A media briefing by opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) was almost brought to a halt after suspected Zanu PF thugs stormed the venue of the briefing and seized banners.
The suspects entered the Media Centre where the press conference was about to take place and removed the CCC backdrop banner and other party identifying materials before storming outside the building where they camped.
The press conference went ahead with CCC national spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere saying the party remain unfazed with the latest developments and would continue with their cause for change.
“Our venue was stormed by Zanu PF thugs as you can see this is not our usual backdrop they stole our brand property including our banners and some of our identifying material. That notwithstanding we are continuing because the CCC is a movement of courage and Zanu PF is obviously running scared. There is no political party that is confident and has the support of the people and storms into a press conference to try and stop it and uses violence and steals property.
“What is even more disappointing is that we have got the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) stationed outside, they are armed and have got their riot gear and had also come to the venue and yet they were unable to stop the Zanu PF thugs. We say to Zanu PF and we have said this consistently, we need to stop using violence, they must stop abusing the police service to try and silence political opponents.
“Our constitutional right to gather, to communicate and to share ideas, to propagate our narratives, values and our plan for progress for the Zimbabwean citizens must not be impeded. We don’t call ourselves change champions for nothing. We are not going to back down as our 2023 elections is concerned,” said Mahere.
She accused Zanu PF of trying stop the CCC from participating in next year’s elections vowing that they will not back down.
“We can see that Zanu PF is trying everything it can to try and stop us from participating that can simply not going to happen. A boycott is simply off the cards no matter how much violence and intimidation you use, we are going to look you in the eye. We are going to use the support of the people that we have and we are going to continue to march forward in our fight to win Zimbabwe for change. Our change champion in chief Advocate Nelson Chamisa was very clear over the last weekend, we want elections and not war. We are not going to be sucked into violent exchange with Zanu PF, we don’t need violence that’s how much public support we’ve got,” she said.
