Fadzai Mahere with Nelson Chamisa THE opposition MDC Alliance spokesperson, Fadzai Mahere, has urged Zimbabweans to unite and join the nationwide protests pencilled in for July 31 against the Zanu PF regime erosion of basic freedoms and confront State corruption.
Speaking to NewsDay Mahere said the only option was for Zimbabweans to take to the streets and confront the regime.
“What do we do? We take to the streets, we have to find our collective voice, and it’s not just about the 31st of July. I think that’s what I need to emphasise that’s just about one day, so it’s not as if once the 31st of July comes and goes, we sort of forget about the need to stand up and speak out against the government. There is no magic around that day.
There is need to unite. Speaking out against the government has to be a continuous obligation on each citizen,” Mahere said.
She said it was now time for Zimbabweans to unite and speak with one voice because the system had declared war on citizens.
“We have to form a broad church, nobody is safe whether it’s MDC Alliance MPs, church leaders, teachers, nurses, civic society, business, they are coming for everybody. So it’s time for us to all come together and say Zanu PF must go because the system has declared war on everybody, on all of us, so we have to find our collective voice.”
The MDC Alliance spokesperson said people needed to fight for basic rights and freedoms such as access to health and general welfare which were under threat.
“Regardless of the fact that we are hungry and the cost of living is escalating and we cannot afford public health, people should be allowed to come out on the 31st of July regardless of who is organising it and they should be able to do that on any other day. People have the right to do that peacefully, socially distanced you know, even if it’s during the time of COVID-19 people should be allowed to express themselves. There is no law on earth which says during a pandemic people cannot protest,” she said.
Despite indications that government would thwart the demonstrations before they even begin, Mahere said more was at stake for the people of Zimbabwe.
“The right to a livelihood, the right to public health, all of these rights are under threat, the right to access information. We have been asked to pay taxes in terms of the law and yet these taxes are spent on farm mechanisation, tractors, and when we ask who gets all these tractors, they arrest journalists doing their work,” she said.
“They deny these journalists bail, but yet the very people who are corrupt, the very people who are stealing COVID-19 money, the State surprisingly says no we are not going to challenge bail against you.
“When we say corruption is killing us, when we say human rights are under threat, when we say we can’t breathe, this is precisely what we mean. Human rights, freedom, Constitution all these are in existence for our security as a people.”
The MDC Alliance said Mnangagwa, politics and the clampdown on human rights were the major problems in Zimbabwe and not the economy.
“Then they say we have an economic crisis. No, that’s not where our crisis is, our crisis is political in nature. If we allow people to be free, if we allow people to breathe in an environment where they have all these freedoms, we will be fine,” she said.
“The other day, my EcoCash data was in the hands of some random police officer. How is that normal? How is that OK? I gave my records to EcoCash, I subscribed, I have a right to privacy and the next thing I know, some police officer says no, they now have my name, address, phone number. That is not freedom.”
The police on July 17 were granted an order against Econet, which has more than 11 million subscribers, to hand over details of its mobile money transactions and subscribers on EcoCash because authorities suspect its network was used in money-laundering.
Econet successfully challenged the warrant at the High Court last week saying it constituted a violation of the company and its subscribers’ right to privacy.