zimbabweans – a charge which has previously incited the so called champions of democracy to invade sovereign states, in the process removing constitutionally elected government and replacing them with their puppets.
Fortunately, no war will be fought in Zimbabwe anytime soon because unlike Chamisa, President Mnangagwa does not gamble with the people’s lives. Speaking during a wide ranging interview with CNN journalist, Christiane Amanpour, on the sidelines of Unite Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 2018, the President said he would want to see a more pluralistic Zimbabwe. Meaning, the likes of Chamisa can demonstrate with no harm coming to them and in the event that they turn violent they will face the law and not Government.
