Mugabe feels sorry for Tsvangirai

President Robert Mugabe says he pities MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai because of the disorganisation currently embroiling the opposition party.
In his one-hour-15-minute long speech during a luncheon to celebrate his birthday organised by the Public Service Commission yesterday, the 90-year-old leader said his electoral victory last year was causing disharmony in the opposition party.
"2014 the year I celebrate 90 years comes hard on the heels of a bruising and defining election year. We first had the referendum and then the new Constitution and thereafter the harmonised elections, won resoundingly by my party Zanu-PF. Our party Zanu-PF, our peoples' party Zanu-PF. I want to thank you for that historic act. It mesmerised not just masahwira edu ataimwa tea navo (colleagues we were close to), it disorganised them as you can see, takuvanzwira tsitsi (we feel sorry for them)" Mugabe said sarcastically amid laughter.
"It also mesmerised the British and their allies the Americans. They actually did not expect it. For one reason or another, they had been fed by their NGOs and others and made to believe that the MDC was going to win the election, to improve on the 2008 elections and this came to them as a real shocker. That is why they refused to accept it, but they could not give any good reason for not accepting it. They only said elections were rigged. How were they were rigged?" he added.
Mugabe romped to a disputed victory in the harmonised polls held last year, polling 61 percent, while his closest rival Tsvangirai polled 34 percent. Zanu-PF also managed to get the two thirds majority in Parliament.
The MDC claimed the elections were rigged but Mugabe denies this. The president's view was echoed by the African Union and Sadc which said the elections were free and fair. The two African bodies could not however endorse the elections as credible.
Following the loss, Tsvangirai has been wading off calls for him to step down and allow for leadership renewal. Recently, MDC deputy general Elton Mangoma wrote a strongly worded letter advising Tsvangirai to step down, a development which threw the 15-year-old party into turmoil.
The chaos was further heightened by MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti, who during a public seminar last week said Zanu-PF had a better manifesto and messages during the elections.
Mugabe said he was happy that there was no longer an inclusive government because it impinged on progress.
"2013 is the year we finally extricated ourselves from the GNU arrangement that had bogged us down for nearly five years. It was an arrangement that was counterproductive as all our efforts to progress where consistently opposed within, virtually bringing public administration to a standstill," the president said.
"With the defining electoral victory we were able in a very peaceful way to send the MDC packing and henceforth start making meaningful progress. We immediately set about implementing ZimAsset and the key pillars upon which it rests. ZimAsset was born out of our manifesto which continues to give us policy direction on the four strategic clusters namely: Food Security and Nutrition, Social Services and Poverty Eradication, Infrastructure and Utilities and then Value Edition and beneficiation," Mugabe said adding that civil servants would definitely get a pay increment next month.
"We are currently going through a difficult patch as a direct result of the sanctions that were imposed on us. This has resulted in the delay in the fulfilment of the promise of a salary increment that we made last year," he said.
"It is, however, a technical delay in the mobilisation of money but the promise will as I have been assured, be honoured."
The president said his daughter Bona and her husband Simba Chikore were on honeymoon in Seychelles, courtesy of Tourism minister Walter Mzembi.