The Zimbabwe Republic Police on Thursday warned main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance against engaging in anti-Government demonstrations, saying those who want to disturb peace in the country will have noone but themselves to blame.
The warning comes after Chamisa on Wednesday said he was ready to confront President Emmerson Mnangagwa head-on and engage in street protests albeit threats of bloodshed from the security forces. Immediately after his pronouncements, MDC supporters staged flash demonstrations which caught shoppers and motorists in central Harare by surprise.
The latest developments come hard on the heels of statements by exiled former Zanu PF Minister Jonathan Moyo that Mnangagwa will be toppled this February.
“If there are unruly elements who will want to disturb the peace and order and attack the police and civilians going about their business, they have themselves to blame,” said national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday.
“ZRP will ensure that law and order is maintained and we will not divulge what we are doing right now as that’s a security issue. Issues of security are not divulged to the public. I want to assure the public that (it) should be free to do (its) activities without any fear.”
Assistant Commissioner Nyathi also said that Chamisa should engage lawmakers in the event that he wanted his dissenting opinions to be heard.
“There is no one in the country who has the preserve to disturb the peace of other people. ZRP has a constitutional mandate to maintain law and order. People who conduct their various activities should do so in a peaceful manner. Police are there to protect peace and laws of the country,” Nyathi said.
Despite the warning, Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda defiantly remarked that they were unmoved by the threats from the ZRP.
“They should not think they are law unto themselves. They should not think that they are invincible. They should follow the law,” he said.
Since assuming the presidency following a coup that toppled from the late Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe in November 2017, the Mnangagagwa-led Harare administration has had to contend with perrenial demonstrations, most of them violent. Just after the 2018 harmonised elections controversially won by Mnangagwa and his long-ruling Zanu PF, seven people died after state security forces descended on the protestors.
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