HARARE – Police on Wednesday charged MDC youth assembly secretary general Gift Siziba with incitement to commit public violence after he warned President Emmerson Mnangagwa during a weekend rally that he risked being toppled like other African dictators.
Siziba attended a police station in Harare by appointment after detectives called him in for questioning.
His lawyers later said he had been charged with incitement, a day after MDC deputy chairman Job Sikhala was charged with subversion after he called for Mnangagwa’s “overthrow.”
Siziba’s defence team from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights was battling to have him taken to court on Wednesday.
Addressing an MDC rally in Glen Norah on Sunday, Siziba said the MDC was preparing a programme of demonstrations to force Mnangagwa out.
“Mnangagwa must know that dictatorship, if you go around Africa, no dictator lasts forever. Not so long ago, the youths rose up in Egypt and (Hosni) Mubarak was hurried out of power. As Mubarak was still running, youths had entered Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and sent (Blaise) Campaore packing. In no time, the youths rose up in Libya, shit had hit the fan and in no time, youths rose up in Tunisia and (Zine El Abidine) Ben Ali left in a hurry. There’s no dictator who stays in power forever,” Siziba told MDC supporters.
Siziba, a former student leader at the University of Zimbabwe, warned that if Mnangagwa “walks in the same smelly shoes of Robert Mugabe, us as the young people of Zimbabwe we are prepared to surrender ourselves before we surrender the democratic agenda.”
He continued: “Emmerson Mnangagwa and the entire cabal ruling this country must be told that… us as young people we’re prepared to fight for democracy in our lifetime. Why are we fighting for democracy? As I’m speaking to you right now, people are dying in hospitals and the rural areas. Ninety-five percent of young people in Zimbabwe are jobless. Our hope is only in democracy and the MDC.
“We want to warn Emmerson Mnangagwa that we are not scared of you chief, we’re coming for you and we will unleash a programme of demonstrations here in Zimbabwe until we usher in a democratic breakthrough led by Nelson Chamisa.”
Lawyers say since January, police have charged 21 pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders with subversion over alleged plots to overthrow Mnangagwa, who came to power through a military coup in 2017.
