HARARE – MDC leader Nelson Chamisa was on Saturday mobbed by huge crowds when he led a clean-up campaign in Harare’s Glen View suburb, the scene of the worst cholera outbreak to hit Zimbabwe since 2008.

MDC supporters sang and chanted slogans as they picked up litter from drains and swept garbage from the streets and shopping centres.

Chamisa, who spoke to the crowds, said cholera – which has killed over 40 people since the outbreak last month – was a symptom of a leadership crisis as he insisted that he was cheated of victory on July 30.

“The real disease affecting Zimbabwe is not cholera. Cholera is an opportunist, it thrives where there is a leadership vacuum. The crisis we have is one of lack of leadership,” Chamisa said.

When his convoy arrived at the Tichagarika Shopping Centre in Glen View 3, expectant supporters chanted his name, declaring him “our real president.”

He appeared to pour cold water on a plan by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, winner of the disputed poll in July, to appease him through a constitutional amendment that would introduce an official position of Leader of the Opposition, allowing him to sit in Parliament and receive government perks.

“I don’t take appointments from Mnangagwa,” Chamisa said. “For me, he does not exist because you elected me into power. You gave me the authority to be here and this is the power I am following.

“I heard that Mnangagwa wants to offer me a post in Parliament. There must be something wrong with him. Is he well? I was elected to be at State House and I am not afraid of anyone. I have your support.”

Chamisa hit a populist tone when he demanded that police cease their clampdown on street vendors in Harare.

“Everyone here is a vendor and even Mnangagwa himself is a vendor in China,” he said, referring to the President’s trips to China looking for investment and budgetary support to kick-start the failing economy.

“Let me warn (Harare) council staff. Do not be involved in the on-going beatings on residents by the police. Relax. Those responsible will be answerable to this inhuman, cruel act being perpetrated on innocent civilians.”