The two MDCs and war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda have traded accusations of fronting Satanism, as the leader of the ex-combatants says he is taking his campaigns for Zanu PF to Matabeleland.
Report by Nqobani Ndlovu
Sibanda on Wednesday said his crusades in Matabeleland were meant to complete the Zanu PF revolution while stopping “MDC Satanism”.
But MDC-T deputy secretary- general Abednico Bhebhe accused Zanu PF of violence and intimidation, practices which he said were synonymous with Satanism.
“The party that Sibanda supports represents all that is bad with Satanism, harassing people, intimidating people, beating up people and even killing people for votes,” Bhebhe said.
“Unfortunately, the people of Matabeleland are Christians and will never allow Satanism.
“They will never be intimidated by Sibanda into supporting Zanu PF. His campaigns will all be in vain.”
MDC spokesman Nhlanhla Dube concurred, saying Sibanda’s campaigns were a game of the past and Zimbabweans were going to decide at the next elections which party was actually Satanic.
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“Sibanda says he wants to remove our Satanism, but we would then say let us all take our credentials to the table and let Zimbabweans judge for themselves who between us and him has done Satanic things,” Dube said.
“His game of politics is something of the past.”
The war veterans’ leader this week accused the MDCs of fronting Satanism, particularly over allegedly campaigning for homosexuality. The MDCs have refuted this.
Sibanda’s plans to take his campaign to Matabeleland come at a time he has been accused of violence and torture in other parts of the country, charges he vehemently denies.
Matabeleland civic groups have also expressed their concern at Sibanda’s impending campaign, saying it raised the spectre of the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres, where an estimated 20 000 civilians were killed in an army-led clampdown ostensibly targeting armed dissidents.
“What Sibanda should be saying is that he is coming here to preach the gospel of peace and reconciliation to the people of the region who were victims of Gukurahundi,” Mbuso Fuzwayo of Ibhetshu LikaZulu, a local pressure group, said.
“Any campaign by Sibanda, Zanu PF or war veterans towards the elections and in rural areas can only be viewed with suspicion and fear.”
Fuzwayo said considering reports that Sibanda’s previous campaigns in other parts of the country had been violent, his foray into Matabeleland was ill-conceived.
Mqondisi Moyo, spokesman of the Mthwakazi Youth Leaders Joint Resolution, added: “We do not want him to come here and cause pain to us, we suffered a lot during the Gukurahundi era.
“We know Sibanda exhibits some signs of violence, we warn him against causing pain to our parents in rural areas.”
War veterans are accused of leading violent campaigns in rural areas to force villagers to support Zanu PF.
