By Rudo Saungweme
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep`s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles,” reads a portion of scripture found in Matthew 7 verse 13 to 23.
Like false prophets in sheep`s clothing so are the members of the opposition party MDC.
The MDC has been seen on the social media and in public, calling for demonstrations in the name of God. In a Pharisaic fashion they publicly called for a week of prayer and fasting ahead of unjustified protests which are obviously set to be violent and destructive. How can one pray for the destruction of a brother’s property and source of livelihood? This is pure evil of the highest level.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana has also castigated this behaviour by the MDC members. On his twitter handle Mangwana tweeted, “Perhaps what is ironic in this whole thing is that these ill-advised plans are coming after the party claims it had been fasting. One wonders if, in their prayer and fasting, God instructed them to take power (from a Constitutionally-elected Head of State) by force.”
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa who declared the 16th of August as the date for demonstration stated that the party had been in dialogue with God so that MDC can engage in violence.
Progressive Zimbabweans, on the other hand, have vowed not to take any part in the demonstrations that are meant to cause destruction to the economy and interrupt Government`s economic trajectory. Zimbabweans are arguing that by embarking on the planned protests the MDC is acknowledging that it lost the 2018 harmonised elections and now wants to incite violence among the people so that they can use the resultant mayhem to topple the Government.
The economic and political reforms which are being rolled out by President Emmerson Mnangagwa have made it possible for the thawing of relations between Zimbabwe and most members of the international community. These policies has also contributed to the increasing confidence in the President Mnangagwa by the international community.
All this has made the hopeless MDC more frustrated hence its strange decision to abuse prayer in the name of “peaceful violence.” The fruits of President Mnangagwa’s efforts to rebuild the country are now a threat to the MDC party hence the fasting for the success of their planned violent protests.
Violence is violence whatever the cause that it is used to support. No amount of praying and fasting can make it acceptable to society. All Christians are aware that God is a peaceful God and will never condone having his name being abused in such a fashion and MDC leadership on this decision will have to answer to the Almighty. Zimbabweans are a peaceful people who will never accept to be used to harm fellow brothers and sisters for selfish political reasons.
Zimbabweans know what is good and what not right is for them and do not need the power hungry MDC to tell them.
The MDC party should note that post-fasting mass protests are not going to remove President Mnangagwa. God is for everyone. God who put him in his position as the President of Zimbabwe will not allow him to be removed by the MDC as Romans 13 verse says “Let every person be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God”.
The MDC is now hopeless and bankrupt of ideas and finances. It used to survive on donor funding, but the donors discovered that MDC has nothing to offer the people of Zimbabwe. The donors now respect the sound policies of President Mnangagwa. They are seeing sense and progress in his vision.
Donors have stopped releasing funds to MDC because its strategies are not working.
In his call for violent protests, Chamisa keeps on saying that faith without works is dead. In this case Chamisa is referring to violence that he plans to unleash on 16 August. “Faith without works is dead. We now need to do the work,” he said recently.
However, Zimbabweans are now aware of the MDC strategy of pretending to be “peaceful” when it is planning to cause destruction and put the blame on the ruling party for the resultant destruction. Zimbabweans have vowed not to participate in the demonstrations for they are aware that the demonstrations will cause more harm than good.
