Mutambara lays down the gauntlet

ZIMBABWE People First (ZimPF) interim leader Agrippa Mutambara has declared that the country's politics would soon experience a major paradigm shift despite the internal power struggles rocking the fledgling opposition party.

In his maiden speech since his appointment as ZimPF leader last week, Mutambara described himself as a "people's servant."

"I have not come as a saviour but as one seeking a remedy to the problems so inherent in our beloved Zimbabwe.

There are more questions than answers. We commit ourselves to be the servants of the people who entrust us to put their interests first above all else. From this day onwards, politics will never be the same in Zimbabwe," said Mutambara, adding history will judge war veterans harshly for abetting the people's oppression.

His appointment to lead ZimPF has been disputed by the opposition party's elders Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa, effectively signalling another split since parting ways with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, who broke away to form the National People's Party. Mutambara seems unfazed though and wants to hit the ground running.

"For so long we have endured suffering and hardships. For so long we have remained true to our moral compass as a learned and compassionate nation, and an understanding nation.

"But, until when shall we remain submissive and quiet whilst our souls and our self-respect as human beings are being pillaged by an evil so seductive, so cunning that it kills you with its right hand then consoles and offers you the tools to bury yourself with its left hand," said Mutambara in apparent reference to President Robert Mugabe's government.

"How can we trust a government that brutalises its people, fails to investigate and explain the mysterious disappearances of opponents, some abducted in broad daylight and uses youths and State agents to stay in power?"

Declaring that ZimPF is the country's government in waiting, Mutambara warned against divisive politics as well as idolising party leaders. Mutambara accused Mugabe and Zanu-PF of turning the country's youth into "killing machines, respect for elders and life itself has been sacrificed at the altar of political expediency."

Mutambara said the ruling party takes pride in "coining nice sounding and politically captivating phrases like ‘indigenisation of the economy' or ‘cashless economy'" which he dismissed as " much ado about nothing."