ZANU PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa (pictured) yesterday took praise-singing to a new level, describing President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the country’s own Mbuya Nehanda, an ancient ancestral spirit from the 19th century considered holy and powerful in local lore. BY BLESSED MHLANGA Mnangagwa’s government is constructing a giant stature of Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, a spirit medium also known as Mbuya Nehanda at the intersection of Samora Machel Avenue and Julius Nyerere Way in the capital Harare. Charwe, who was among the leaders of the First Chimurenga war against colonisation in the 19th century, was hanged around March 1898. Addressing a weekly Zanu PF Press briefing, Chinamasa said while in the past former colonial masters, Britain, beheaded revolutionaries, they had turned to social media attacks in modern-day to “discredit icons like Mnangagwa” who were working for economic emancipation. He said social media attacks on Mnangagwa and his family were equal to the attacks faced by the likes of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi during the early resistance to colonialism. “Allow me to draw parallels between, on one hand the public beheading of Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kagivi, Chief Mashayamombe, Mutekedza Chiwashira and other anti-colonial resistance fighters,” Chinamasa said. “On the other hand, the imposition of illegal sanctions by the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, white Commonwealth countries, Australia, Canada and New Zealand accompanied by the orchestrated social media onslaught targeting President Mnangagwa and his family.” He added: “It is to intimidate our leader with the intention to cow the general population into submission and subjugation. “The enemy goes after the scalp of our leader first and they hope that once he has fallen and is discredited the country’s resources will be ready for the picking and neo-colonial exploitation.” Chinamasa said Mnangagwa was the glue holding the country together and that Western countries were aware of this and, therefore, want him to fall. Zanu PF is preparing to erect Mbuya Nehanda's statue at a venue Mnangagwa claimed was where she would drink water and rest. Mbuya Nehanda was allegedly beheaded by the British imperialists for leading resistance against white settler rule. Chinamasa said the humiliation suffered by Nehanda, was the same as that being visited upon Mnangagwa through relentless social media demonisation sponsored by Western countries. “Sanctions against Zimbabwe and the orchestrated social media attacks against our President and First Family are the modern-day equivalents of public beheading and lynching in colonial times,” Chinamasa said. Chinamasa called on the nation to back Mnangagwa against the white colonialists as the party prepares for the 2023 general elections. “Zanu PF exhorts the population to remain steadfast and resilient and to continue marching solidly behind our President along the path that will lead us to the attainment of Vision 2030 to become an upper-middle income economy,” he said. This was not the first tim