Zimbabwe’s MDC Alliance calls on Cyril Ramaphosa, SADC to intervene after attack on Nelson Chamisa’s convoy

Cape Town –  Opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC-Alliance) has called on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene in Zimbabwe after its leader Nelson Chamisa was recently attacked in Masvingo rural.

Chamisa’s convoy was attacked by suspected ruling Zanu-PF party supporters last week on Monday.

He, however, “did not get injured although his close protection officers and security details were injured” and hospitalised, Fadzayi Mahere, spokesperson for the (MDC-Alliance) said at the time.

The party said around 200 villagers, suspected to have been mobilised ruling Zanu-PF, barricaded roads and hurled rocks at their cars in the southern Masvingo region.

The alliance has been on a mobilisation campaign ahead of the 2023 national elections and by-elections scheduled for vacant seats.

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According to eNCA, MDC Alliance Vice President Tendai Biti said the time had come for Ramaphosa and the Southern African Development Committee to intervene and caution his fellow liberation struggle colleagues in Zanu-PF.

“The attack on our president advocate Nelson Chamisa is irrevocable proof beyond reasonable doubt… that Zanu-PF is a bloody, violent, fascist, illegitimate, tired and exhausted liberation movement.

“This is the message we have been trying to make to president Ramaphosa and to SADC that Zimbabwe is a lawless country run by a tired exhausted liberation movement that has no respect to constitutionalism, the rule of law and the rights of its citizens,” Biti said during an interview with the television broadcasting channel.

Zanu-PF’s acting National Political Commissar Patrick Chinamasa last week rubbished the MDC Alliance’s claims that its leader had been attacked.

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Chinamasa accused Chamisa of provoking Zanu-PF supporters to attack him and his team by “trying to impose his views and trying to address disinterested Zanu-PF supporters” in Masvingo, News Day reported.

“What I heard happened in Masvingo was that the opposition leader wanted to force himself on an audience which did not want to listen to him.