Data analysts Team Pachedu on Sunday announced they had cancelled their planned mass protests against the deteriorating socio-economic environment and the continued incarceration of Job Sikhala.
The protests were also against the looting of the country’s resources by the elite exposed by the Al Jazeera documentary called “Gold Mafia”.
In a Twitter post, Team Pachedu said they cancelled the protests which were scheduled to coincide with Independence Day celebrations on 18 April due to a lack of stakeholders’ consensus. Reads the post:
We have been pushing for a peaceful national protest on April 18 in light of the deteriorating socio-economic environment, including the Gold Mafia saga and the unjust continual detention of Job Sikhala. Regrettably, we are calling off due to a lack of stakeholders’ consensus.
However, some civil society organisations said they had not been formally approached by Team Pachedu about the planned protests.
Speaking to NewsDay, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition chairperson Peter Mutasa said:
We are not aware of any discussions around this. We were never approached or consulted about it.
So we do not know much about why stakeholders didn’t support it as stated.
Centre for Natural Resource Governance director Farai Maguwu also told the publication that Team Pachedu never consulted them about the protests. He said:
I am not privy to who was coordinating, how they consulted and who was consulted.
I think the coordination should have occurred through or with established movements such as workers’ unions, student movements, and civil society.
The Gold Mafia is a term used to describe gold smuggling and money laundering gangs in southern Africa who share links with top officials in Zimbabwe’s government.
The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit recently produced a four-part series titled “Gold Mafia” which exposed how the gangs work.
The gang members get rich while plundering their nations and keeping millions in abject poverty.
They use gold to turn dirty cash into clean, seemingly legitimate money for those with large amounts of unaccounted wealth.
The criminals do so by using a complex web of companies, counterfeit identities and fake documents.
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