The latest incident is the shutdown of Bulawayo by the army and police , with video evidence of police officers dragging a handcuffed man in the courtyard of a petrol station widely shared. According to media reports, Standard Chartered bank was forced to close its only branch in town. The bank sent a message to its customers saying it had closed its doors due to “circumstances beyond our control.”
However, as is now expected when Government wants to spruce up its image, the Zimbabwe National Army has refuted reports that members of the armed forces moved in to take charge of Bulawayo Central Business. Who then are those people causing such mayhem and getting away with it, while members of the army, as claimed the Zimbabwe National Army Deputy Director of public relations Alex Zuva, are in the vicinity watching these things happen as their presence was only “assisting the Zimbabwe Republic Police in enforcing Coronavirus lockdown regulations”.
The same thing happened when the army and police officers assisted the Dr. Khupe lead faction of the MDC-T 2014 structures take over Harvest House from the MDC Alliance at night. Seriously, how could the army and police have been enforcing Coronavirus regulations at Harvest House at 10.00pm? How many people would be travelling in town at that time of the night?
Then of cause there is the denial of the arrest of MDC Alliance Parliamentarian Joana Mamombe and her colleagues in the MDC Alliance Youth League Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, in which Zanu PF officials, Government officials and the Zimbabwe Republic Police have all denied involvement.
The truth about the situation in Zimbabwe is that Zanu PF and Government has for too long used the police force, the army, the central intelligence services to brutalise suspected members of the opposition and ordinary citizens who express concern on the way Government is managing the country. Very often corroborated accounts have been given of how Zanu PF youths have been dressed in police or army attire and given guns to brutalise the opposition voices, and the army and police officials will deny involvement, sometimes because they have not been involved, but they simply turn a blind eye when they see these atrocities committed.
But the army and police officials may not be the only ones to publicly deny involvement in unethical practice as I hear the first family has also publicly denied involvement in the last Zimbabwean scam involving Drax International even where there are reported links between the President and the firm, and when the President’s wife and children have been seen hanging around the suspects.
Do we have a Government in place?