MDC-T vice president Obert Gutu has seemingly played down human rights violations perpetrated by authorities in Zimbabwe by criticising foreigners for being concerned about the abuses.

Writing on Twitter, Gutu said those foreigners should rather be concerned about serious rights abuses in their own countries and puppet states. He wrote:

Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans! When foreigners are more ‘concerned’ about so-called human rights abuses in Zimbabwe than they are about serious human rights abuses in their own backyards as well as in their client states, we should get very worried! Why cry more than the bereaved?

Since leaving the original MDC in 2018 alongside her boss, Thokozani Khupe, Gutu has been using social media as well as State media to attack his erstwhile colleagues in the MDC led by Nelson Chamisa.

His language has consistently dovetailed with that which is used by ZANU PF officials prompting observers to conclude that he has been co-opted by the ruling party for “30 pieces of silver”.