By Elizabeth Sitotombe
IN the wee hours of September 4, the morning of the inauguration, some roads had been barricaded and tyres were burning in Chitungwiza, Rugare, Corobourough, Kuwadzana, Mbare and the heavy industrial area, otherwise known as the Coca-Cola area, courtesy of some rogue elements.
The intention was to block people from travelling to the National Sports Stadium and instigate violence around Harare in an effort stop the inauguration.
This bid, however, failed as the security nipped this mischief in the bud.
All Harare CCC MPs and councillors had been ordered to organise demonstrations by their leader Nelson Chamisa.
However, they failed to mobilise a large number of people to do their bidding.
Violence has always been in the CCC’s DNA, and the State was ready for them.
The country’s security officers had been deployed countrywide and were on high alert.
Over the years, they have staged protests that have resulted in the deaths of many innocent Zimbabweans all the while looting shops and destroying properties.
They did not have their way this time.
In a last ditch attempt to save face, the CCC rejected the announced results and started calling for protests demanding fresh elections.
The protests were meant to begin on Friday, September 1 and were meant to run through the week.
In 2018, the then MDC-Alliance called on all its supporters to reject the harmonised general election results and protest on the streets.
The party claimed they would release their own results if the vote did not go in favour of Chamisa.
They said the same this time around too.
Some of these organisers were advocating protests from the comfort of their rooms abroad.
None of them were going to be on the frontline to lead the protests.
The opposition was calling for protests in the name of People Power Movement, with Makomborero Haruzivishe being one of the organisers.
Haruzivishe has been arrested before and convicted for inciting public violence and resisting arrest.
A general definition says: “People power can be manifested as a small scale protest or campaign for neighbourhood change, or as wide-ranging, revolutionary action involving national street demonstrations, work stoppages and general strikes intending to overthrow an existing government.”
However, people power movements rely on popular participation and are, therefore, supported by the people.
In this case, the people of Zimbabwe would not be hoodwinked; they ignored these calls by simply asking that the CCC first prove they had indeed won the elections by releasing the V11 forms they claimed to have.
The situation remained normal in Harare as well as other towns and cities.
It was business as usual in all sectors of the economy with no sign there was a call for protests.
On September 2, the opposition claimed that elected CCC councillor-elect for Glen Norah Ward 27, Womberaishe Nhende, had been abducted in Harare and injected with an unknown substance.
They further claimed he had been tortured and left for dead in Mashonaland West.
This was meant to rile up the people’s emotions after they had ignored the first initial call to protest.
Nhende would appear a day later, as fit as a fiddle, making all sorts of ridiculous claims.
He is, however, yet to make a police report over this alleged abduction while he hides in Westgate, together with Takudzwa Ngadziore, Munashe Masiiwa and Denford Ngadziore.
Stage-managed abductions, by now, have become one of the oldest tricks in the opposition books.
They have all been ‘abducted’ at one point or another.
Tendai Biti, Haruzivishe, Joanna Mamombe and even Chamisa, among other members, have supposedly survived several abduction attempts.
What cannot be denied is that this year’s election has dealt a serious blow to Chamisa and his cronies.
It could, in essence, signal an end to his political career.
Chamisa (pictured) basically ran the opposition party like a personal tuckshop.
He even tried to order the incoming CCC legislators to reject the election results and claim they were shambolic, much to the chagrin of his legislators who were unnerved by such a proposal and out rightly rejected his directive.
The legislators felt Chamisa was trying to turn them into losers like him who had once again lost the Presidential votes.
If a whole party president fails to manage his own people, what more the whole country?
Needless to say, at the end of day (September 4) President Mnangagwa was successfully inaugurated as President of Zimbabwe.
Indeed, only a liberated and free people can come together and celebrate a leader of their choice.
It was a win against the continuous meddling of the West aided by their proxies to reverse those gains.
