admin
MDC leader Douglas Mwonzora (DM) has so far fielded 57 candidates for National Assembly, women’s quota and youth quota. He is confident of winning the coming elections by at least 66 percent. Our Senior Reporter Joseph Madzimure (JM) caught up with him to discuss a number of issues ranging from defections of MDC senior members to other political parties, launching of his party manifesto and his promises to the electorate.
**********
JM: Some of your competitors are already on the ground canvassing for support. When are you going to launch your campaign?
DM: Hopefully very soon. We took a principled decision that we are going to launch our campaign once the fate of the 87 of our parliamentary candidates who were disqualified by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is decided. We are hoping that the judge handling the issue is going to decide that either today (yesterday) or tomorrow (today). Sometime this week we are going to launch our manifesto and our campaign track.
We have 58 candidates who will be on the various ballot papers. Those cleared so far to contest consist of National Assembly members, women and youth quota representation besides the local authorities.
If we add the 87, we will have a very good number in this election. We will be able to form a Government if these parliamentarians win because the Cabinet will not have more than 20 ministers. With 20 ministers you are able to form a Government.
There are some of our members who were disqualified on the basis that some of them were nominated by the wrong people because of the delimitation exercise. They found out that the people who nominated them are now in other constituencies. We are not worried about them.
We are complaining about the 87 because they qualified and ZEC made it impossible for us to pay for them. They refused bulk payment in the form of bank transfer.
Most of our candidates are already on the ground, they are campaigning. This is not only a Presidential election, it is also a parliamentary election, it is also local government election. You are going to see more activity of the MDC in few days to come.
JM: What makes your party different from other opposition political parties?.
DM: We have been listening to what some of our competitors are saying in their rallies, completely out of touch with reality. Completely, completely devoid of any new ideas that will drive Zimbabwe forward. I was listening to some people within opposition on what they have to offer and hear things like change is coming, God is in it and Zimbabwe will change, but you don’t see how it will change.
In some instances, you hear them talk about other political leaders. You hear the denigration of Douglas Mwonzora. They have a lot to say about me, they say it every day on twitter, WhatsApp and other social media platforms. They have a lot of things to say about Mwonzora, but they have nothing to say about the people of Zimbabwe.
This is the difference between MDC and other opposition political parties. The MDC is not concentrating on other political parties, it is concentrating on what it wants to do for the people of Zimbabwe on bread and butter issues.
This election is not about individual political parties, individual political leaders who are behaving like peacocks displaying their feathers and so on. It is about the life of the people of Zimbabwe.
JM: Mr Mwonzora, it seems something is amiss in your house. Why is it that a number of your former members are defecting to Zanu PF including former party spokesperson Witness Dube?
DM: Well, what number are you talking about? The people we saw were four ladies who defected to Zanu PF and recently we saw Witness Dube who then confessed that he has been a member of Zanu PF for the past three years. The MDC cannot say much about being betrayed. Being betrayed has happened even during Biblical times. Jesus was betrayed, during the liberation struggle we talked about Nyathi and others who betrayed others.
So selling people out is a phenomenon of politics. It happens every time. We have also seen Paddington Japajapa moving from CCC to Zanu PF. Its only the former MDC members who were paraded. This is happening everywhere. These people were some of our most weak-wheeled leaders, very incompetent if I may say. No wonder why MDC was not doing well in the area of information. We had a saboteur there. We are very happy that the party is growing.
JM: What happened to former MDC founding members such as Morgan Komichi and Engineer Elias Mudzuri?
- Regarding some senior leaders who left the MDC, they left the party because they were running away from democracy. They contested for the presidential post and lost during the congress. That is Senator Komichi, Dr Thokozani Khupe and Engineer Mudzuri. They contested with me in 2020 and they lost. Democracy means the dictatorship of the majority.
JM: Are you confident of winning the Presidential race next month?
DM: If I get my 87 National Assembly members and we get a fair chance we will win this election. As we have said we are capable of winning this election by 66 percent.
JM: Some reports are saying you are destroying the once vibrant opposition political party for your own personal benefits. What’s your take?
DM: This is the work of enemies of democracy themselves. Some of the people who are saying that are well-known to be saboteurs during the error of Morgan Tsvangirai I am representing a political party called MDC, a social democratic party. It is the only opposition political party with a clear set of values of freedom, justice, equality, solidarity and respect of the rule of law.
JM: It seems your party is committed to supporting local farmers to revamp the agricultural sector, but your colleague, CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa emphasised that those who were removed from their farms must be given back their land. Your take on that?
DM: It is a stupid statement to say that. In fact, the issue of the land by Zimbabweans has been settled. It was settled in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. It is not fair that in a country of 13 million people at that time when we did the Constitution, the 80 percent of the land was in the hands of 4 500 whites. It was inherently unfair, so access of all the people of Zimbabwe to land is critical. In this regard the white people of Zimbabwe must have land, the indigenous people must have land, the Asiatic people who are now residents or are citizens of Zimbabwe must have land. Every Zimbabwean must have land. The ownership of land must reflect, the racial composition of Zimbabwe. Most of the people in Zimbabwe are indigenous people, therefore most of the land must go to them. What we must do on land is to make sure that people are able to produce more.
We must help the people maximise the small pieces of land that they have to produce more and never to take away land from the Zimbabwean people.
My grandfather fought the colonialists regarding land, Chief Rekai Tangwena. His main aim was to preserve the land for the generations to come. We are holding this land in trust for our generations to come and therefore we cannot give it to people from other nationalities
Online Reporter