OPPOSITION politician Nelson Chamisa has lashed out at Zanu PF following the just-ended nationwide parliamentary public hearings on the Constitutional Amendment No 3 Bill, describing the process as a “crime against humanity” marred by intimidation and suppression of dissenting voices.
The hearings, which were conducted across all districts and concluded yesterday, were overshadowed by allegations of violence and manipulation, with critics saying ruling party supporters took control of proceedings.
Observers and opposition figures said the outreach meetings resembled Zanu PF district coordinating committee gatherings, with party youths allegedly dictating who could or could not speak.
In several instances, there were skirmishes over microphones as those perceived to oppose the Bill were reportedly blocked from contributing.
Speaking to NewsDay yesterday, Chamisa criticised the parliamentary hearing process, accusing the ruling party of coercing citizens into endorsing the proposed constitutional changes.
“It’s a human rights issue, when you take ordinary parents, reduce them to being robots and parrots and force down their throats your propaganda,” Chamisa said.
“You hold people captive, hold them to ransom, you tell them to say things and that if they don’t, you will take away their land, you will take farms, homesteads or rights that they have, you will not give them handouts from government. That is not how you treat a people.”
Chamisa said in some areas, citizens were transported in groups to the hearings and instructed on what to say, likening the process to the movement of commodities.
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“People in most provinces have not tasted freedom,” he said.
“This is the independence month, but where is the independence when people are being ferried like sacks to the Grain Marketing Board or cotton bales to the Cotton Marketing Board?
“Whoever says anything to the contrary is labelled a sellout and threatened that you either lose your life, your comfort or your possessions.”
He also alleged that informal traders were forced to shut down operations to attend the hearings under threat of losing vending spaces.
“Even vendors were told to close. If they don’t, they lose their places of survival. You make life difficult for people so they submit,” he said.
“That is what is called dictatorship. That is what is called tyranny.
“And this is the reason why the liberation struggle was waged in the first place. Precisely this kind of conduct.
“Smith did not leave us. His spirit migrated from him to some other fellow, African brothers.
“The Rhodesian spirit of oppression has remained, now in the hands of African brothers in Zanu PF.”
Chamisa argued that both colonial rule under Ian Smith and post-independence governance failed to deliver genuine freedom.
“Smith delivered false independence,” he said.
“These African brothers in Zanu PF have also delivered false independence.
“That must be challenged and checked.”
The opposition leader maintained that a majority of Zimbabweans are against the Bill, citing an online poll he conducted on his social media platforms.
“The beauty about these online polls is that they are authentic,” he charged.
“They cannot be rigged and you cannot bus people there.
“You cannot have mobs that victimise people who are contributing.
“It is just a fraction, it reflects the mood in the country.”
Zanu PF political commissar Munyaradzi Machacha dismissed allegations of manipulating the hearing process and defended Parliament, in the process shifting the blame to the police.
“What can Parliament do in cases of violence when police are there? Check with the police and see if they have made any arrests so far,” he said.
“Otherwise it is the duty of the police to make those arrests. If you host a birthday party at your place and people are injured there, will you be blamed for that or the police should be involved?”
Constitutional Amendment No 3 Bill has sparked intense debate, with critics warning it could entrench Executive power.
Government and Zanu PF have defended it as necessary for getting rid of toxic politics and allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to finish the projects he initiated.
