Tsvangirai prays for 'betrayers'

Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai reeling from incessant calls from some of his party party members for leadership renewal after 15 years at the helm, has asked God to "exorcise the spirit of betrayal" in his party.
In his Independence and Easter holidays message to Zimbabweans, Tsvangirai who is also the country's former prime minister, described the country's 34-year-old Uhuru as "n*ked".
"On the day they nailed the Son of Man to the Cross, we learn a great lesson from Jesus' betrayal by those who walked and lived with Him.
"It remains a great lesson to us as mere mortals, that the betrayal by those close to us should not sway us from our mission. We learn that the 30 pieces of silver in the pockets of those around us should never sway us from the sanctity of our mission because we know that our cause is just," said Tsvangirai in a thinly veiled attack of hawks calling for his removal.
In the last few months following the humiliating poll loss to President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF, Tsvangirai has had to fight at times "violently" cat-calls by hawks in the MDC-T fronted by expelled deputy treasurer general Elton Mangoma.
Former Energy Minister, Mangoma wrote two damning letters calling on Tsvangirai to step-down and allow for leadership renewal before he and three other senior party officials were expelled.
"We ask our loving God to cast away the spirit of Judas Iscariot, the spirit of betrayal that continues to afflict and roam the earth to this very day. We know our Lord God will expel and exorcise this bad spirit from some among us; the spirit to sell out for the love of a mere 30 pieces of silver. Just as the 30 pieces of silver were not worth Christ's mission, so too is our cause and struggle too great to warrant a prize," the ex-prime minister said.
"As a people, we use this day to invoke the eternal mercy of God to intervene in our politics so that we have a national leadership that loves; a leadership that cares," Tsvangirai said. 
"We ask for a God-fearing national leadership that does not segregate; a government that unites and not divides; a government that serves all people regardless of their diversity".
The MDC-T president said Zimbabwe was cherishing the "work of our sons and daughters who lost life and limb so that the whims of future generations could walk again in Zimbabwe".
"Regrettably, we found out that our political independence did not bring freedoms," he said. "It came bare and unclothed; without the respect for basic freedoms and human dignity that we expected after having lost so much as a nation".
"Independence came without the basic freedoms and the attendant freedom of choice for which many of our sons and daughters had died," said the opposition leader.
Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans are independent but not free.
"We are not free because we continue to be persecuted for our political choices. Thousands of innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered, raped and maimed for supporting the MDC while millions are failing to access government handouts of food and farming inputs because of their political affiliation," he said.
The renewal group within the MDC-T have accused Tsvangirai of being a "small dictator" after angry youths gathered by Tsvangirai for a  meeting of the party's 210 district chairpersons violently attacked Mangoma and youth assembly secretary general Promise Mkwananzi while secretary general Tendai Biti and other leaders escaped beating by a whisker.
Yesterday Tsvangirai accused Mugabe's government of failing to honour the new constitution adopted at a referendum last year by appointing provincial ministers instead of full devolved power.
"We ask, is this why we went to war as a nation, to repudiate the people's sovereign will and expression as enshrined in a Constitution made by the people themselves?
"Where one race had privilege that has now been simply changed to mean privilege for one political party. Where your race mattered, it is now your party card. Is this what our sons and daughters fought and died for?" the opposition queried.