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Vincent Gono, Features Editor
THE Zimbabwe Democratic Union (ZDU) says there is no need for political parties to bring to the fore issues of electoral reform that are dealt with fully in the country’s constitution and those that have been threatening an election boycott have no case.
Speaking to the Sunday News, ZDU spokesperson Mr Joshua Mhambi said electoral reforms were a bygone issue fully addressed in the country’s constitution and what was remaining now was the political will and moral standing to fully address other administrative issues.
“We do not need to talk about electoral reforms at this point. Those issues were addressed in the country’s constitution. They were therefore done. What we need is the political will on the implementation side. We should also be mindful of the fact that those who led the action in November last year that led to the resignation of former President Cde Mugabe did so at the great risk of their lives and are free to participate in politics,” he said.
He said there was no justification whatsoever in political parties such as MDC Alliance to demonise the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) when they were an integral part in authoring the new constitution where electoral reforms were addressed.
Mr Mhambi said attacking the person of Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba using details of her personal life was the highest level of professional failure on the part of those doing so.
“The assault on the person of Justice Chigumba using details of her personal life over an official issue is to me the highest level of professional failure where people were climbing too high. The attack is not justified and we should condemn it in the strongest terms,” said Mr Mhambi.
He said although ZDU is a political outfit that has no president, at least for now, it has a great vision for Zimbabwe aimed at disentangling it from the labyrinth of crisis that it was confined to by the Mugabe regime.
“ZDU has a winning formula for effective governance, constitutionalism and rule of law. It also has a practical formula for transitional justice, national healing and reconciliation. We also have intelligent ideas for macro-economic development and stability, job creation, industrialisation, enhanced social service delivery, infrastructure development, mineral beneficiation, rural and urban development as well as land and food security,” he said.
He says ZDU prescribes an urgent reconstructive surgery for Zimbabwe that is going to reverse the institutional collapse, liquidity crunch, industrial decline, obscene unemployment levels and escalating levels of poverty. He added that they hoped to end the deepening corruption as well as the burgeoning domestic and foreign debt.
Responding to the widely held view that this year’s election is a battle between MDC Alliance and Zanu-PF, Mr Mhambi who is contesting Bulawayo Central with 14 other candidates, said no one had a monopoly of votes. He added that the accusation that they were splitting votes was a misplaced misnotion by people bent on stifling multi-party democracy by ring fencing the democratic space.
He said they would refuse any attempts of people wanting to take the country back to the Mugabe deity days where having a different view would make one an enemy of the State. ZDU, he said, was a political grouping of people who share the same ideology different from other political parties. He said the party is represented in Bulawayo which is its nerve centre and is also represented in Midlands and Mutare. It is represented in local authority, National Assembly and Senatorial positions.
He outlined the party’s economic turnaround strategy that involves removing all restrictive economic protectionism.
“We wish to do away with the counterproductive protectionist Statutory Instrument 64 which has prejudiced small business.
We will automate the country’s border systems so as to reduce the time to clear travellers and maintain the multi-currency system but introduce a free floating local currency among a number of initiatives that also include encouraging cut throat industrial and commercial competition among companies to encourage them to innovate and adopt robust technologies,” said Mr Mhambi.
Mr Teki Mpofu who is the ZDU candidate for Bulawayo South constituency said they would ensure employment creation by engaging Government to open so many closed firms in Bulawayo. Mr Mpofu, a socialite known by many as “TK” said his chances of winning are high as he is well-known in the constituency as he was born and bred in Tshabalala which is an integral part of the constituency where 16 candidates are battling it out to represent people.
Mr Mpofu said companies in the constituency were supposed to plough back to the community as part of the corporate social responsibility where the elderly, the youths and the vulnerable would benefit. ZDU confirmed their limited capacity in terms of financial and material resources saying it affected their visibility on the ground although he said they remained optimistic of winning the elections.
Online Reporter