Once again the violent militia group with Zanu PF links, Chipangano, has unleashed its rogue youths to attack workers at a construction site in Mbare where a service station and a food court are being built.
Zanu PF has always dissociated itself from the shadowy group although its hand, through officials from that party, is conspicuous in the activities of the militia group.
In the latest episode where workers at the construction site are reportedly being beaten and chased away from the $1,2 million project, the violence is being supported by Zanu PF Harare province youth chairperson, Jim Kunaka, and the party’s prospective MP for the area, Tendai Savanhu.
The two are on record denying there is any such group as Chipangano in their ranks claiming their party, and their Mbare constituency in particular, was a peaceful organisation.
Kunaka and Savanhu are however quoted in media reports as supporting the beating up of construction workers at the Mbare development project but seeking to hide behind the excuse that residents of Mbare were angry about the construction of the service station and food court.
They claimed residents were against the $1,2 million project because they wanted the land on which the construction was taking place allocated to flea market traders in Mbare.
“The residents of Mbare intended to use that land to set up flea markets stalls, so they felt short-changed about the whole process,” Savanhu said.
Kunaka had this to say: “Our concerns as residents of Mbare centre on what benefits this project will bring to us. He (the developer) wants to take our land, exploit our resources and then leave.”
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The managing director of Mashwede Diesel Services, the company that brought the development to Mbare, Alex Mashamhanda, says the project had potential to create employment opportunities for young people in Mbare while providing fuel and food services to the community.
So Savanhu, who would have been the MP for the area had he not been trounced in elections by Piniel Denga of the MDC-T, and the Zanu PF youth chairman in Mbare, Kunaka, believe a multimillion dollar project has less value to the people of Mbare than a flea market! Which constituency is Savanhu and Kunaka representing since their party was voted out of power by the people of Mbare?
Do these two and their henchmen that make up the violent Chipangano outfit have the right to stand in the way of development meant to benefit the majority of the people of Mbare who voted them out?
Developers of the project did not just wake up one morning and start digging without obtaining the necessary permission from the authorities and paying for the use of the piece of land.
Who then is Chipangano to rise and beat people, issuing their own orders and is it not a criminal offence for Kunaka and Savanhu who have apparently claimed responsibility for the violence by proferring excuses for Chipangano’s actions?
And where are the police in all this? How does a police force allow such lawlessness to take place at spitting distance from their camp?
The construction site where workers are being beaten and chased by the marauding Chipangano group is near Matapi Police Station.
Besides the obvious prejudice to the people of Mbare, the latest move by Chipangano raises questions about the selective application of the rule of law by state institutions.
Chipangano has become a law unto itself and it is time the Zimbabwe Republic Police acted if it still wants to be taken seriously.
