A ZANU PF official and church leader in Midlands Province who threatened to kill CCC leader Nelson Chamisa and his family says he will never be arrested.
Abton Mashayanyika, a bishop in the Habbakuk Apostolic Faith Mission church in Mberengwa claims he was a collaborator during the liberation struggle and is, therefore “untouchable”.
Police are yet to arrest Mashayanyika or question him after he threatened to kill Chamisa for challenging President Emmerson Mnangagwa while addressing a ZANU PF local meeting.
A video recording of the meeting during which Mashayanyika made the threat went viral on social media more than a week ago.
On Saturday, Mashayanyika told The Standard that he “does not like” CCC and did not have any regrets over his threats. He said:
Who will arrest me? Me? I am ready to die for ZANU PF, but that will not stop me from saying ‘down with sell-outs’.
That’s politics to say they must be killed.
If they are opposing ZANU PF they are also saying ZANU PF must be killed. I do not like those people because I am a war collaborator.
I fought in the liberation war that took over the country from white colonisation.
Now some people come and want to give back the country to the whites. We can’t let that happen.
Mashayanyika said he was a pastor but identified himself more as a politician than a religious leader. He said:
Yes, I am a bishop but I am more of ZANU PF than I identify myself as a church leader.
When are the police going to come? I am not afraid of them.
I am a ZANU PF member and am not afraid of getting arrested.
Tell them there in Harare that I am not afraid. I have been a staunch ZANU PF supporter since (Rhodesian prime minister Ian) Smith’s time.
But I am a war collaborator. I will not let the country go back into the hands of the whites.
We can’t let it go on like that and I still insist that I will continue supporting (President Emmerson) ED Mnangagwa.