‘Chamisa Has No Right To Force People To Listen To Him’-Zanu PF

Zanu PF has challenged opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa that he has no constitutional right to force Zimbabweans to listen to him.

The sentiments came after Chamisa and his supporters on Monday were allegedly attacked by what they assume to be Zanu PF youths when he wanted to hold a rally in Masvingo.

Reports say Chamisa and his team were attacked by ruling party supporters, who barricaded roads to deny his convoy access to a local village.

It is alleged that the ruling party supporters, who were chanting slogans, were accompanied by the police.

Addressing a Press conference in Harare, Zanu PF acting commissar Patrick Chinamasa said Chamisa who is currently undertaking community interface meetings around the country as he mobilises support ahead of the 2023 elections, was entirely to blame.

“What I heard happened in Masvingo was that the opposition leader wanted to force himself on an audience which did not want to listen to him,

“He had no right to force people to listen to him. He had a right to address people but only those who were willing to be addressed by him. Chinamasa said.

A group of about 200 Zanu PF supporters were brandishing placards denouncing Chamisa for the sanctions imposed by the West on the country pounced on the opposition leaders, damaging cars and injuring five opposition supporters.

Zanu PF had initially claimed that the protests were stage-managed.

But Chinamasa yesterday said the villagers were angered because a “madman” wanted to address them.

“In this case, my information is that the villagers did not want to be addressed by him for obvious reasons. If you listen to a madman, you become part of his cast, you will be portrayed as part of his cast, he will then go ahead and say, I have lots of support, which he does not have.

“So our Zanu PF people have a right to say, we don’t want you to address us, we don’t want to, it’s my right, but if you force me to listen to you, I have reason to be angry.”

Chinamasa did not, however, explain why the police teargassed Chamisa at a private residence, how the villagers acquired the neatly printed placards or what they were doing, uninvited, at MDC Alliance gatherings.

Meanwhile, Information Ministry secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana and Zanu PF director of information Tafadzwa Mugwadi thanked the people of Masvingo for attacking and blocking Chamisa’s convoy.

They accused the MDC Alliance of stage-managing the attacks in order to draw the attention of the United Nations Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan who is scheduled to visit Zimbabwe to assess the impact of sanctions on the country from October 18 to 28.

“We are in the event of #COP26 and the special rapporteurs’ engagement is about to happen. Do you know what else has started? The Dramas,” Mangwana tweeted.

“We are tired of the @mdczimbabwe provocations aimed at setting the agenda and stage for the coming UN Rapporteur on sanctions…,” Mugwadi also tweeted.

 

A Journalist, writer and photographer

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