"The foolishness in attending to voice dissent" - Zanu PF blames opposition for public hearings chaos - NewZimbabwe.com

ZANU PF Treasurer, Patrick Chinamasa, has stopped short of labelling the recently held public hearings on the Constitutional Amendment Bill number 3 a ruling party event, accusing the opposition of causing chaos.

Chaos erupted at the public hearings in Harare when opposition leaders were miffed by the Parliament officials, whom they accused of deliberately sidelining them from the proceedings.

Writing on X, Chinamasa accused the opposition of attempting to air their views at an event dominated by ZANU PF members, causing chaos.

"The City Sports Centre Public Hearing was marred by agents provocateurs and the naivety of some Zanu PF supporters, who failed to read that the end game of the agents provocateurs was to disrupt the proceedings without showing their hand, and to attract international attention and condemnation to the consultation process.

"I always give this example to those who care to listen: when a person attends a Public Hearing with a predictable, overwhelming 99.99% of Zanupf supporters, with the intention to express publicly and loudly a 0.01% opposition view, I consider that provocative to the 99.99% of the attendees.

"The reaction is predictable, by all accounts in Zimbabwe, as would be the case in any part of the world. I am sure those who have studied Behavioural Sciences will testify to this kind of behaviour by the masses at a mass gathering," said Chinamasa.

The public hearings were dismissed by the opposition as superficial, meant to tick the boxes and push the bill which seeks to extend the presidential and parliamentary terms to 2030.

"The behaviour of the masses, when assembled together, is highly predictable. An assembled crowd of people of one mind does not take kindly to a differing viewpoint.

"I say this not to justify what happened at City Sports Centre, but to point out the frailty of human beings the world over, from time immemorial, and to highlight the foolishness of Doug Coltart and his ilk in attending that public hearing with the intention to voice opposition to Constitutional Amendment Number 3. Behaviourally, we are no different from the Jews of the year AD 33," added Chinamasa.