The Sunday Mail
Government will not allow puppet opposition elements to plunge Zimbabwe into chaos and will act decisively on rabble-rousers who promote anarchy, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.
VP Mnangagwa’s remarks come as MDC-T pines for political instability via violent street protests it thinks will dislodge the Zanu-PF Government. Two weeks ago, the party and its NGO associates started “workshops” to prime its youths for the anarchy.
The beleagured party’s leader – Mr Morgan Tsvangirai – also visited the United States last week in a bid to drum up support for the plan.
He, however, returned home empty-handed yesterday without having met a single US government official amid indications that MDC-T’s traditional Western backers have lost faith in him and are exploring the possibility of using a coalition of other politicians to unseat the Zanu-PF Government.
MDC-T insiders told The Sunday Mail last week that while the US remained keen on upsetting the status quo using protests, Washington preferred someone other than Mr Tsvangirai to lead the push.
Mr Tsvangirai is understood to have gone to the US without invitation from the State Department hence the lack of high-level patronage he had become accustomed to, indicating the lack of belief the establishment there has in him.
And at a Chirumhanzu-Zibagwe parliamentary by-election campaign rally in Mvuma yesterday, VP Mnangagwa said authorities here had established that a foreign hand was behind a protest by MDC-T youths outside Parliament Building in Harare two weeks ago.
The youths marched into the streets on the pretext of demonstrating against the alleged abduction of opposition activist Itai Dzamara.
VP Mnangagwa said: “Zuva ranhasi, President havamo; varikuNamibia kwavakaenda nezuro (Friday). Kuri kugadzwa President Hage Geingob panga paina President (Hifikepunye) Pohamba. Zvino President vedu ndivo Chairman weSadc.
Vanosungirwa kuti saChairman, kana kuchigadzwa Head of State vange varipo.
“Saka vaenda ikoko. Asi vasati vaenda, vakandibvunza kuti, ‘Pandanga ndiri kuJapan, ndakanzwa kuti kune mariots akaitika kuno.’ Vemapepanhau vamunoona vari pamberi pedu ava, nevamwe vakagara kumashed avo vachinyora kuti, ‘Nyika is on the brink of collapse…
“Chinzwai chokwadi chandino kutaurirai zuva rakacheka nyika. Nyika yedu yeZimbabwe, kungaite chando, kunga pisa, kungaite maguta, kungaite nzara, isu seZanu-PF hatife takaregera kana kukanganiswa kutungimira nyika ino. Varipo vakaita saana Tsvangirai vari kuAmerica, vari kufamba vachitaura kuti nyika ino is burning.
“Ndiudzei ari pano abva kwaabva kwaawona kuchipwititika moto zvekuti tingatoti nyika yaakutsva kana kuti nyika yave kuparara? Hakuna! Zvimbwasungata zvinotumwa nevavengi vedu kuti zvitaure mashoko akadaro.”
The VP said Zimbabwe was among Africa’s most peaceful African countries, and President Mugabe’s Government would continue working towards national development.
He warned the media against sensationalising socio-economic challenges facing Zimbabwe.
“Zvamunonzwa mumapepa kuti the country is on the brink of collapse, it’s a pipedream yevanhu vanoda kufadza vanhu vanovapa mari. Asi sezvandinogara ndichitaura, Zimbabwe, Zanu-PF, VaMugabe, leadership yedu yose, vemakereke vedu vose, varimi vedu vose, ticharamba tichingofamba tichienda mberi vamwe vachingohukura.”
MDC-T insiders told The Sunday Mail yesterday that Mr Tsvangirai’s trip had not given the opposition the fillip it so desperately desired.
“First of all, he went there without any invitation from the US State Department. Then when he arrived, he thought he would get audience with senior US state officials, but they systematically snubbed him,” said a source.
Another added: “He did not get much from the visit; even think-tanks like the Kennedy Foundation did not grant him audience. The major highlight is that he met some MDC members based there.”
Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Mr Luke Tamborinyoka said his boss had returned home but would not disclose who he met in the US.
“Mr Tsvangirai arrived back in the country today (yesterday) from his diplomatic assignment in the United States. Diplomacy by nature is not an industry for megaphone communication. As such, I cannot reveal the officials he met,” he said.
Harare US embassy officials could not be reached for comment.
Influential US establishment think-tank, the Council of Foreign Relations, recently issued a memorandum titled “Political Instability in Zimbabwe: Contingency Planning Memorandum No 23”, which points to Washington anticipating civil unrest and benefiting from it by colluding with select NGOs and what it calls “moderates” in Zanu-PF.
