The youths that turned the tide
WHEN what seemed like a bunch of random youths began heckling the country’s former First Lady Mrs Grace Mugabe, few would have known that their jeers, which served as the early birth pangs that foreshadowed the eventual delivery of the country’s Second Republic, had been meticulously planned way before that fateful afternoon on November 4.
For weeks before that day of reckoning at White City Stadium, the group of young men who would thereafter become known as the “boo boys”, had watched as Grace Mugabe, rudely dragged Zanu-PF’s leadership, particularly President Emmerson Mnangagwa, through the mud.
Silently, on the sidelines of the notorious Interface Rallies, they seethed as the attacks continued and in the shadows of those acrimonious gatherings they hatched a plot to put an end to the madness.
It would take great bravery and it would probably come at a great personal cost to them but their minds were made up. White City Stadium on November 4 would be Grace’s Waterloo.
Two Zanu-PF youths, (part of the masterminds) yesterday for the first time opened up on their plot to heckle former First Lady Mrs Grace Mugabe during a rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo in November last year, setting off a chain of events that led to the historic change of the country’s leadership.
Cdes Mabutho Moyo and Blessed Mushando have shared how on the night before the November 4 Bulawayo Presidential Interface rally, they held a vigil, singing revolutionary songs as they psyched up to stop Mrs Mugabe’s attacks on the then Vice President Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa.
They had decided after the Bindura Rally in Mashonaland Central that preceded the Bulawayo one that the attacks on Cde Mnangagwa should stop.
It appeared like a kamikaze mission but their hearts were set and their minds made up.
“We had attended previous rallies in other provinces where the then VP was subjected to humiliation by the Mugabes and their G40 cabal. We then analysed their strategies, how they would initiate their attacks firstly with Chipanga then the First Lady and at times the President himself,” said Cde Mushando.
“We couldn’t do anything but watch in pain as the G40 cabal tore into Cde Mnangagwa because the attacks were happening in provinces that were not ours but we vowed that no such behaviours would be accepted when they come to Bulawayo especially after the attacks on him in Bindura, Mashonaland Central.
“It was critical that we stopped them in Bulawayo because they had a stronghold in Harare where the last rally was to be held and where they were planning to finish off Cde Mnangagwa.”
Cde Mushando said as the date of the Bulawayo Interface rally drew close, some G40 elements tried to hold three inter-district meetings to prep the youths against Cde Mnangagwa but were resisted by the districts at all attempts.
He said they then organised themselves and hatched a plan to mobilise many youths to attend the rally which was meant to show who the people were really behind.
“Initially the plan was that as the Presidium came, we give a rousing welcome to Cde Mnangagwa to show solidarity and then keep quiet when Mphoko entered and then give a lukewarm welcome to Mr Mugabe to show that we were not happy with what was happening to the Vice President at the time.
Added Cde Moyo, “Salutations were done and again once ED took to the podium, the noise was thunderous, again Mugabe was outshined. I remember telling one Cde Mushando that ‘Today we fear nothing’. It had to be done.
“We were not sure of its results but we didn’t care, we had agreed that “koBulawayo asifuni Bumbulu”, we had to see it through.”
Cde Mushando said three days before the rally, they checked into a lodge where further strategies were discussed and until the day of the rally, no one went out of the lodge because they did not want to risk their plan being leaked.
They booked 50 youths at the lodge and others were housed at a house in Pumula South suburb with Cde Moyo.
“When the day came, we took our positions at the stadium and waited for Mrs Mugabe to start her attacks on Cde Mnangagwa. When she started defending Jonathan Moyo against corruption allegations and attacking Cde Mnangagwa, that is when we started jeering her, we were standing at different points and the late Cde Magura Charumbira continued with the solo protest to the anger of Mr Mugabe, his wife and the G40 cabal,” said Cde Mushando.
He said as some people tried to apprehend Cde Charumbira, they intervened and quickly whisked him out of the stadium where he boarded a kombi into the city centre.
“We had achieved our goal, we stood up to power and raised our concerns and were heard,” said Cde Mushando.
Cdes Charumbira, Moyo, Mayibongwe Evans Zvigadza, Walter Sibanda and Dephine Dzvange were picked up by the police after the rally and charged with incitement to commit public violence and undermining the authority of the President.
They were all freed on December 12 after the State withdrew the case.
The police failed to arrest Cde Mushando as they could not locate him while they were forced to release Cde Cecilia Verenga after she proved that she was not at the rally.
Cde Moyo said they never imagined that the November incident would lead to a new dispensation but said they were ready for anything as they had “had enough.”
“Our attitude was “this is do or die” and whatever happened we did not really care. After the Bindura rally in Mashonaland Central we decided that enough was enough,” he said.
After the rally, on November 6, Cde Mnangagwa was fired as the country’s Vice President but was to bounce back weeks later as leader of the country after a series of events that led to the resignation of Mr Mugabe.