The Zanu-PF Youth League leadership yesterday pledged to act as a human shield for their leader, Emmerson Mnangangwa following what the state media says was an alleged assassination attempt on his life in Bulawayo on Saturday.
Speaking during his press conference streamed LIVE on ZimEye.com, youth leader, Pupurai Togarepi responded to questions on who his suspects are.
He gave the below full response:
FULL TEXT: As any other Zimbabwean would think, maybe it could be those elements who used to enjoy those things they can’t enjoy now because we have a straightforward president so they may be tempted to killing. To kill the people of Zimbabwe to create that instability. So there are people out there and what could motivate them? So anyone I can tell you the list of might suspects (sic – suspicions) is so long because …. (sic.) But I am hurt to tell you the truth, that we have a man who is preaching peace, who is preaching development, who wants to see Zimbabweans united, and there are people out there who would want him dead; you don’t understand; you know it’s painful. But then this is not for Zanu PF. This is for all political parties, all religious groupings. This is something that is attacking the culture that we have known for a long time in Zimbabwe of peace. We have characters who would want to create instability in this country and we as Zimbabweans, not only the security services sector, but all Zimbabweans must stand up and say we don’t want this, this is foreign, and can’t be part of our lives, we can’t live in fear, in a country that is as free as Zimbabwe; because there is somebody with selfish ends; that we should stop and it can only be stopped by Zimbabweans, no one else. Thank you.
Meanwhile, two of those who were injured have since died. Further, the revolutionary party’s youth wing said it was organising a peace march in Harare on a date to be announced, condemning the terrorist attack.
They said they would want to see the culprits apprehended and made to account for their actions.
He said “an injury to one was an injury to all”. “From now onwards, we offer ourselves as a human shield to our President, to the leadership and to the people of Zimbabwe. We know that they are targeting our President, they want to kill him,” he said.
“We call upon all the youth in Zimbabwe to be vigilant. All members of the youth league are called upon to defend the President and we will defend him with our lives in all circumstances. Wherever he is, we shall be and when he falls if he is to be killed by anybody, that person must kill all of us.
“The security forces have their own duty to protect the President and we also have a duty to defend the revolution. A terrorist attack disturbs the trajectory of our country hence we have to be active.”
Togarepi urged the youths to report any suspicious movements or behaviour to the police saying Zimbabwe was under attack from messengers of darkness.
“Terrorism cannot be condoned by right-minded Zimbabweans therefore any suspicious behaviour must be reported to the authorities. The terrain features have changed and so our approach has completely changed going forward. We are not going to tolerate behaviour that is suspicious.
“As the Youth League, we stand to defend our revolution, to defend our President and the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.
“Our security forces are the best in the world, they will dig deep and unveil this puzzle, we want these people to have their day in court and pay for their sins. We demand that they be hunted down together with their sponsors.”
The youth league boss further said he had his own suspects but was going to let the security agents do their job.
“Despite the President showing leadership, love for everybody and reconciliation, he allowed everybody to be in his or her position for the country to move forward,” he said.
“As any other Zimbabwean would think, maybe it could have been those elements who used to enjoy things that they can’t enjoy now because we have a straight forward President, so they may be tempted to kill him to create instability. I cannot tell you the list of my suspicion it is so long.
“We have a man who is preaching peace, development, who wants to see Zimbabweans united but there are people out there who would want to see him dead. It is painful.”
The press conference was attended by senior members of the Youth League.-state media/additional reporting