Chamisa's MDC not cooperating with police

The MDC-Alliance is refusing to co-operate with police detectives assigned to investigate claims that the vehicle carrying party leader Nelson Chamisa was shot at, with no one in the group of vehicles at the time even willing to show police where the alleged shooting took place, and no one in the car ready to tell investigators what happened.

Police yesterday confirmed receiving a report of the alleged shooting from MDC-A Vice President Lynette Karenyi but a great deal of the investigation needs ballistic and witness evidence to get moving and here the police are receiving zero co-operation.

There were allegations in some sections of the media this week alleging that Mr Chamisa's convoy was intercepted by heavily armed suspected Zanu-PF youths who fired gunshots, hitting a rear window on the opposition leader's vehicle on the outskirts of Mutare in what was described as an "assassination attempt".

Mr Chamisa was reported to be on a tour of Manicaland province and driving from Birchenough Bridge and Chipinge headed for Mutare when the alleged incident occurred.

In an interview yesterday, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed that police had received such a report and a team of detectives had since been dispatched to Manicaland to investigate the matter.

He, however, said the opposition political party was not co-operating with investigations.

"A report was made late at night by Lynette Karenyi and when the police requested to attend the scene, they refused. Police then requested to have statements of the occupants of the vehicles be recorded and they refused again.

"A team from the Ballistics and Forensic Unit in Mutare also wanted to attend the scene but they refused again to show them the scene or area where the incident had occurred," he said.

Asst Comm Nyathi said as part of the investigations, police had requested the MDC-A officials to also bring the vehicles involved in the allegations for forensic examination but they have also not been cooperating.

"Police are ready to conduct investigations and a team of investigators has been dispatched to Mutare to conduct investigations and we want to urge them to cooperate with investigations.

"Police want to attend the scene to gather evidence and if possible for any suspect involved in such allegations to be picked up," he said.

MDC-A spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere is yet to respond to questions sent to her yesterday.

The opposition party led by Mr Nelson Chamisa has been burning the midnight candle, fervently agitating for economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies to stay as the party appears unsettled by the prospects of their removal ahead of the 2023 national elections.

The machinations manifested last week when Mr Chamisa and his retinue of hangers-on attempted to torch a violent storm in Masvingo to cast the Government in a bad light, but the ploy dismally flopped.

After failing to grab his desired attention ahead of the United Nations special rapporteur Ms Alena Douhan, who is in the country on a 10-day fact-finding mission to assess the impact of the illegal sanctions, the MDC-A leader in cahoots with some anti-Government civil society organisations have been preparing damaging dossiers to submit to the UN Special Rapporteur.

In a draft report to be submitted to Ms Douhan and gleaned by this publication, the MDC-A sensationally claims that Mr Chamisa escaped an assassination attempt last week and is banned from travelling around the country.

"Just last week we saw how our party president was almost assassinated and our members abducted and severely assaulted in Masvingo Province. Vigilantism is on the rise and our party is being barred from operating.

"We have already submitted a comprehensive dossier on these issues and we are going to be meeting the UN Special Rapporteur in person to discuss these issues," reads part of the draft report.

Despite the erroneous aspersions of being barred from moving around the country, Mr Chamisa has in fact been carrying out his party meetings across the country and was in Chipinge on Monday where he violated Covid-19 protocols.

Analysts said it was disingenuous on the part of Mr Chamisa to paint a grim picture of the situation in the country and play victimhood.

Presently, three MDC-A activists — Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova — are facing charges of faking abductions and are using a wide range of legal measures to delay their trial since their arrest in May 2020.

They timed their antics to coincide with another international event so as to negatively spotlight the country.

Using the alleged abduction of the three, MDC-A vice president Tendai Biti wrote a letter to World Bank president David Malpass claiming that the three were arrested, tortured and sexually assaulted by security forces. Again the three were most reluctant to assist the police in tracking down their alleged attackers.

The anti-Zimbabwe stance taken by the MDC-A is in stark contrast to the collective national aspirations, which have seen other opposition parties, churches and the business community calling for the unconditional removal of the illegal economic sanctions that have bled the country of billions.

During hearings of the US sanctions laws at the turn of the millennium, that country's former assistant secretary for African Affairs Chester Crocker is infamous for remarking that: "To separate the Zimbabwean people from Zanu-PF, we have to make their economy scream. I hope you Senators, have the stomach for what you have to do."