Tsvangirai trashes war of liberation

MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has trashed the liberation struggle, which brought Zimbabwe's independence from colonial bondage, saying the process was not only undemocratic but punctuated with criminal activities.

In an interview with South African news channel ANN7 on Tuesday night, Mr Tsvangirai whose party receives funding from the West, alleged that the liberation principles which he termed as undemocratic had been carried over to independent Zimbabwe.

"Take for instance Zanu-PF and the liberation movement-PF the combination of Zanla and Zipra, do you really believe that the fight for liberation was democratic? It was not. It was an armed, protracted liberation movement, there was no democracy to talk about," said Mr Tsvangirai.

"If the story be properly told, they had to do certain things in order to advance the interests of the struggle but in the process also instituted a lot of crimes, violence and cultures that are totally anti- democracy so they translated the liberation culture into independence and they have never transformed into a democratic movement. The structures were never democratised."

Mr Tsvangirai said when the MDC came into play, they were accused of being puppets of the West ironically confirmed by the party liaisons and sponsorship.

The Minister for Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Ex-Political Detainees and Restrictees, Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, shot back at Mr Tsvangirai saying the MDC-T leader has no authority to talk about a war he was not part of.

"I don't believe what he is saying is true. In any case, he should have been there (during the war) if he wanted to talk about the war but he wasn't. If you were not at the war then you can't be an authority and talk on behalf of the people who went to war," he said.

"It must be hearsay on his part which is not true."

In his typical pro-Western stance, Mr Tsvangirai maintained his denial on the effects of sanctions imposed by the bloc at his behest, saying the ruling party has a tendency of blaming the former colonial masters for its problems.

Battered by successive defeats at the hands of Zanu--PF and President Mugabe since the launch of the MDC, which has over the years splintered into many formations, Mr Tsvangirai was at pains to explain his 17 years at the helm of the opposition party. He claimed that he could not leave the opposition party in the middle of a "struggle" and that he was elected by members of his party.