Tshabangu is working for ZANU-PF, says Chinamasa

ZANU PF senior official Patrick Chinamasa has acknowledged the controversial recalls of main opposition (CCC) MPs from parliament, claiming they were due to Mbuya Nehanda’s spiritual intervention.

He said Nehanda fought after ZANU PF lost to CCC in urban areas, and Tshabangu is now spearheading the fightback through recalls.

Zanu PF, which had failed to win its desired two-thirds parliamentary majority in the August general elections, was the biggest beneficiary of Tshabangu’s democratic subversion and disruption of the opposition through last weekend’s by-elections.

It gained seven more seats, basically donated by Tshabangu and his handlers.

Tshabangu’s move not only gave ZANU PF more seats, but also brought back the ruling party in Bulawayo where it had been wiped out.

Chinamasa also blamed the CCC for cholera ravaging the country.

As Newshawks notes, by making the above remarks, Chinamasa has technically appropriated Tshabangu’s political agenda and Nehanda’s legacy for Zanu PF’s self-serving use.

In other words, Tshabangu’s actions are helping Zanu PF, while Nehanda fought for the ruling party as well.
It is not the first time Chinamasa drew such scandalous parallels.

In 2020, Chinamasa claimed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa was the country’s own Mbuya Nehanda, an ancestral spirit of the 19th century era considered holy and powerful in local lore.

Addressing a weekly Zanu PF Press briefing, Chinamasa said while in the past former colonial master Britain beheaded fighters like Nehanda, they have now turned to social media in modern-day era to “discredit icons like Mnangagwa” who were working for economic emancipation.

He said social media attacks on Mnangagwa and his family were equal to the attacks faced by the likes of Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi during early
resistance to colonialism.

“Allow me to draw parallels between, on one hand the public beheading of Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kagivi, Chief Mashayamombe, Mutekedza Chiwashira and other anti-colonial resistance fighters,” Chinamasa said.

“On the other hand, the imposition of illegal sanctions by the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, white Commonwealth countries, Australia, Canada and New Zealand accompanied by the orchestrated social media onslaught targeting President Mnangagwa and his family.

“It is to intimidate our leader with the intention to cow the general population into submission and subjugation.”

Newshawks