CCC has blamed remarks by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga for violence against the opposition party’s supporters by ZANU PF youths in the Murewa North constituency recently.
The brutal assault, which was apparently filmed by one of the assailants, showed elderly opposition supporters being flogged, kicked and stepped on for supporting CCC.
CCC national spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said the violence should be understood in the context of past utterances by Mnangagwa and Chiwenga. Said Mahere:
It is important to state that this is not an isolated incident, it is part of a wide pattern of violence that has permeated our electoral landscape ever since the CCC was formed on January 24, 2022.
We have seen in almost every province violence perpetrated by ZANU PF and that violence must be understood in the context that the deputy leader of ZANU PF actually called for the CC to be crushed like lice.
It is also in the context that the leader of Zanu PF actually called for CCC supporters to be beaten up, vakombei murove.
He went so far as saying we should be hunted. We have on record members of ZANU PF calling for the killing of CCC Nelson Chamisa, our members’ homes to be burnt, for them to be killed because they are sellouts.
We have seen this in Matopo, Insiza, Mberengwa, Gutu, Chipinge and this is a reaction to the mass mobilisation strategy, Mugwazo.
The CCC has penetrated every single village town and city, something ZANU PF did not expect or budget for.
Recent incidences of violence have proved that rural areas are not ZANU PF strongholds because what other explanation is there for beating 75-year-olds in their homesteads?
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi on Tuesday said police had arrested Never Chimutashu (67) in connection with the violence in Murewa.
However, Abton Mashayanyika, a ZANU PF official from Mberengwa who was filmed in 2022 urging ZANU PF supporters to kill CCC leader Nelson Chamisa, his children and supporters ahead of the 2023 elections has not been arrested. | NewZimbabwe.com