DIPLOMATS/ NGO COMMUNITY'S TAKE ON NELSON CHAMISA'S SUPPORT BASE
Confidence or panic? The level of discourse on Zimbabwe's social media sphere was the talk of a gathering of diplomats and the NGO Community recently, with focus the acrobatics being performed by Nelson Chamisa's supporters. At an Africa Day dinner on 24 May this year, I listened in horror as foreign diplomats and NGO-types dissected what they all agreed was an unbelievable degeneration of discourse on Zimbabwe's social media platforms. There's defence of the indefensible. Lies. Insults. That much can not be denied. The unanimous agreement around that room was that this behaviour is coming almost exclusively from the supporters of Nelson Chamisa's bit of the MDC-T (Madame Khupe claims ownership of the other bit). But that was not the revelation of the evening, no. One diplomat had a perspective that I found difficult not to go along with. The behaviour you are seeing from those that purport to support Chamisa is informed not by passion, but by panic, he ...