PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa says the country is facing an onslaught from foreign countries attempting to destabilize the country by sponsoring instability.

Mnangagwa's remarks come on the back of a clampdown on pro-democracy activists and opposition figures who have been accused of plotting protests.

Addressing mourners at the burial of national hero Makhethi Ndebele, President Mnangagwa accused foreign actors of sponsoring "falsehoods".

"Presently there are concerted efforts to reverse the gains of our protracted liberation struggle. These attacks take many forms including peddling falsehoods about our country.

"It is a shame that there is a deliberate and foreign-funded campaign which is void of evident and unprecedented success milestones we are witnessing across every facet of our society and our economy in our country," said Mnangagwa.

Among those arrested are opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume, and human rights defenders Namatai Kwekweza, Robson Chere and Samuel Gwenzi.

Since ascending to power in a military-assisted coup, Mnangagwa has been accused of clamping down on dissenting voices.

Mnangagwa accused foreign powers are destabilizing the region and the African continent.

"The strategies by some powers designed to sow discord and division between fraternal states in our Region and in our Continent will never succeed. We defeated imperialistic agendas to achieve our liberation and Independence. We shall defeat them in the present, again and again.

"Their interests are never designed for Africa and its people, but to control our strategic resource endowments, including our God given minerals, which we have in abundance," he said.