Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will be ”trashed” if it attempts to overthrow the government of President Robert Mugabe, a ruling party spokesperson was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Nathan Shamuyarira accused the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), which last week warned that Zimbabwe was on its way to becoming a failed state, of urging the opposition to organise a coup, said the official Herald newspaper.
Both the MDC and the main labour body have threatened to hold protests soon over the deteriorating living conditions in this once-prosperous southern African country, but no date has yet been set for the action.
State media last weekend accused former colonial power United Kingdom and the United States of using think-tanks like the ICG to try to topple Mugabe.
”Having failed completely and repeatedly to topple the strong government of President Mugabe, either by the ballot box at elections that are held regularly, or by acts of sabotaging the national economy, they [UK and the U] are now resorting to the last card, a military coup,” Shamuyarira said.
”The MDC and its supporters will be trashed, humiliated and split even further,” the spokesperson for the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front added, in reference to a damaging split in the opposition group late last year that has left it weakened. — Sapa-dpa