Former Opposition Activist Makes Bizarre 31 July Protest Claims

A former opposition activist, Linda Masarira, has sensationally claimed that the planned 31 July anti-corruption protests are being funded by George Soros of the Open Society Initiative and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.

Masarira, who was fired from the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T after she was pictured wearing ZANU PF regalia, claimed that the Americans intend to create a National Transitional Authority (NTA) so that they can loot the country’s resources. She said, as quoted by The Herald:

The impending 31 July revolt by citizens will play into the strategy of the US of instigating the fall of the Zanu PF Government, replace it with a “technocratic” neo-liberal National Transitional Authority (NTA).

The NTA is a US-imposed idea that will see the Americans pour millions of dollars into Zimbabwe for the resuscitation of the economy, provided the NTA reverses some nationalistic policies such as the land reform and liberalise the economy to allow their companies to freely loot Zimbabwe’s natural resources.

Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume, who has been at the forefront in organising the demonstrations, was arrested on Monday and denied bail by a Harare magistrate on Thursday.

Similarly, world-renowned freelance journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono, who has exposed massive corruption and looting of resources by Zimbabwe’s politically connected elite, was seized by armed police officers from his home and denied bail by a magistrate on Friday.

There is apparent palpable anger among Zimbabweans as more and more reports of looting by public officials emerge while nurses are on a prolonged strike due to poor salaries and exposure to coronavirus in the country’s dysfunctional public hospitals.