News / National
Gwisai urges workers to dump Tsvangirai
08 Aug 2013 at 12:09hrs | Views
Former MDC Highfield legislator and founding member of the party, Mr Munyaradzi Gwisai, yesterday called on the working class to dump the MDC-T saying there was no future in the party and its leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.
This comes in the wake of similar attacks on Mr Tsvangirai by the British media that sounded the death knell for the embattled MDC-T leader, urging him to resign saying he had failed as a politician.
Mr Tsvangirai, for the third time, was massively defeated by President Mugabe getting as little as 33 percent against President Mugabe's 61 percent.
Mr Gwisai, who is also International Socialist Organisation co-ordinator in Zimbabwe, said the MDC-T would suffer a gradual "terminal decline" if it does not carry out an "ideological and leadership overhaul" to counter Zanu-PF's thriving empowerment programmes.
"For working people there is no future with MDC and Tsvangirai," he said. "Lacking a pro-poor ideology and strategy, it (MDC-T) will not resurrect from this disaster. Even now, it runs to the very courts that gave it July 31. The way forward for working people is to politically break from Tsvangirai and MDC. Hard as it is, this party that was born out of the toil and sacrifices of workers and the poor has reached its dead-end because Tsvangirai and other union leaders sold out the soul of a working class movement to its class enemies – the rich, bosses and their middle class lackeys, the white farmers and the imperialists."
Mr Gwisai said an MDC-T defeat in the harmonised elections, as shown by several local and international surveys, had become predictable.
He said the massive turn out in Zanu-PF strongholds during the constitutional referendum in March showed that Zanu-PF would emerge stronger.
"Unlike in 2008, Zanu-PF came into this election as a cohesive unit around its 'bhora mughedi' theme," he said.
"Zanu-PF had its most democratic primary elections ever, resulting in popular local candidates running, many of whom, small capitalists who had been on the ground sponsoring local projects. Tsvangirai blundered by protecting unpopular incumbents, of up to three terms but hardly visible in their constituencies."
Mr Gwisai said Mr Tsvangirai's sex scandals and the corruption in MDC-T-run councils worsened the situation for the party.
"Whilst (Finance Minister) Tendai Biti was being lauded by the West as 'the best Finance minister in Africa,' the austerity knife was piercing deepest into the hearts of the rural poor through," he said.
"GMB going for over a year without paying for maize delivered, dying cattle because of lack of dipping facilities, an end to the maize seeds, fertiliser and relief food previously given by Western NGOs and the Reserve Bank, thousands of pupils failing to write examinations, clinics without nurses even as 2000 nurses were jobless due to a job freeze."
He said Zanu-PF's rural base soared nationwide because of the land reform programme and indigenisation and empowerment initiatives. "It is therefore not surprising that the defining character of these elections is that the rural voters across the country have rejected and abandoned Tsvangirai and the MDCs," Mr Gwisai said.
"Zanu-PF's 40 percent strong showing in the towns shows that many urban poor are following it. As in Kenya and Zambia where rising African nationalism triumphed, and the anti-neoliberal revolts across the world, the rural poor rejected MDC as the party most closely identified with austerity and western puppetry."
The West, Mr Gwisai said, was stunned by Zanu-PF's landslide victory.
"With survival guaranteed, Mugabe would still pursue his vote-catching nationalist agenda. With such a resounding mandate for his indigenisation agenda, big business will have to play ball with Mugabe," he said.
"With an eye to 2018, Zanu-PF will continue with its empowerment agenda to eat away at MDC's still-holding urban strongholds."
A British paper, The Telegraph, said Mr Tsvangirai's short stint in Government had exposed his immeasurable shortcomings as a leader while the BBC said the MDC-T leader now stared political oblivion.
This comes in the wake of similar attacks on Mr Tsvangirai by the British media that sounded the death knell for the embattled MDC-T leader, urging him to resign saying he had failed as a politician.
Mr Tsvangirai, for the third time, was massively defeated by President Mugabe getting as little as 33 percent against President Mugabe's 61 percent.
Mr Gwisai, who is also International Socialist Organisation co-ordinator in Zimbabwe, said the MDC-T would suffer a gradual "terminal decline" if it does not carry out an "ideological and leadership overhaul" to counter Zanu-PF's thriving empowerment programmes.
"For working people there is no future with MDC and Tsvangirai," he said. "Lacking a pro-poor ideology and strategy, it (MDC-T) will not resurrect from this disaster. Even now, it runs to the very courts that gave it July 31. The way forward for working people is to politically break from Tsvangirai and MDC. Hard as it is, this party that was born out of the toil and sacrifices of workers and the poor has reached its dead-end because Tsvangirai and other union leaders sold out the soul of a working class movement to its class enemies – the rich, bosses and their middle class lackeys, the white farmers and the imperialists."
Mr Gwisai said an MDC-T defeat in the harmonised elections, as shown by several local and international surveys, had become predictable.
He said the massive turn out in Zanu-PF strongholds during the constitutional referendum in March showed that Zanu-PF would emerge stronger.
"Unlike in 2008, Zanu-PF came into this election as a cohesive unit around its 'bhora mughedi' theme," he said.
"Zanu-PF had its most democratic primary elections ever, resulting in popular local candidates running, many of whom, small capitalists who had been on the ground sponsoring local projects. Tsvangirai blundered by protecting unpopular incumbents, of up to three terms but hardly visible in their constituencies."
Mr Gwisai said Mr Tsvangirai's sex scandals and the corruption in MDC-T-run councils worsened the situation for the party.
"Whilst (Finance Minister) Tendai Biti was being lauded by the West as 'the best Finance minister in Africa,' the austerity knife was piercing deepest into the hearts of the rural poor through," he said.
"GMB going for over a year without paying for maize delivered, dying cattle because of lack of dipping facilities, an end to the maize seeds, fertiliser and relief food previously given by Western NGOs and the Reserve Bank, thousands of pupils failing to write examinations, clinics without nurses even as 2000 nurses were jobless due to a job freeze."
He said Zanu-PF's rural base soared nationwide because of the land reform programme and indigenisation and empowerment initiatives. "It is therefore not surprising that the defining character of these elections is that the rural voters across the country have rejected and abandoned Tsvangirai and the MDCs," Mr Gwisai said.
"Zanu-PF's 40 percent strong showing in the towns shows that many urban poor are following it. As in Kenya and Zambia where rising African nationalism triumphed, and the anti-neoliberal revolts across the world, the rural poor rejected MDC as the party most closely identified with austerity and western puppetry."
The West, Mr Gwisai said, was stunned by Zanu-PF's landslide victory.
"With survival guaranteed, Mugabe would still pursue his vote-catching nationalist agenda. With such a resounding mandate for his indigenisation agenda, big business will have to play ball with Mugabe," he said.
"With an eye to 2018, Zanu-PF will continue with its empowerment agenda to eat away at MDC's still-holding urban strongholds."
A British paper, The Telegraph, said Mr Tsvangirai's short stint in Government had exposed his immeasurable shortcomings as a leader while the BBC said the MDC-T leader now stared political oblivion.
Source - herald
