By Elizabeth Sitotombe
THOUSANDS of Zimbabweans demonstrated their appreciation and patriotism by attending the recent National Heroes Day commemorations.
Indeed, the masses will never allow imperialists and their puppets to run Zimbabwe again, and will honour their heroes and heroines by voting for a party that will uphold the vision and ideals of our liberation struggle.
ZANU PF is that Party with the people’s interests at heart.
If anything, the ruling Party has grown in strength in recent years, and the number of supporters has trippled.
The opposition will remain just that — an opposition party.
Rightly so, when a whole opposition leader holds the country to ransom and publicly brags one phone call to his Western masters to have sanctions, that he advocated, removed.
It is against such individuals that we should remain vigilant as we continue to work on building a prosperous Zimbabwe.
Word on the street is, Chamisa intends to refute the election results when the ruling Party wins.
Of course, that is a no-brainer — we have been down that road before.
The number of CCC supporters has been dwindling very fast owing to Chamisa’s lack of tact.
He should know that a political party is not personal property — it is bigger than the individual.
His supporters said it, we didn’t.
The lack of structures and a constitution has exposed them as ideologically bankrupt jesters.
After giving the Zimbabweans a peek into their chaotic affairs, it became apparent that the opposition is a lost cause.
The CCC party supporters have threatened to withhold their vote in protest, citing their displeasure with the candidate selection process which was marred by confusion and discrepancies.
Many of their rallies have flopped mainly because of poor attendance and they have clearly failed to penetrate the rural constituencies, as they claim.
In an interview with the BBC, one supporter accused Chamisa of, “…opting to confront the ruling party on social media with bible verses and misplaced optimism.”
But the indisputable reality on the ground is that the CCC has failed to mobilise for the elections.
Now the opposition, as we know it, will resort to all sorts of shenanigans to bring about chaos and discord in an otherwise peaceful electoral environment.
And they are already at it!
CCC has been perpetrating politically-motivated violence across the country where members of the party have been seen attacking members of ZANU PF and each other.
But on social media, they claim it is the ruling Party supporters involved in the violence.
In Chitungwiza, CCC’ s Freddy Masarirevu was allegedly attacked and left for dead by a group of opposition members aligned to another candidate said to be Brighton Mazhindu last month.
In Masvingo, rowdy CCC supporters started throwing stones at police officers, while threatening to set to fire two police vehicles after failing to adhere to the timeline certified for their event.
They have gone as far as putting up billboards and then destroying them in the dead of night and then going on to blame ZANU PF.
They were caught in their own lie when they claimed that one of the EU observers was attacked in Mutare after being mistaken for an aspiring CCC MP.
The EU Election Observer Mission vehemently denied the claim.
That the Zimbabwean electoral landscape has been serene is not debatable.
And this does not augur well for the opposition which has to burn the midnight oil to perpetuate the lie that there can never be peaceful elections in Zimbabwe; as well as justify the huge amounts of cash advanced by their handlers in the regime change putsch.
They are now stage-managing tensions in the hope of escalating this drama into violence; but alas, ZANU PF supporters are refusing to take the bait.
In Stephen Chan’s own words: “…to be fair, the violence so far has been less than previously, notwithstanding one death. Violence can’t now be ramped up too much more as observers arrive.”
Chan even went on to castigate the CCC manifesto titled: ‘A new great Zimbabwe for everyone’.
This is a 100-page document with 20 headline quick wins — all to be accomplished in 100 days. That won’t happen, but it’s ambitious.
And its detailing is not as well presented and argued as in some opposition manifestos elsewhere.
It was ironic that we went on to see the so called civic society groups calling for interference as Zimbabwe goes through another cycle of heavily disputed elections — but why should the elections be disputed?
They are planning to cause havoc in the rural areas, according to the social media messages gleaned by this publication:
“Attention Harare Councillors
We are instructed to beef up agents in rural areas for the purposes of safeguarding Presidential votes.
Every ward is hereby instructed to organise 15 champions who are to be agents in Rural areas .
Names to be submitted by 12 noon today (16 August 2023)
Please note this is a urgent matter.
Details to be captured
Full Name
National ID number
Phone number
NOTE EACH AGENT WILL BE PAID AN ALLOWANCE OF $200,00 from the defend your vote funds raised last year by PRES CHAMISA
Names to be submitted to Womberaiishe Nhende
On 0717391806
Furthermore citizens are being encouraged to adopt a polling station where they will be observing the voting process.”
Remember, we reported on all those trainings of so-called citizen journalists by some CSOs?
The same citizens will be observing the voting process and, according to an inside source, these citizens will be paid US$100 ‘for their efforts’.
They will deliberately spread misleading information on social media to incite public violence.
It is evident CCC is being run by external forces.
They launched an operation ‘Ziva Pekuvhotera BOT’ which reveals polling stations and candidates to counter vote manipulation by ZEC, according to them.
Read one of their adverts:
“Call to Action
Save the number +1(305)791-0002 to your phone.
Whatsapp hello
You will be notified of your polling station and candidates.”
However, opinion polls taken in the last few months have predicted victory for ZANU PF.
The latest opinion poll released on August 8 2023 by the Pan-African Forum Limited predicted a 68 percent vote for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a 30 percent vote for Chamisa.
In July, a survey conducted by the Mass Public Opinion Institute showed that ZANU PF would attract more votes compared to the CCC.
The American-based Fitch Solutions described President Mnangagwa as a reform-minded leader and also predicted a landslide victory in the Presidential elections.
Transforming the country into an empowered upper middle-income society by 2030 has been the goal set by the Second Republic since its inception five years ago.
Under President Mnangagwa, significant progress has been made in the construction and rehabilitation of roads, bridges and airports.
Zimbabweans wanted development — and they are getting it.
