Zimbabwe’s ruling party has threatened the United States ambassador with expulsion, calling him a “thug” and accusing him of funding organisers of anti-government protests planned for Friday.
Zimbabwe’s government in recent weeks has increasingly accused the US Embassy of supporting anti-government activists who are piling pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the economy collapses amid new allegations of corruption and human rights abuses.
The embassy denies the accusations of meddling in local politics in the southern African country. Ruling ZANU-PF party spokesman Patrick Chinamasa on Monday said US Ambassador Brian Nichols and a “coterie of gangsters” should stop “mobilising and funding disturbances, coordinating violence and training insurgency.
Our leadership will not hesitate to give him marching orders.” He added: “Diplomats should not behave like thugs, and Brian Nichols is a thug.” The embassy did not immediately comment on that.
In the past week, information minister Monica Mutsvangwa and foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo have accused Western countries of sponsoring Hopewell Chin’ono, a prominent journalist known for exposing alleged government corruption.