Leader of the opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Nelson Chamisa has claimed that the suspected Zanu PF militia that attacked his party supporters at a rally in Kwekwe over the weekend had earlier attempted to unleash a petrol bomb at his convoy in a latest development sparking questions over his safety.
Speaking to journalists in Harare this afternoon Chamisa said the party had been informed about the planned attacks and managed to put measures to contain the situation which could have been much worse.
At least one party supporter -Mboneni Ncube (35) died during the attack.
“If we had not done a lot more of what we did, we would have recorded more deaths. These guys wanted blood. They were even targeting the leadership. The first disturbance we knew, (is that) they actually wanted to petrol bomb our convoy by the robots and it’s only that we don’t say much,” he told reporters.
He said his life has been under threat for some time and at some point his assailants were celebrating that they had poisoned him in Botswana.
“I don’t normally eat but it shows you the wicked people who believe in eliminating opponents and we have told all our leaders, all our candidates please eat with a lot of care. It’s good to have appetite but control your appetite. Be careful not everything is food, we are in a dangerous zone and that is what we have said; be careful about your cars.”
“Just last night, well around 4-5 pm they side swept our cars. They thought that I was in another car but I had changed cars. It shows you how wicked they are,”
“What betrayed them when we got to the toll gate is they were actually able to distract people at the toll gate to just let the cars (their own) pass without paying (toll fees) that’s how we know them and they did not have number plates yet you know that people in this country have been arrested for driving without number plates. So we are very conscious of what we are fighting against they believe in violence,” said Chamisa
The opposition leader said the party had put in place apparatus to protect party supporters and citizens who attend their rallies.
“We have enough mechanisms to make sure that we protect citizens who come to our rallies. Once bitten twice shy- that also entails that those associated with Zanu PF may not be able to access our rallies,” said the opposition leader
