Muvet Says VVZ Inundated With 15,000 Messages A Day After Govt-In-Exile Reports, Discourages Big Donors, Saying People Must Fund Their Own Revolution
HARARE – Activist Brett Muvet says his movement has been inundated with more than 15,000 WhatsApp messages, up to 700 emails and between 4,000 and 5,000 Facebook inbox messages per day in the past seven days, following reports that his formation Varanda VeZimbabwe (VVZ) mulling forming a government in exile.
Muvet, who insists he is an activist and not a politician, said the surge was unplanned and has overwhelmed the organisation’s limited communication capacity, making it impossible to reply to everyone immediately.
In an address to supporters, Muvet said the phenomenon was driven by social media and would eventually die down, but that for now the movement had to “ride it and survive” the contact.
He said official communication remains limited to the Brett Muvet channels, a newly opened Facebook page and a long-standing WhatsApp channel that has existed for a year or two, and a closed WhatsApp group.
He said affiliate supporter groups calling themselves VVZ Mufakose, ZVV Bulawayo and VVZ Harare continue to emerge and he did not have any problems with that but he encouraged centralization through the official VVZ page to avoid overriding efforts.
He said there is no membership drive yet, no membership forms and no cards being sold, and that all funding would be handled transparently.
A proposed two-dollars-per-person donation drive, he said, would only be done through the official Brett Muvet Facebook page and later through the official VVZ page once it is live.
Muvet said the leak that a VVZ government in exile had been formed, when it has not yet materialized, came after he had conducted 30 to 40 small interviews with journalists and social media outlets in recent weeks, which he said larger news outlets refused to cover.
He said the information was released prematurely, whether intentionally to help or to see the movement sink, before receptive systems to file, answer and process thousands of enquiries were in place.
He said a website is in development and staff are needed to run both a political process and a revolutionary process, two separate strategies.
On funding, Muvet said VVZ had deliberately chosen a people-funded model over seeking a single large donor.
He argued that funding of political parties and NGOs by big donors has allowed outside influence over African politics, and that Zimbabwe should be fixed by Zimbabweans without selling resources, land or wealth.
“I would rather have 1 million Zimbabweans donate two dollars than one person donate $2 million,” he said, adding that 100,000 donors means 100,000 supporters and one million donors means one million supporters.
He said a movement held at ransom by one or two big donors is not a people’s organisation.
He said donations would fund four or five salaried individuals based in America, Europe and southern Africa to run offices, coordinate Zimbabweans globally and send continuous communications to regional bodies, neighbouring countries and businesses in Zimbabwe explaining the movement’s position.
Muvet alleged, without providing evidence, that $15 million has been allocated to “take care of” him, a claim he described as a threat to make his children fatherless.
He said the alleged threat was part of the reason a government in exile was required, as he believed he would be jailed if operating from inside Zimbabwe.
He said Zimbabwe has reached this point because the constitution requires a consultative process and a referendum to extend presidential term limits.
He claimed the consultative process was fatally flawed, no referendum was held, and that even if one had been held and approved, the extension would apply only to the next president, not the incumbent.
He accused the president, parliament and senate of breaking their oath of office to implement the constitution, saying the people of Zimbabwe are therefore recalling them.
“We do not have a government. Our country is governmentless. That is the facts on the ground according to our constitution, therefore that is why we need a government,” he said.
Muvett said VVZ does not seek approval from any world body, neighbouring country, African organisation or political party to establish a government in exile, but seeks endorsement from Zimbabweans.
He said for 26 years appeals over beatings, kidnappings, killings, arbitrary arrests, house burnings and business closures had been met with “quiet diplomacy” and no action.”We are not turning the other cheek anymore. We finally have an opposition that has balls,” he said, adding that VVZ would take over Zimbabwe via a people’s revolution which he said is the only option left on the table.
He said the nature of that revolution would be dependent on the response of what he called the regime, stating: “We will never start violence but we will finish it if we have to,” which he said was not a threat but a response to the alleged $15 million bounty on his head.
He called on all regional and international bodies that had previously failed to help to “mind your own business” and not interfere.On working with other opposition parties, Muvett said cooperation would happen but under VVZ’s terms.
He said a partnership agreement for the government in exile would be released with about 60 principles, and any organisation that agrees with 90 percent of them would be welcome to join with one seat each.
There would be no big men or big tent that others join, he said, adding that the tent would be built together.
If existing opposition parties do not want to form the government in exile, he said, VVZ will declare itself the government in exile and let the people decide who to support.