Government warns instigators of violence

Government will not allow a few individuals feeding on the Western trough to cause confusion and anarchy in the country as part of the illegal regime change agenda, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Chris Mushohwe has said. Dr Mushohwe told The Herald that if there were issues, Zimbabweans should sit down and discuss rather than incite terrorist activities.

His remarks come in the wake of calls by some shadowy and faceless groups calling for the shutting down of the country's borders starting today, ostensibly to force Government to lift import controls on certain products from South Africa.

"You hear people even on the eve of Heroes Day, they would go out there and they would either through social media or through print media or electronic media go out there boasting that they want to cause anarchy; they want to cause terrorist attacks on the 11th of this month," said Dr Mushohwe.

"'No one should go into Harare, Gweru, Bulawayo, Mutare and all these cities, we will man the roads, we will set up bombs, we will do all sorts of things and blood is going to gash'; and you say are these people real Zimbabweans? Do they understand the implications of terrorism that they are preaching?

"Law enforcement in Zimbabwe is intact and people of Zimbabwe heard the commander of the army (Lieutenant General Philip Valerio Sibanda) assuring Zimbabweans. I want to assure Zimbabweans that Zimbabwe will not allow anarchy. Zimbabwe is a peace-loving country.

"We are a country that wants to see proliferation of law and order. Anything that disturbs law and order, anything that disturbs the peace that we are enjoying, we cannot allow. Let us say no to this one.

"If there are issues, and we accept there are problems and it's no secret, let us sit down and talk. Those who have good ideas, better ideas, and they think Government does not have good ideas to see this economy resurge under these sanctions, bring them. We welcome them."

Dr Mushohwe said the country was fought for and some people do not understand the implications of terrorist attacks they are calling for.

Said Dr Mushohwe: "Some people tell you that they want to liberate the country again. Where were you when it was real liberation? I don't know why Zimbabwean people intelligent like this — some people say we are the most educated people on the sub-continent if not on the entire continent — would think myopically and think it is going to be easy just to walk and throw bombs and do that, no.

"People must look at the situation in Libya. People must look at what is happening in Syria and elsewhere. People from Syria and Libya are dying on the Mediterranean Sea almost every day trying to escape the anarchy they created in their countries.

Libya was more developed than Zimbabwe, stronger than Zimbabwe and it was peaceful. They have destroyed that peace and now they are trying to go to Europe to look for peace. Europeans told them that there was no peace in their country and now Europeans do not want them in their countries. They are saying no more refugees. We don't want refugees and they are real refugees. They used to have mansions on top of mountains in Libya like Zimbabwe here and there is no evidence of those mansions today.

"The rich and the poor are equal now squatting in a capsizing boat on the Mediterranean Sea. Is this what Zimbabweans to see? Some Zimbabweans seem not to realise that the peace we cherish here is not coincidental. There are people who are maintaining this peace. There is a Government that is maintaining that peace."

Dr Mushohwe said the West was relentlessly funding opposition functionaries to effect regime not only in Zimbabwe but the whole of Africa. As such, said Dr Mushohwe, any victory by Zimbabwe over Western machinations could set a bad precedent in other African countries where the West had some interests.

"We all know those who imposed sanctions on us, the British, the Americans, the French from Europe. They don't want to be found as if they are defeated because it will be a bad example for their regime change agenda on the continent so they will do anything and they will give one little clergy some money and that little clergy will go round and spread the virus to other people and the people sometimes just follow blindly.

"If you think of the so-called Mawarire, he is now staying comfortably in South Africa. That is what he was looking for, to have people who can take care of him. As we go into the Heroes and Defence Forces Day holiday celebrations let us tell the people of Zimbabwe not to be unreasonably emotional on things that we can sit down and resolve together as a nation.

When chaos comes, it will not know if that person is from this party or that party. "We will be in the same dustbin, so I want to tell and persuade peace loving Zimbabweans that please don't listen to what these faceless people want us to believe. Let us go out and do our normal duties," he said.