Zvorwadza slates 'selfish opposition'

The National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe (Navuz) yesterday savaged opposition political parties, branding them hypocrites of the highest order fighting Government for personal benefit.

Navuz president Mr Stan Zvorwadza, a known Government critic, yesterday said opposition parties were bitter that they were left out of the new Government after Operation Restore Legacy.

He said their bitterness was driven by a self-enrichment mentality and not a desire to work for the people.

Addressing stakeholders at a symposium on peace and the 2018 harmonised elections in Harare yesterday, Mr Zvorwadza said the incumbent Government was a product of all Zimbabweans who participated in the popular demonstrations that resulted in the resignation of former president, Mr Robert Mugabe.

As such, Mr Zvorwadza said Zimbabweans should give President Mnangagwa and his administration a chance to implement their economic policies.

"The removal of former president saw the convergence of all sectors across the country and this unification meant that we wanted a new dispensation to move us from Egypt to Canaan and we did so," he said.

"We anointed it (new dispensation) on November 24, 2017. The current Government is everyone's contribution therefore citizens are the stake and stockholders of this new dispensation. We all came together on 24 November (2017) to anoint the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe ED Mnangagwa and on that day I saw critical politicians. I saw opposition politicians who took the seats of the informal worker(s) to anoint President Mnangagwa.

"In that process of anointing they did not just do it because they wanted to. They expected to be roped in and be brought into this Government which did not happen. The truth has to be said. If the opposition political leadership were brought into Office and Mnangagwa had brought them on board, they would not be talking of anything at all. They would be possibly enjoying but not enjoying on behalf of the citizens of Zimbabwe."

Mr Zvorwadza continued: "I am one person that is geared to fight against poverty than to join hands with opposition political leadership that is bent on lying to us that they represent us but when the time comes to do it they do not do it.

"The former president (Mr Mugabe) is different from the current President. The president of the republic, who is now former, vowed that the gun was mightier than the pen but President Mnangagwa is saying the pen is mightier than the gun. You expect me to say what you want to hear. What you want to hear here is that the Zimbabwe political fray has a lot of hypocrites who do not represent the constituencies that they should be representing.

"When it comes to election time, they mourn and wince and cry. Let us go for elections in July and see who wins and who wins is credible because hapana munhu ari kurohwa pari zvino. Our membership has suffered physically and economically at the hands of the previous administration but we have not suffered so far at the hands of the current administration so let us give them a chance," Mr Zvorwadza said.

President Mnangagwa's ascension was welcomed across the world with the local opposition leadership gracing his inauguration.

The new President did not dissappoint as he went on to implement a number of reforms to make Zimbabwe attractive to investors and also open the democratic space, a development that has seen the main opposition MDC go around the country, campaigning without incident.