Abductions & Torture Could Be Deliberately Designed To Enforce Repressive Measures - Magaisa
The recent abductions of Zimbabwean citizens by masked gunmen in the dead of the night has led to some government officials coming up with conspiracy theories of the existence of a “Third Force” and “Black Ops”.
In other words, the government has tried to dissociate itself from the gross violation of human rights.
In his latest “Big Saturday Read”, academic and political commentator, Alex Magaisa opined that the government’s reaction is typical of ZANU P’s penchant to shifting blame to someone. He writes:
The violence and the attacks on political activists have shocked many because they defy political and economic sense.
A government that is trying to present a decent face to the world would not be expected to behave like that. So why? Who is behind these attacks?
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The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Publicity, which is responsible for state propaganda, Nick Mangwana has previously blamed a shadowy “Third Force” and in another tweet, he blames “black ops” suggesting that there are forces working actively to tarnish the Mnangagwa regime.
Mangwana’s theory is that since these attacks are supposedly of no benefit to Mnangagwa, there must be some other hand which is bent on tarnishing his “local and international prestige” as he calls it.
This view is shared by other actors allied to the State, such as Tichaona Zindoga, the Acting Editor of The Herald, the State daily.
They cannot possibly believe that their ultimate boss, Mnangagwa would have anything to do with the violations.
They both grossly underestimate the capacity of ZANU PF, the party they serve to do the most unreasonable things in the name of power.
Whatever worst thing that ZANU PF could do, it will most likely do it, leaving even some of its members perplexed because of its sense-defying nature.
The attempt to shift blame is also typical of ZANU PF’s refusal to take responsibility.
Magaisa argues that within authoritarian regimes often some actors have no idea as to what may be happening in other parts of the regime.
Furthermore, the “Third Force” theory could be used to prepare the ground for more repressive measures by the State as happened during the Gukurahundi era when pseudo-dissidents were deployed to commit offences which were then used to deploy the brutal Fifth Brigade.
