MDC-T yesterday urged party youths to rise up against the infamous Mbare-based suspected Zanu PF outfit Chipangano, which has been unleashing untold violence and seizing council property in Harare with impunity.
Representing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the burial of founding member Diamond Karanda at Warren Hills Cemetery yesterday, party national vice-chairperson Morgan Komichi urged their members to defend themselves.
“Youths, rise up in your thousands and help Harare. Harare is under siege and now Zanu PF thinks this is Uzumba. Let’s rise up and get ready to defend ourselves if (Police Commissioner-General Augustine) Chihuri does nothing. We now have a worm in Harare,” said Komichi.
His call comes at a time Zanu PF has literally taken over the city, invading council properties and evicting perceived MDC-T supporters from market stalls, bus termini and car parks dotted around high-density suburbs.
“I want to make a declaration of peace in Harare. If Chihuri doesn’t do his job and help us with this, we will do it ourselves.
He is Zanu PF and fits in with the Zanu PF youths. Our youths will be found in all jails, but there is nothing new about getting arrested. We want to help ourselves,” Komichi said.
“People were beaten up at Parliament; there was violence at Machipisa and at the Charge Office. We want peace in Harare, and we will hit back if Zanu PF continues to harass people.”
Komichi said youths should follow the late Karanda’s example, described by many as a commander who fought Zanu PF from the forefront.
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Party organising secretary Nelson Chamisa told mourners MDC-T youths were dying at the hands of Zanu PF activists.
“Our youths are dying because of violence. They were and continue to be subjected to Zanu PF violence. They are dying because of those injuries sustained from violence,” Chamisa said.
He said youths should emulate the bravery of the late Karanda who was arrested several times, but fought until his last days.
Suspected Zanu PF youths have taken over Harare, beating up people, but they remain free.
The Zanu PF youths last year declared they were taking over what “rightly belonged” to them.
Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda on Tuesday told NewsDay it would be a mammoth task to reclaim what has been taken away as they have been “effectively taken over by all sorts of arbitrary persons with total impunity to the considerable prejudice of the city, financially and otherwise”.
Masunda said: “We have to restore law and order and thus avert the creation of fiefdoms controlled by warlords like in Somalia.”
On Monday, Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo disowned Chipangano saying: “These are members of the opposition who are trying to soil the good image of our party. This Chipangano group does not belong to us.”
But party secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa recently claimed responsibility for the violence, attributed to Zanu PF youths, that rocked Parliament Building saying they would defend them if they were arrested.
