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REVELATIONS that last month’s violent protests which resulted in wanton destruction of property and loss of lives were a continuation of the regime change agenda driven from the West and fronted locally by the opposition MDC and its surrogates in the civic society and NGO world are instructive.

The script has not changed since the turn of the millennium when Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform programme and it appears the West is still keen on removing Zanu-PF from power and reverse most of its people-centred policies.

We are alarmed, like the majority of Zimbabweans, that foreign powers are still are up to their skullduggery and machinations of seeking to influence the internal affairs of other states through the sponsorship of proxies through NGOs and other civic society groups.

Their tactics failed during the First Republic and are bound to fail during the tenure of the new dispensation because of the strong ties that bind the Government and its people.

The unprecedented orgy of looting, burning of property, brazen disdain for authority exhibited through attacks on police officers and general mayhem unleashed on innocent Zimbabweans pointed to a hidden hand directing the whole charade.

It has now emerged that money was channelled through NGOs and the MDC and was used to oil the coordinated violent protests which cost the economy dearly.

The idea was to make the country ungovernable leading to a total breakdown of law and order necessitating outside intervention and ousting of the current Government. It has failed and Zimbabwe still stands.

President Mnangagwa, who was in Eastern Europe on a re-engagement drive when the protests happened, has said the mayhem was pre-planned and well organised by the MDC and NGOs.

In an interview with a French television station France24 on the sidelines of the 32th Ordinary Session of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia over the weekend, President Mnangagwa challenged anyone with evidence of the alleged rape victims to come forward with it.

“Regime change is the better word. It is a regime change agenda which is not new, which has been a phenomenon visiting Zimbabwe throughout the past 18 years,” he said.

“We are now so satisfied that this thing was pre-determined, pre-planned and well-oiled by both local NGOs who are well funded, but also the opposition MDC-Alliance whose theme even throughout the campaign for our general elections last year said that as long as they do not win this election, in Shona they said, “We will put jecha musadza”; meaning that they will put sand into the food.

So this is consistent with that they have been saying throughout.”

Asked on the allegations of rape and the death of 17 people that was awash on the social media, President Mnangagwa said: “With regards to the allegations of rape, we have through the print media, radio and TV appealed to those victims to come forward and report to the nearest police station. If you are not comfortable with reporting to the police station, you can go to the nearest church and report the abuse you underwent. We have only one single case that has come up in Chitungwiza. We now know that the women who were paraded were just made up by some organisations and some of the women have now left the country. They have been shipped to the UK. The few who are still there are being moved from house-to-house and we are trying to track them down.

“It’s all stage-managed. We are challenging anybody local or foreign to produce the women so that the world can see them and say this is what happened. We would want to see those. With regards to the other issue you mentioned about the beatings, you said judicial killings, this is where the army is directly and purposefully killing people. We would want to see the evidence.

“We see all this on social media but we would want to see the 17 people killed, where were they buried? Let us have relatives who will say I lost a son, I lost a daughter, I lost a cousin at the hands of the army. I am not saying the army did not over step their powers. It is possible individually.”

We welcome the President’s candid take on the issue and challenge those who feel Zimbabwe has a case to answer to come forward with concrete and credible evidence.

We also note and welcome the support of Sadc and the African Union and want them to know that we cherish their solidarity.

We urge the West to heed Sadc’s clarion call for the unconditional lifting of sanctions on Zimbabwe to enable the country to forge ahead with its efforts to turn around the economy unencumbered by the yoke of punitive measures.

The country is battling to shed its pariah status and that can only happen if sanctions are lifted so that the economy can have a fighting chance of recovering.

Re-engagement is the only game in town.