Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiCZ) chairperson Peter Mutasa says Zimbabwe has become a banana republic and a mafia State since the November 2017 coup that ended the late former president Robert Mugabe’s long reign.
According to online sources, a mafia state is a state system where organised crime has permeated the government to such an extent that government officials, the police, and/or the military become a part of the criminal enterprise.
Speaking during an interview with NewsDay’s Lorraine Muromo, Mutasa said that government business has been captured by organised criminal gangs who are fleecing the country dry thereby pushing the majority of citizens into poverty. Said Mutasa:
The country has been turned into a banana republic or a mafia state. There are a few gangsters or roving bandits that have taken charge of the country and its resources.
The majority are wallowing in poverty while a few elite are living in opulence. Organised criminal gangs fleecing the country dry through corruption and thuggery have captured government business.
As a result and in order for them to continue pillaging the resources of the country, the mafia state has taken away the rights of citizens.
The regime has suspended the Constitution and stripped citizens of any rights. We have seen heightened political violence, abductions, torture and persecution of opposition and civic society activists since the current regime came in through a (November 2017) coup.
We have seen draconian laws such as the PVOs Bill, Amendment of the Constitution, some provisions of both Labour Amendment Bill and Health Services Amendment Bill all seeking to curtail citizens’ freedoms.
Cabinet recently approved amendment of the Criminal Codification Act wherein the regime seeks to further curtail freedom of expression and criminalise civic society engagement with the world.
The late former President Robert Mugabe was bad but this government has made him look like a lesser dictator.