admin“We were apprenticed by (President) Mugabe. Four years apprentice in Government. What’s in Government that I haven’t learnt? We have seen it all,” he said.
MDC-T tasted power after the formation of the inclusive Government in 2008 and has been hesitant to go for elections advocating a delay of the ballot to October this year.
President Mugabe thwarted efforts to delay the poll and proclaimed July 31 as the date for elections. Policy and ideological discord between political parties in the inclusive Government saw the coalition failing to gel.
Mr Tsvangirai, who is on a whirlwind tour of the province, claimed his supporters were denied land by Zanu-PF under the agrarian reform which has benefited thousands of households countrywide and vowed to set a commission to probe land allocation if he wins.
“We want equitable distribution of land.
“We know that you were denied land because you are MDC. We will set up a land commission that will investigate farm ownership,” he said.
The MDC-T strongly criticised Zanu-PF when it embarked on the land reform exercise in 2000 and protected the interests of commercial farmers who bankrolled the party. The party also told its followers to ignore land reform.
Mr Tsvangirai took a swipe at beneficiaries of the land reform exercise saying they were failing to build proper homes and were living in dilapidated structures over a decade after they were allocated land.
“For how long shall you stay in these shacks?” he said.
Mr Tsvangirai claimed indigenous farmers were failing to deliver saying “We gave farms, what is being produced? Nothing”.
The MDC-T, through Finance Minister Mr Tendai Biti, has been reluctant to fund agriculture since the formation of the inclusive Government.
He pledged to invite foreigners to invest in Zimbabwe in the event his party wins and criticised Zanu-PF’s indigenisation programme saying it has not benefited anyone.
Mr Tsvangirai attributed the closure of mines and industries in the country at the height of economic difficulties to mismanagement.
The MDC-T failed to hold a rally at Guruve Centre after its provincial organising secretary Thabani Koza defied a police directive that the party should find an alternative venue.
The venue Mr Tsvangirai wanted to use is owned by Zanu-PF and police had in advance notified the MDC-T to look for an alternative venue.
Online Reporter