BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA/MOSES MATENGA OPPOSITION MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday described the ongoing attempts to weaken the party by opponents, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling Zanu PF, as a passing storm the opposition needs to ride out to reach its “promised land”. The leading opposition party was already fractured when the Supreme Court last March declared that Chamisa’s leadership of the MDC-T was illegitimate and ordered the party to hold an election to replace him. His opponents took advantage, and a smaller faction led by former secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora recalled 32 lawmakers aligned to Chamisa and over 80 councillors in the MDC Alliance-dominated local authorities. Mwonzora’s faction also grabbed party assets, including the headquarters, with the aid of police and army details. Last week saw two former key allies, Midlands senator Lillian Timveos and former Kwekwe Central MP Blessing Chebundo defect to Zanu PF. But during his presentation of the party’s 2021 agenda in Harare yesterday, Chamisa said he had put in motion strategies to counter Mnangagwa’s machinations to create a pliant opposition under Zanu PF’s “command politics” . Zanu PF has, however, denied the claim. Chamisa accused the Zanu PF-led government of engineering the expulsion of his 32 MPs and over 80 councillors across the country, takeover of party offices and channelling of party funds to Douglas Mwonzora’s MDC-T to weaken his political base. “Rising authoritarianism has rendered the State unstable and saddled with serious contradictions. Unstable oppressive regimes are dangerous to their own citizens,” Chamisa said. “The second was the crisis of authoritarianism, whereby the regime embarked on a relentless assault and onslaught upon democracy and our party. This assault involved the use of State machinery to subvert democracy and the will of the people. Our party headquarters was forcibly occupied, depriving us of our home. The regime also diverted our funding under the Political Parties (Finance) Act, giving it to its surrogates,” he said in apparent reference to Mwonzora’s MDC-T. Mwonzora denies being a Zanu PF stooge. “Despite all these attacks on our party, we refuse to be cast as victims. Rather, we are survivors and winners. When someone works so hard to try and destroy you and they fail, it is because you are strong and you are a winner. We are invincible. We are indomitable. We are unconquerable,” Chamisa said. He said Mnangagwa was determined to decimate the MDC Alliance for refusing to recognise his presidency. “The purpose of all this was to punish our party for resisting the illegitimacy of the outcome of the 2018 elections, which lacked credibility and acceptability. The oppressors believed that stripping us of our assets and entitlements under the law would dampen our spirits and break us down. This has not worked,” the MDC Alliance leader said, adding: “This deprived the people of the opportunity to reclaim and correct injustices by ending the criminal abuse of office and blatant theft.