Tsvangirai on warpath

Prosper Ndlovu Senior Reporter
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday continued his attacks on journalists and the country’s security forces, saying his party would not budge in its calls for reforms before the harmonised elections. The Prime Minister has been on a warpath against journalists and the security forces with his party’s officials taking a cue from their leader to mete out violent attacks against journalists going about their duties.

Addressing a rally at his deputy, Ms Thokozani Khupe’s homestead in Bubi district, Mr Tsvangirai said his party was opposed to an early election as long as his demands for media and security sector reforms were not met.

Analysts have said the reforms mantra was a deliberate ploy by the MDC-T leader to delay the elections which his party is poised to lose.

Mr Tsvangirai, whose party officials recently made headlines after attacking journalists from both the public and private media during his meetings, accused journalists of exposing his weaknesses and said media houses that did not toe the line would not have a place in his “kingdom”.

Chronicle Senior Reporter Mashudu Netsianda was recently attacked by aides of the MDC leader who seized his notebook and deleted recordings from his cell phone after detaining him during a meeting between Mr Tsvangirai and the Bulawayo business community.

A reporter from the Zimbabwe Independent Herbert Moyo was also assaulted by MDC-T activists in Harare while covering a demonstration at the party’s Harvest House headquarters.

Both attacks were widely condemned by local and international media watchdogs.

Speaking in Bubi, Mr Tsvangirai played victim and accused the media of bias.

“Our newspapers, especially the state controlled media should report well and give everyone equal space. We cannot have a situation where a newspaper carries six negative articles on Tsvangirai,” he said.

“If my brother has a debt they say it is Tsvangirai. If my child has a debt again they say it is me. This is not the media we want in a new Zimbabwe.

Secondly the security sector, the police and the army, we do not hate you but we want you to be professional. We want the security sector to know that at the end of the day you need to respect the will of the people.”

Mr Tsvangirai backed down on his earlier threats to boycott early elections and bragged that his party was ready for elections anytime.

“We are facing a crisis as a country over an election date. This is deliberate confusion. As MDC we have no problems with the election dates. We are ready to go for elections tomorrow and a day after,” said Mr Tsvangirai.

He also said his party wanted laws such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to be repealed before the next election adding that the 30-day mandatory voter registration provided for in the new constitution must be completed without any interference.

“Let the courts sit and make whatever ruling but we want these reforms in place before elections,” he said.

Mr Tsvangirai claimed to have won the inconclusive 2008 elections whose first round did not produce an outright winner necessitating a second round which was won convincingly by President Mugabe.

He pledged to improve the country’s economy and create jobs but could not explain how.

MDC-T has come under attack for lacking concrete economic policies compared to Zanu-PF’s indigenisation and empowerment programmes that seek to make ordinary Zimbabweans owners of the means of production.

Mr Tsvangirai is on a tour of political hotspots in Matabeleland North in a bid contain factionalism that has weakened his party structures ahead of elections.

Today he will visit Tsholotsho and Lupane. before going to Nkayi tomorrow.