MDC-A co-ordinated violence against security forces

Khumbulani Vodloza Sibanda
Peace and stability in any society is underpinned by a functional law enforcement system that ensures that law and order are maintained.

That Constitutional responsibility for this in Zimbabwe falls on the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). It is therefore a serious cause for concern when well-co-ordinated demonstrators target police officers for attacks during protests that are supposedly against economic challenges.

Police officers are a direct representative of the State. The State exercises its authority through, among others, police officers whose attacks are a direct attack on the State. The #National Shutdown organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the MDC faction led by Nelson Chamisa has just confirmed the trend of MDC violence targeted at law enforcement agents. Readers may remember that the MDC is on record attacking police stations across the country during the 2007 protests leading to serious injuries to police officers. Marimba Police Station in Harare was one station that was petrol-bombed.

That trend is continuing as shown during the recent #National Shutdown protest which led to the death a Police Officer, Constable Alexio Maune who was based at Entumbane Police Station in Bulawayo. Cst Maune succumbed to injuries sustained when she was attacked with stones by a riotous mob of MDC protestors while on duty in Bulawayo on 15 January 2019. How callous for the protesters to attack to death a police officer whose only offence, in their eyes, was to serve her country through maintaining law and order.

Her only crime was to put on the proud uniform of the ZRP. Maune, most likely, was a breadwinner for a family that now stands robbed of its breadwinner. Seventy-eight other police officers were injured in Harare, Bulawayo, Mashonaland East and Manicaland provinces between 14 and 16 January 2019.

Among the officers who sustained serious injuries were Constable Edward of Chitungwiza (Canine Section) who had to have six stitches due to a cut sustained on the head, Cst Timburwa of Support Unit who lost a tooth while other six are shaking after being stoned on the mouth, Cst Dengu whose left arm was fractured and Cst Nanitenga of Support Unit Zulu Troop whose clavicle was fractured following an attack with stones.

These officers were just victims of a misguided political outfit that thrives on violence. The foregoing figures of the injured and dead police officers represent statistics of documented victims as opposed to the false figures which were being thrown around by the opposition and its hangers-on such as civil society organisations. For example, one Tinashe Kaitano who appeared in court facing charges of violence was reported as one of the people who died during the 14 to 16 January riots. A mysterious journalist Elizabeth Zimunda who the opposition claimed had died at the hands of security agents during the same riots was initially said to have been buried on 21 January only for this date to be revised to 28 January.

Checks with the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) revealed that no such journalist was registered with the commission and that the Zimbabwe Leadership Publication which the falsehood peddlers claimed employed her was also not registered.

It is very dangerous for opposition parties to vent their political anger against law enforcement agents.

The effect of such an approach is to inadvertently entangle neutral law enforcers in partisan political contests. When the opposition singles out police officers for political attacks, the general public may view the police as targets for attacks, hence the current attacks which resulted in the injuries and the death.

The MDC is on record for using hate language against the Zimbabwe’s security sector. The opposition outfit sees the security sector as an impediment to achievement of its nefarious regime change agenda, hence the co-ordinated attacks against the professionalism and conduct of the security sector. It is a public secret that one of their decades-old demands is for reform of the security sector. To the MDC, security sector reforms would result in the retirement of the liberation war combatants who currently constitute the command element in the various security organs of the State. These security professionals are the architects of the security establishment, hence their retirement, in the thinking of the MDC, would remove a solid barrier to their anti-people machinations.

As recently as 2018, MDC surrogates initiated a campaign on social media to identify security personnel in various neighbourhoods for victimisation. The campaigners sought to whip up public emotions against security personnel by promising to deal with them in one way or the other. We were told that an MDC government would decisively deal with these security professionals. The effect of the threats has been a progressive decline of public respect for security professionals, mainly police officers. Such a scenario does not promote proper relations between security agents and the general public which should be based on mutual respect.

The ZRP’s approach to policing is based on friendly community policing as opposed to military policing witnessed in some war zones. The MDC is actively destroying this community policing approach through turning the public against their protectors, all for political expediency.

The MDC may be calculating that such attacks on the police will be met with a strong response by the security establishment, in which case the MDC would then cry foul to the international community that it was being persecuted. This would fit into the scheme of demonising the security establishment as violators of human rights, and therefore, legitimate candidates for Western sanctions.

These machinations are, however, bound to fail as the responsible Government will not fold its arms while anarchists wreak havoc against peace-loving citizens. President Mnangagwa rightly warned MDC and ZCTU activists that he will not hesitate to use appropriate action against violent protesters to protect lives and property, given the scale of damage witnessed during the infamous #National Shutdown.

Choppies Supermarkets alone lost stock worth over US$2,5 million to looters while damage to its stores is estimated at over US$7,5 million. Several other upcoming small indigenous businesspersons lost their wares to the looters. It is against this background that the indication by the President that he would deploy security forces to thwart violent protesters is welcome. While the right to protest is enshrined in the Constitution, other citizens are equally entitled to protection by the law. The State cannot abandon peace-loving citizens to the whims of organised violence and harassment.