adminindependence are faced with a mammoth task of making a huge political decision.
The impending election which has assumed huge significance almost similar to the 1980 watershed poll, juxtaposes the same opposing forces, pro-people Zanu-PF (which fought as Zanu and Zapu, respectively, after having negotiated independence terms jointly as the Patriotic Front) against imperialist driven parties represented by mainly the MDC-T and other various guises fighting for the same interests previously championed by the Ian Smith-led Rhodesian Front.
While Zanu-PF, the revolutionary Party, is typically championing people empowerment issues like, unfettered political sovereignty, land reform, indigenisation, and employment creation giving the nation a lot of hope, the MDC-T is clamouring for the reversal of these progressive policies giving the nation a lot of despair.
Thus, the forthcoming plebiscite puts Zimbabwe at crossroads, with the nation required to make a firm choice between hope and despair.
A lot of Zimbabweans despair at the negative and divisive politics articulated by the MDC-T since its birth in September 1999. Firstly, the MDC was formed on the bedrock of violence rooted in the ZCTU, inspired job stay-aways and violent student demonstrations that culminated in the prolonged closure of the University of Zimbabwe in 1998.
The Party’s violent tendencies were clearly made evident by Morgan Tsvangirai’s 2002 infamous statement that ‘Mugabe must go peacefully or we remove him violently’ which received a thunderous applause by his supporters at a political rally. The failed ‘Final Push’ strategy was designed to make this statement a sure reality.
MDC’s violent inclination also came to the fore when they broke up and the factions unleashed marauding thugs on each other, with a vivid image of a battered and bruised Trudy Stevenson becoming a lasting reminder of the vicious nature of the British-sponsored party’s activists. The fierce violence that characterises their elective Conference last year, also bore testimony to the above argument.
Thus, the MDC-T would like to take Zimbabwe back to the dark ages of barbarism and brutality through its notorious tendency of unnecessarily provoking violence. The second key element of despair favoured by the MDC-T is poverty for the Zimbabwean people that have to be perpetuated unless and until the puppet party comes to power to serve white interests.
Who can forget another infamous statement by now Prime Minister Tsvangirai that ‘Mati mune nzara? Hamuna chekudya? Zvino muchanyatsoshaisisa chaizvo izvo!’’, just because the majority of Zimbabweans had refused to endorse his bid for the Presidency in 2002.
True, to his word the ordinary people of Zimbabwe suffered without limit as access to food and other basic necessities was severely restricted by his foreign allies while Tsvangirai and his family enjoyed the good life, that usually accompany mercenarism.
The threat of poverty was also used by the MDC-T prior to the 2008 elections, were thousands of Zimbabweans were hoodwinked into voting for the party after fake promises that trucks full of grain, rice and maize meal were parked across our borders ready to deliver as long as the party won the election. Four years down the line with the MDC-T being a part of Government, this promise is still to be fulfilled thus Zimbabweans can and will never be fooled again.
Furthermore, the MDC has caused Zimbabweans added despair by inviting illegal economic sanctions that brought untold suffering to the Zimbabwean masses.
In fact, at the instigation of Tsvangirai’s MDC the former British Secretary for Foreign Affairs Robin Cook famously remarked to the late Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Stan Mudenge, ‘‘Stan, the sanctions will make your people will stone you in the streets’. Indeed, our economy screamed resulting in thousands of citizens losing their jobs and livelihoods while others left the country in droves to be economic refugees in South Africa, Botswana, the US and even in Britain.
l Kurai Prosper Masenyama is the Zanu-PF Director for Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.
Online Reporter