𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗪𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗧𝗢𝗟𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗠𝗗𝗖 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘?

MDC leadership

For years we were told that our cousin David Matinyarare, an MDC member, some say a councillor, was murdered in 2003 by ZANU PF members for supporting the opposition. But yesterday, while trying to deal with some family issues, a family member began to narrate how one night, our cousin and three accomplices, accosted and attacked an intelligence official and took his firearm.

The narrator is not sure why they took the firearm and what they used it for, but he goes on to say that some time after the ordeal, female relatives living with David were warned by someone to leave the house for their own safety because there was going to be a law enforcement raid. Some men then came, we assume, to arrest David and take back the firearm. From this point the story gets hazy, but the bottomline is David ended up dead.

We are not sure if an altercation happened in the raid, but for years the story was simply passed off as an assassination by ZANU PF.

Now looking at the facts, clearly the narrative was manipulated for years, to hide the fact that our relative and his accomplices undertook a premeditated attack on a government intelligence officer and took his firearm.

In various human rights council documents, our cousin is listed as a victim of ZANU PF violence, leaving out the fact that he was a potential terrorist who attacked a security officer. Why did David and his crew decide to attack the officer Why did they take his government issued weapon? Why has this part of his insurrection been erased from the narrative?

This story is also closely related to a lady friend of mine, the daughter of a military commander who was allegedly kidnapped (at about the same time) from school at the age of 17. She was then taken to a farm and raped for days by Learnmore Jongwe and four others.

What is even more concerning is when my friend was telling me about this, she said that these acts of violence by MDC members and senior officials, were common place at that time.

Now I am left with so many questions. Why did Learnmore Jongwe kidnap the child for an army commander and rape her? Was there a strategy and conspiracy by MDC to undertake acts of terror against government officials and their family members? For what purpose were these attacks happening? Why did our government fail to expose these events?

How many more of the deaths reported as political persecution by ZANU PF, were actually opposition members killed in violent altercation with government or ZANU PF members? How many government officials and ZANU PF officials were killed in this violence? Was this violence instigated by the military training given to MDC members by foreign actors like CANVAS in Zambia, which Linda Masarira and Abigail always talk about?

Why is it that we have never heard these stories of MDC members attacking government officials in the media and we have to hear them for the first time in family conversation?

Clearly, just looking at the above stories, there seems to have been a strategy that was being unleashed by MDC to target government officials and their families. As for the taking of weapons, clearly the agenda was more nefarious.

Until we start interrogating these facts, we will never know the truth about our country and the threats it faces. I bring this story up on the backdrop of Timba and the meeting at his house, which saw the youth violently retaliating to police until the police was forced to use tear smoke and reinforcements to enforce the law. There is something suspicious about the whole thing.

Lastly, what frustrates me the most is our government failed to inform the public about these systematic opposition terrorist attacks against government officials. And as such, when they began to crackdown on the dissidents, it was easy for them to play the victim.

It's no wonder people like Timber are seemingly now trying to restart this anarchy.