MDC secretary general, Douglas Mwonzora says he has the formula for defeating President Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF. "I have a formula ...
MDC secretary general, Douglas Mwonzora says he has the
formula for defeating President Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF.
"I have a formula for defeating that party. I defeated Zanu
PF first as a member of ZUM (Zimbabwe Unity Movement) and fought against a
one-party state and we won. In 1989-90, we fought against a one-party state and
I was a member of the students’ union as well as a member of ZUM, where I was
in the executive as presidential spokesperson.
I think I do possess the abilities of strategic thinking
and strategic planning. I think I will be more difficult for the Zanu PF people,”
he told the Standard in an interview.
He said MDC supporters knew he was not a Zanu PF stooge. “Nobody
who is fair and sensible will think for a minute that I have anything to do
with Zanu PF at all. This is cheap propaganda that is coming from my
detractors, people who cannot fight a fair battle even within the organisation.
Everybody knows I am a loyal member of the opposition and
there is no reason why true MDC people must allow themselves to be digressed by
what Zanu PF is saying. We in the MDC say quite a lot of things about the Zanu
PF leaders.
We talk about who is more cruel, (Vice-President
Constantino) Chiwenga or (Vice-President Kembo) Mohadi or (President Emmerson)
Mnangagwa, we say it all the time.
We even say who is a better leader among the three of them.
We always say it all the time, but it doesn’t mean that we support them. In
fact, when (Robert) Mugabe was still president there were a lot of Zanu PF
people that we thought would be better presidents, but that doesn’t translate
to support for that candidate.
I am not a member of Zanu PF and I do not require their
support. When Victor Matemadanda talked about the MDC congress, I issued a
statement in which I castigated him. I do not know why people choose to believe
Zanu PF when it comes to me, but I am not very worried because MDC people know
the truth.
On the push for Chamisa not to be contested he said :”Well,
there is no doubt that Nelson has done well — not necessarily as president of
MDC, but as a leader within the party — his days within the youth assembly, as
spokesperson, organising secretary, as vice-president and as president.
So I don’t want to take anything away from him. He is a
good man, he is a hard worker. When the time comes I will make my decision on
whether to challenge him or not and if I am to challenge him, I must offer
better leadership. If I think I can offer better leadership, better strategic
thinking, then I will be able to offer it, but at no point am I going to take
away the achievements that he ade.
Neither should people take away the achievement, which I
made within the MDC as a member of Copac, as a member of the inter-party
dialogue bringing in the code of conduct and dealing with the BVR (biometric
voter registration) system.
We were together in the demonstrations that we planned in
this country and all those are successes that I share as well.
Now coming to the issue of competition, Chamisa has always
had competition.
This happened when he took over as youth leader,
competition when he wanted to be spokesperson, competition when he took over as
organising secretary, competition when he tried to be secretary-general. He has
always had that competition and it doesn’t, in my view, scare him that there
could be competition.
This is the essence of democracy. The relationship between
him and me is one of mutual respect. I am sure he respects me and I respect him
as well. I don’t think it has been affected.
The aim of people who have been peddling these lies is to
try to affect our relationship and unfortunately we have seen through it. We
have seen also other leaders, maybe trying to cover for their historical
misdeeds, calling me half-wit and nincompoop on social media and that is
uncalled for.
That is barbaric and it is not something that we expect
from mature leaders.
Mature leaders must know that we now have jettisoned the
politics of hate, we are now in the politics of rational disputation. Mwonzora said there were attempts to kick him out of the
party.
“There were spirited attempts last year to get me out of
the party. At almost every national executive meeting and national council,
there were people who tried to push for the removal of the secretary-general
and, of course, it didn’t succeed because I had no case to answer in the first
place.
Secondly, the membership of the MDC could not allow that. So
my work speaks for itself and I have discharged my duties well as spokesperson
of the party, as its deployee in Copac, as MP and secretary-general.
I will continue to survive because I am loyal to the
organisation. I do not backbite people.
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