Tsvangirai disappoints supporters in Banket

SCORES of MDC-T supporters in Banket who had gathered for the "Yes vote" campaign scheduled to be addressed by the party's leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were left disappointed yesterday after their leader failed to turn up at Banket Stadium.

According to the state media, supporters began gathering around midday for the address that was expected to start at 2pm with some coming from Chinhoyi while a number of school children were also in attendance.

The party's organising secretary Mr Nelson Chamisa eventually addressed the gathering for less than 15 minutes.

In an interview after the meeting, Mr Chamisa blamed Mr Tsvangirai's no-show on a breakdown in communication.

"The prime minister was not scheduled to address at this gathering but as you know our supporters always want to see him so they expected that he would come.

"We have a lot of meetings today that will be addressed by various leaders and the Prime Minister cannot address all of them so our people have to understand that," Mr Chamisa said.

However, invitations sent to the press indicated that Mr Tsvangirai was scheduled to address supporters at Banket Stadium. Earlier in the day Mr Tsvangirai had addressed another meeting in Karoi at Karoi Hall.

In his address, he urged his party's supporters to vote overwhelmingly for the draft constitution at the referendum to be held next Saturday.

"Every one of us should vote for the draft constitution overwhelmingly because it has a lot of positive issues in it.

"The constitution exalts God and therefore as Zimbabweans we will not support anything that has been forbidden by God.

"This is why you will find that the draft constitution does not condone ungodly practices like homosexuality," he said.

He added that the draft would also provide for the promotion of women's rights and those for the elderly.

"The constitution will provide for the protection of our rights as citizens of Zimbabwe including those for women, the elderly and that our children attain basic education from Grade One to Seven for free," he said.

He said another positive development was the separation of the National Prosecution Authority from the Attorney General's office and the introduction of term limits for most public offices.

The three parties in the inclusive Government have already endorsed the draft constitution and are urging their supporters to "Vote Yes" at the referendum.

Meanwhile, some overzealous MDC-T youths attempted to block The Herald news crew from covering the event and were only allowed after the intervention of officials from the party's publicity department.