By Gwakura Choki
Violence and hooliganism were once again witnessed in the Harare city centre yesterday, as the MDC yobs barred roads disrupting smooth flow of traffic and day-day running of business by ordinary Zimbabweans. The police had to intervene to disperse the rowdy crowds.
Violence which is within the DNA of MDC party raised its ugly head as MDC supporters attacked the police who were trying to maintain peace and order. Apparently, the MDC party has perfected violent tactics to attract attention to the country as the US and UK governments were quick to condemn the purported “heavy handedness by the police”.
Violence has become the way of dealing with perceived enemies as the history of the party shows. Everyone remembers how Nelson Chamisa, the MDC leader during the Tsvangirai era, organised for the bashing of his former colleague Elton Mangoma.
To the same effect, he applied the same tactic when he terrorised Thokozani Khupe during the Tsvangirai funeral. Chamisa further organised for the bashing and utter humiliation of Engineer Elias Mudzuri. As if that was enough, Chamisa went after Douglas Mwonzora when he attempted to challenge him at congress, by sending thugs to intimidate and dehumanise him at MDC Party headquarters.
Hwende, another violence perpetuator under strict supervision and guidance of Chamisa, attacked Engineer Mudzuri for having attended a state function at State House. Chamisa sent MDC youth gangs and vagrants in the January demonstrations armed with catapults and granite stones to attack law enforcement personnel and destroyed vital installations and burnt strategic infrastructure. According to Chamisa’s confidante, the embattled leader is said to have been courting adulterously several girls and married women in his party, Joanna Mamombe being one of them. Upon confrontation by the spouses and friends of the offended, he set off Bvondo and crew to violently harass and intimidate the offended with threats in order to silence them.
Not in a distant past, Chamisa organised a demo for UZ students and to my recollection police officers were attacked with catapults and nuts as well as stones and knobkerries. They were singing and chanting dehumanising slogans against the police officers who were protecting the buildings and other key infrastructure. That is the culture the MDC is perpetuating without let-up and everyone knows these actions are done to provoke the security apparatus to react for them to claim human rights abuses.
It is a well-organised ploy to hoard political capital and sympathy from the so called ‘NGOs’. The law should take its course and they must be stopped, thumps up for the tireless Police force in combating violence perpetuated by MDC thugs and hooligans.
Despite all these machinations, it’s the country’s image which suffers and hampers all our attempts to pursue a developmental agenda. MDC leadership should start putting the interests of the country first. NO to stage-managed violence.
