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Nobleman Runyanga Correspondent
Over the weekend, the MDC Alliance faction was busy with another stunt, which Zimbabweans and the world were already expecting given that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was set to hold its Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government from today in Lilongwe, Malawi.
Those who are familiar with the MDC Alliance faction know that it has become the tactless opposition outfit’s wont to organise stunts ahead of major regional and global meetings which President Mnangagwa would be attending.
The stunts, which have now become tired due to their hare-brained nature, their ineffectiveness and monotony, are carried out to embarrass the President ahead of or during such events and are also used to attempt to smuggle the discussion of Zimbabwe onto the agenda of such forums.
SADC is now very familiar with the MDC Alliance’s so-called regional offensive which includes visits by the opposition’s leaders to leaders of various member states and the claims of non-existent abductions.
Familiar path
It was, therefore, not surprising that last Friday Zimbabweans who use the Twitter social media platform woke up to a screaming tweet by MDC Alliance faction deputy chairperson, Job Sikhala to the effect that Nyika growth point-based young activist and businessman, John Mupanduki, had been abducted by five unknown armed men who were using an unmarked motor vehicle at around 3am.
Sikhala desperately tweeted to the world to sell his “abduction” story to get sympathy for Mupanduki and support for his faction’s narrative of alleged human rights abuse by Government.
He ended his 8.19am tweet of January 7, 2022 with “Let’s re-Twit (sic)” but the response was lukewarm. The world is now tired of such silly stunts.
The self-abduction trick has been overused since September 2019 when some Western embassies organised to have former acting Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association President, Dr Peter Magombeyi “abducted” to create the impression that Government was trying to silence him from leading a then ongoing doctors’ strike.
A few days later, a healthy, fit and well-groomed Magombeyi “found” himself in Nyabira, about 20km along the Harare-Chirundu highway.
He claimed to be disoriented and the results of the various tests administered on him by South African doctors, which were released a year later, indicated that he was not poisoned as claimed by his handlers and supporters.
Apart from reflecting badly on Government, the “abduction” was also calculated to precede the inaugural SADC Anti-Sanctions Day, which was held on October 25, 2019.
The West was desperately trying to use the fake abduction to justify the United States sanctions against Zimbabwe by claiming human rights abuses, which did not exist.
Since the Magombeyi incident, a number of MDC Alliance faction members have performed self-abduction stunts for the same purposes. Activists, Cecilia Chimbiri, Joanna Mamombe and Netsai Marowa claimed that they had been abducted by alleged State agents in May 2020, the claims were, however, proved to be false.
In November last year, the MDC Alliance faction claimed that one of its co-vice presidents, Tendai Biti ,had been abducted, which was false.
Who would forget how Sikhala has in the past also falsely claimed to have been abducted by State agents to ward off his wife who was angry for time he had spent away from home with a mistress?
While Sikhala and the MDC Alliance information department were clogging the social media with messages of the Mupanduki “abduction,” none of them reported the matter to the police.
It was only after Sikhala had told the world on Sunday that Mupanduki had been “found” dumped in Mashava, some 125km away from Nyika, that the MDC Alliance faction’s information department then tweeted that “John Mupanduki has made an official report to Bikita Police Station Law and Order after an initial report at Nyika Base.”
It was not clear as to who made the initial report at the Nyika police base and it was most likely his wife. Sikhala in Harare and his team on the ground were too busy to make a report to the police.
They were milking every word of the negative publicity emanating from their dastardly enterprise and travelling to Bikita to report the matter at a proper police station was too much of a pesky task.
Despite all of Sikhala’s social media displays of concern, a reportedly injured Mupanduki had to travel the 40km distance to Bikita to make the report by himself. The MDC Alliance’s reluctance to report their political schemes to the police is, however, not without precedent. The world will remember how the faction wilfully chose not to report to the police their claims of an attack on Chamisa’s convoy in Mutare in October last year despite loudly accusing ZANU PF of the so-called attacks.
When the police moved in to investigate the matter and get to the bottom of the issue, the faction refused to co-operate with the law enforcement agents.
This demonstrated that the “attacks” were a planned inside job meant to besmirch President Mnangagwa and ZANU PF and to perpetuate the faction’s political victimhood narrative, which it relishes.
Internal ructions
Interestingly, no other senior MDC Alliance faction national executive member was as seized with the Mupanduki alleged abduction matter as was Sikhala.
The Zengeza West legislator and a Biti ally is known for supporting the ouster of his faction’s leader, Nelson Chamisa in favour of Biti, who the anti-Chamisa Maruva cabal within the faction believes is better suited to fight ZANU PF.
Biti also enjoys the support of the Americans, who feel that he understands Zimbabwe’s economy better than Chamisa. The latter has failed to outgrow the student activism mentality and empty populism of his tertiary education days.
The fact that Sikhala was at the forefront of the abduction project is in line with his vaulting ambition, which has seen Chamisa checkmating him by appointing Sesel Zvidzai as vice chair in October last year, while (Sikhala) was still in post.
It is not surprising the MDC Alliance was following behind Sikhala in terms of breaking the news of the “abduction” and providing updates on the matter.
Apart from serving to embarrass President Mnangagwa ahead of the Lilongwe summit, the arranged abduction also sought to demonstrate to the world that the Maruva cabal or Biti sub-faction represented by Sikhala was ahead of the Chamisa sub-faction to which the MDC Alliance faction’s Fadzai Mahere-headed information department is aligned.
Full article on www.herald.co.zw
Some MDC Alliance insiders whispered in hushed tones that the Mupanduki alleged abduction was part of the ongoing turf wars between the Biti and Chamisa sub-factions in Masvingo Province.
Mupanduki, a Chamisa supporter, is eyeing the Bikita West constituency which Sikhala, who considers himself an MDC Alliance faction god father, is not happy with.
His faction was reportedly behind the planning and execution of the “abduction” to send a message to Mupanduki. The abduction also dovetailed with the greater MDC Alliance habit of seeking to embarrass President Mnangagwa, which is supported by Biti’s Western handlers.
Lack of tact
The Mupanduki “abduction” case added to a number of the MDC Alliance faction’s failed attempts at fighting ZANU PF which paradoxically result in the opposition outfit exposing its lack of political tact. By now the opposition faction would know that its self-abduction stunts have failed and are only serving as a source of self- embarrassment. The fact that it continues to employ the same tactic only shows the glaring paucity of meaningful ideas among its leaders despite the faction teaming with lawyers.
It also shows that the faction is driven by its gallery of Western handlers and funders to which it plays. It demonstrates that the MDC Alliance is not a home-grown political project. It is a Western enterprise meant to serve the needs of strangers and not Zimbabweans.
The good news for Zimbabweans is that Zimbabwe’s politics and Government will always be determined by the Zimbabwean electorate in the periodic democratic process of elections in line with our Constitution.
Even as the March 26 2022 by-elections and the 2023 harmonised election draw near, the West’s local running dogs should be reminded that despite their silly stunts, their handlers do not and cannot participate in Zimbabwean elections. Only deserving political candidates will win the polls and not those self-abducting ones, who are backed by the meddlesome West.
Online Reporter