The revelations that some top Zanu (PF) officials fund Chipangano is no surprise to ordinary Zimbabweans, the gang of unemployed youths do not have the financial muscle to sustain their dastardly acts of terror. Somebody with the wherewithal is behind them and funding them.
That is not to say that Chipangano has no way of generating its own funds. The Combined Harare Residents Association estimates that Chipangano rakes in at least $30 000 from bus terminuses in Harare. The mobs have also taken over several council markets like Siyaso and Mupedzanhamo where they charge vendors extortionate fees.
Chipangano have also taken over a council building, Carter House, in Mbare, and the council has been threatened into silence over the matter. Carter House is now the unofficial Chipangano headquarters and a torture base where MDC activists are held.
There are so powerful that they scuttled a $5 million housing project that had the potential of transforming the suburb of Mbare. With the way things are going, Zimbabweans are scared that Chipangano could blossom and become a terror group similar to Al-Queda.
This indeed is chilling and possible. When will Zanu (PF) call these bandits to account?
Civil wars have been sustained by terror groups that were formed by war lords paying their youths in drugs. Like other terror groups, Chipangano breaks the law with impunity and the police have so far been no more than bystanders. They have done nothing to investigate the origins of violence in Harare and other parts of the country.
The MDC and other organizations say that in 2008 many women were raped and more people were killed by known Zanu (PF) supporters, but nothing was done to the perpetrators. This is now happening in Harare and it is scary.
Chipangano is slowly crystallizing into a formidable group of war mongers that could give future government sleepless nights.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis