UK, US team up to trigger unrest

Political Editor

Some Western embassies in Harare have started training anti-government civic society groups to prepare for protests pencilled for January next year.

At the centre of the anti-Zimbabwe plot are the embassies of the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden that have lined up virtual and physical meetings with some select civic society organisations that also include teachers’ unions.

The training comes at a time when a junior minister in the United Kingdom revealed recently that his country was working with unions to instigate unconstitutional regime change.

There is an ongoing civil society online training workshop where the course will be on: “The use of the Internet in political protests. Using Internet and social media to remove autocratic governments and social media mobilisation, internet and civil disobedience”.

The convener of the meeting is Briggs Bomba, who leads an obscure organisation called the Citizen Manifesto. The confirmed attendees include Rashid Mahiya, chair of the Crisis Coalition, George Makoni of the Centre for Development Trust, Wadzanai Mangoma of the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset) and political activists Promise Mkwananzi and Pride Mukono.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure, some teachers and other anti-government activists that include Ashley Pfunye, Dewa Stabile, Obert Masaraure, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Charles Nyoni and Robson Chere are the other attendees.

The trainers are Nils B Weidmann — Editor of EU Politics and Gerald Schneider — (Professor of Political Science University of Konstanz, Germany).

Authorities have since launched an investigation into the conduct of the civic society organisations leaders.

Schneider is listed as a Professor of International Politics at the University of Konstanz, and his main areas of research are European Union decision making, the causes and consequences of armed violence, the international political economy of financial markets, bargaining theory and conflict management.

While the Bomba group will be having a virtual meeting, former Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Peter Mutasa will be convening another meeting along with Swedish Embassy officials, apparently to prepare for the protests that are targeted to start in January.