Mnangagwa fears plot to unseat his government by civic groups

HARARE – The government claims it has uncovered a plot to overthrow President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government, which would be refined at a gathering of civic organisations to be held in Bulawayo next month.

Home Affairs Minister Cain Mathema, addressing a news conference in Harare on Monday, said he had ordered Police Commissioner Godwin Matanga to “deal with anyone who engages in any form of violence.”

“A group of foreign nationals want to facilitate a three-day civic organisation workshop in Bulawayo in May 2019. The main agenda of the workshop is to mobilise and capacitate civic organisations and individuals to stage purported effective demonstrations and disturbances to overthrow the Zanu PF government,” Mathema said, giving no details about the organisations involved.

“The government through the ministry will ensure that law and order prevails in the country. My ministry has directed the Commissioner General of Police to put adequate security measures in place to deal with anyone who engages in any form of violence and disturbances.”

Mnangagwa’s paranoid government, which came to power through a 2017 military coup, faces building resentment as the country slumps to its worst economic crisis in over a decade.

Ministers and security officials fear the crisis could soon boil over into massive public uprisings leading to an overthrow of the government.

Popular protests in August 2018 over election rigging and fuel price hikes in January 2019 were violently put down by the military, leaving at least 25 people dead and over a hundred nursing gunshot wounds, according to rights groups.

The regime knows future violence against protesters could spark a new diplomatic crisis with powerful western countries, ending all prospects of much-needed financial bailouts while imperilling Mnangagwa’s government.

Unions are grumbling over low pay in the face of runaway prices of basic commodities as economists warn the country has entered a hyperinflation period. The country’s jobless ranks continue to swell as companies close, making for a potent cocktail of anti-government feeling.