“Government Will Stop Planned Demonstrations,” Says Mangwana Ahead of The 31 July Protest
Nick Mangwana, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Infomation, Publicity and Broadcasting Services has said the government will not hesitate to thwart 31 July protest.
Mangwana said the demo was unconstitutional and the government will stop planned demonstrations because no government would tolerate any unconstitutional activities. Managwana took a jab at the MDC in his interview and said the people of Harare did not vote for the government but wanted to remove the government.
Said Managwana:
This is not what we have here, they are scared of going to Parliament because they know they don’t have the numbers, because they know it doesn’t have a buy-in of the people, it doesn’t have a buy-in from all the constituencies we have in this country, it is a Harare thing, where a certain number of constituencies voted against Zanu PF.
They lost the national vote and the same losers in Harare want to change the same Government they didn’t vote for in the first place. What we have is a subversion of the constitutional order, tell me of a Government under the sun that will allow such things to happen, I don’t know of any.
What is being planned for July 31 is unconstitutional and it will not be allowed to happen. The State has apparatus that are in place to ensure that the constitutional order obtains. They are all constitutional organs, the police are a constitutional organ, you will find their space in the constitution, the military is constitutional security organ, so is the State security, their role is State security, the security of the State within its borders and the security of the State without the borders and everyone will just do their jobs.
Unfortunately they have let the cat out of the bag. They wanted to disguise an effort to overthrow the Government as a peaceful democratic demonstration or protest, it was not. What we are dealing with here is subversion, people want to overthrow the Government in a way that is not constitutional.
The protest has been called by Transform Zimbabwe President Jacob Ngarivhume and has been endorsed by other political players like Nelson Chamisa, Godfrey Tsenengamu and Temba Mliswa. While Thokozani Khupe said the protest was a stupid idea because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
