Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai has betrayed supporters: Gwisai
06/04/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai will not repeat his 2008 feat when he stunned President Robert Mugabe with a first round hiding in the presidential vote, political activist and university law lecturer, Munyaradzi Gwisai has said.

Gwisai, who also heads the International Socialist Organisation in Zimbabwe, said Tsvangirai and the MDC-T had betrayed supporters by riding “on a gravy train for four years instead of fighting for people’s emancipation”.

Tsvangirai took 47.9% of the vote in 2008 against 43.2% for Mugabe but pulled out of the run-off, accusing Zanu PF party and partisan elements in the security services of unleashing a brutal crackdown against his supporters.

Regional leaders then intervened to facilitate the formation of a coalition government. Elections to choose a substantive administration are however, expected later this year.
Gwisai said the MDC-T leader and his party had lost the advantage of the “protest vote” they enjoyed in 2008.

“Obviously the advantage of the protest vote of 2008 for the MDC is gone. The corrupt behaviour of its councillors and ministers has eroded that,” Gwisai, a former legislator, said in an interview with the Herald.

“How do you expect workers to be encouraged when we have Elton Mangoma, a senior MDC minister supervising a ministry that dismisses a workers’ leader, Angeline Chitauro, for demanding a living wage; when we have minister Paurina Mpariwa, failing for four years to issue minimum wages for domestic workers and other employee; when we have (minister Lucia) Matibenga refusing to meet public servants and the neoliberal policies of (Finance Minister) Tendai Biti have not endeared the MDC with the people?
“They represent a betrayal of the hopes and aspirations and sacrifices of the people of Zimbabwe who built the original MDC.

“So a combination of those factors clearly shows that we are likely to have a repeat of March 2008 where the MDC will retain mostly urban areas and Manicaland provinces with Zanu PF retaining control of the key Mashonaland provinces and the Midlands.”

Tsvangirai has also been attacked by another former ally, National Constitutional Assembly leader, Lovemore Madhuku, who recently announced plans to form a rival political party.

“It (the MDC-T) is no longer the people’s party which we formed in 1999. We cannot follow a person (Tsvangirai) who thinks the MDC is his personal project,” he said.

The attack prompted an appeal for calm by MDC-T spokesman, Douglas Mwonzora.

“I advise Madhuku to stop talking when he is still emotional from the huge loss he encountered in the referendum. The MDC has nothing against Madhuku, but he should not use emotions when he is talking and should cool down and talk when he is settled,” Mwonzora said.
Gwisai however, said he would not be part of the project to form a new political party.

“We leave it to our colleagues in the NCA, it is their right. In fact it develops a forward movement for Lovemore Madhuku and others because they no longer have the illusions they had in Tsvangirai and the MDC,” he said.

“Professor Madhuku and the NCA have been naïve on their illusions in the MDC and the West. We were the pioneers in saying that the MDC had been infiltrated by the rich way back in 2002 and for that we were expelled.

“We have no illusions in Tsvangirai, in Biti or (Welshman) Ncube, whether as individuals or as parties that they will result in the emancipation of workers lives. So Tsvangirai is no hero of ours.

“We are in support of a mass revolutionary party (but) you don’t build that party overnight; neither do you build it in an NGO boardroom. This is our query with our colleagues that may think that you can just wake up one day and dream up a party. It will be just another elitist party and will go nowhere like FORUM or ZUD.”

Labels: MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, MUNYARADZI GWISAI

posted by MrK @ 5:48 PM