admin
in a bid to atone for inevitable defeat in the harmonised elections.
While it is given that the MDC-T struggled to come up with a manifesto which they ended up outsourcing as evidenced by the foreign images and abstract concepts in their document, Mr Tsvangirai is advised to stop at the level of slogans if he has nothing to tell supporters at his rallies.
To atone for his lack of a policy to counter Zanu-PF’s progressive indigenisation and economic empowerment programmes that have spawned 59 Community Share Ownership Schemes and 133 Employment Empowerment Schemes countrywide; Mr Tsvangirai has resorted to wild claims that the harmonised elections have been rigged.
He has taken to threatening ZEC, the police and anyone who crosses his mind when he sees people in front of him.
It is not lost to us what Mr Tsvangirai is doing because we have heard his handlers from the US and European Union issue statements pre-judicial to the elections even though they have no observers on the ground.
Only yesterday, the National Endowment for Democracy, a US think tank that has been used as a conduit to channel money to the MDC-T and its quasi-political appendages masquerading as NGOs, convened a conference in Washington to discuss the elections pursuant to claiming that the environment is not in line with Sadc principles and guidelines on the conduct of democratic elections.
While Mr Tsvangirai might mask the paucity of his vision by seeing ghosts everywhere, he should be mindful of the effects his words will have on his supporters.
In the wake of the 2007 elections, Kenya was gripped by horrendous scenes of violence that claimed over 1 200 lives. This came after Mr Tsvangirai’s Kenyan ally Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement whipped his supporters’ emotions with wild claims of rigging after losing the elections to Mr Mwai Kibaki of the Rainbow Coalition.
We hope Mr Tsvangirai is not similarly disposed in light of pronouncements made by his party’s youth assembly chairperson Solomon Madzore, who is out on bail on charges of the alleged murder of police inspector Petros Mutedza, that party youths were prepared to shed blood in the wake of an MDC-T loss.
Though Mr Tsvangirai appeared to censure Madzore at his star rally in Mutare, he has proceeded to outdo him by making unsubstantiated claims against ZEC, a constitutional body that his party had a hand in constituting.
As prime minister in the inclusive Government, Mr Tsvangirai has access to ZEC. He can register his concerns and not go all over the country making wild claims against people who are doing their best to deliver the ‘’’uncontested poll’’ outcome that he has always claimed he wants.
We urge ZEC to take Mr Tsvangirai to account. He should be made to substantiate his claims in court. He should be taught the lesson that one cannot just open one’s mouth to make unsubstantiated allegations without comebacks.
It is high time; Mr Tsvangirai was made to approach national politics with the maturity and responsibility it deserves
Online Reporter