MTV star Lasizwe has been trolled by Zanu PF ghost accounts and was accused of being gay. He was targeted for supporting the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter movement.
Lasizwe tweeted ‘I stand with Zimbabwe’ after the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter hashtag trended all over the world in support for Zimbabweans currently experiencing human rights abuses and abductions for speaking against corruption and bad governance.
His post was followed by comments, “no gays please, we are Christians” “unfortunately we don’t stand with gays,” “we don’t stand with gays.”
Soon after the attacks Lasizwe Tweeted, “The homophobia I am currently experiencing from my fellow african brothers and sisters is heart breaking! We still have a long way to go for the LGBTQI community to be free in Africa!”
And a day later he posted, “Yoh! I really thought this homophobic thing wasn’t going to affect me but damn!… it got me hard! But I still stand with Zimbabwe. I wish for the violation of human rights in Zimbabwe to STOP and the rights of the LGBTQI+ to be treated equally! WE ARE HUMANS TOO!”
Khanyi Mbau’s brother is being trolled by Zanu PF ghost accounts known as Varakashi (destroyers) in native Shona language. Varakashi got their name from President ED Mnangagwa who called upon Zanu PF youths to fight hard and destroy opposition activists on social media.
A quick look at the social media accounts that trolled Lasizwe shows most of them have a few followers and they have been spreading propaganda since they were created.
Zimbabwe Presidential spokesperson George Charamba is well known to run a ghost account in the name of Jamwanda (@Jamwanda2) which he used to troll political opponents and communicate official announcements.
The Zanu PF social media trolls have been so successful in their trolling and have even earned the attention of the United States government after they fueled the #BlackLivesMatter protests.
During the Black Lives Matter protests, US Senator Marco Rubio the acting chairperson of the judges committee Tweeted, ““Tonight we are seeing very heavy social media activity on the #protests & counter reactions from social media accounts linked to at least 3 foreign adversaries. They didn’t create these divisions. But they are actively stocking promoting violence; confrontation from multiple angles.”
Rubio’s statement was further reign forced by United States National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien who named Zimbabwe among one of United States’ foreign adversaries. He acknowledged to have seen Tweets coming from China and Zimbabwe comparing themselves to the United States and fueling violence and protests.
“I wanna tell the adversaries that whether its Zimbabwe or China that the difference between us and you is that officer who killed George Floyd he will be investigated, he will be prosecuted, he will receive a fair trial.” O’Brien said on a video.