Military Places Civil Rights Activists Under Surveillance - Report
A Zimbabwe Independent report reveals that the Zimbabwe National Army’s Military Intelligence (MI) unit has put on its watchlist a number of civil society activists it suspects of working hand in glove with the United States of America to overthrow the Zimbabwean government.
Those placed under surveillance include an organisation known as Generation Consensus, led by Ostalus Siziba; the Children of Zimbabwe War Veterans Association (Cozwa), led by Munyaradzi Shoko; and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC), according to the Zimbabwe Independent.
The report further claims to have in its possession an internal memorandum circulated recently by the MI in which it makes several claims. The memo reads in part:
Information was gleaned to the effect that on May 10 2019, four American nationals namely Nell Penner, Peter Tony and two others yet to be identified as well as Willie Spies, a South African member of Afriforum held a meeting at Parktonian Hotel, Braamfontein, South Africa.
The workshop is code-named Savannah revolution, running under the theme ‘National Order and Economic Revolution in Zimbabwe’.
Information at hand shows that the workshop entered day two on May 11 2019, where one of the American facilitators, Will Spies, highlighted that there was a need for a political revolution in Zimbabwe in order to bring national order which would ultimately reclaim and unlock massive economic growth in the country.
Spies claimed that no meaningful development can take off without considering a political revolution.
However, CiZC director Thulani Mswelanto said that his organisation never sent people to the workshop. He said:
We never sent people to that workshop. It’s sad that they continue to generate reports so that they can create an opportunity to crack down on civil society.
Let them know that civil society does not reconstitute the political order. We are not aware of any plans to undertake a revolution next week or any other time.
