Defence and War Veterans Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has applauded Zimbabweans for exhibiting maturity and discipline by ignoring the recent demonstration calls by some elements bent on destabilising the country under the guise of price hike protests.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony of Junior Staff Course (JSC) number 71 at Zimbabwe Staff College (ZSC) at Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracksin Harare yesterday, Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri hailed the masses for maintaining peace.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Zimbabwe for remaining peaceful and ignoring recent frantic efforts by our detractors to foment mayhem and unnecessary loss of life and damage to property.

“It is apparent that these violent demonstrations, advocated by some opposition political parties and civic organisations that are backed by foreign forces to unconstitutionally unseat a democratically-elected Government and subvert our country’s electoral process,” she said.

She urged the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) to counter the new strategies which are now being used by the enemy to cause instability.

“In our country we have seen the use of violent demonstrations against the Government purportedly over the poor performance of the economy or to display disapproval of the national electoral process,” said Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri.State media