Movement for Democratic Change leader Nelson Chamisa, who seems to have cooled down of late, today said killings and violence are barbaric ways of resolving national challenges.
He was referring to the recent violence that broke out after a proposed shutdown resulted in massive looting especially in Bulawayo and several deaths.
Police say three people, including a police officer who was stoned to death in Bulawayo, were killed.
Others reports say as many as a dozen people were killed.
Chamisa who attended the funeral of one of the victims today tweeted: “Comforting Kelvin Choto’s family in Chitungwiza. A 22-year old footballer, Kelvin was shot dead during the stayaway. Had a young wife and a 7 months old daughter. Kelvin was not active in politics. Killings and violence are barbaric ways of resolving national challenges!”
He posted a picture in which he was holding the baby girl.
The government has blamed the violence and the mayhem on the MDC while Chamisa blamed in on President Emmerson Mnangagwa whom he said had failed in his duties.
“If you check, the constitution demands the President to serve the country, not to beat the people when they demand him to serve them,” Chamisa was quoted by The Standard as saying at the funeral of Choto.
“He has failed on his duties. Government has no right to take away the life of the people, but to protect them. Tinashe died not because he was sick, but because government is sick…….
“I want to write a letter to Mnangagwa, asking him why he is killing his people. We want to take the matter up with SADC, the UN and all organs and tell them that the people are under siege from their own government,” he said.
Presidential spokesman George Charamba warned that the crackdown by the security forces was just a foretaste of what will happen if there of further protests.
He said the protests had nothing to do with the recent 150 percent increase in fuel prices but was meant to push for a government of national unity and to raise the profile of Chamisa ahead of his party congress and to overturn the results of last year’s elections.
“All three goals have nothing to do with the national interest. They are selfish and narrow considerations,” Charamba told the Sunday Mail.
“Government will not stand by while such narrow interests play out so violently. The response so far is just a foretaste of things to come.
“The MDC leadership and its affiliate organisations will be held fully accountable for the violence and the looting.
“The progenitors and perpetrators of the violence are lumpen elements, not workers.
“The member-less and moribund ZCTU cannot claim to have galvanised or mobilised workers. If anything, we are seeing a reactivation of the 1999 structures which unleashed violence on society, where MDC and ZCTU had that filial relationship.
“This means the response of the State must deal with both the wayward parent and the wayward child, which is exactly what is going to happen.”
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