News / National
'We will not take up arms,' says Tsvangirai
20 Nov 2014 at 05:59hrs | Views
The opposition MDC-T party will not resort to "taking up arms" against President Robert Mugabe's government in order to wrestle power, opposition MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday.
Tsvangirai told journalists at a press briefing in Harare that his party had done all it could under the circumstances by challenging the outcome of poll results in the courts.
He was reacting to a decision by the South African Constitutional Court
to grant The Mail &Guardian newspaper access to a report compiled by a team of jurists relating to the 2002 presidential election.
"We have been victims of Zanu PF shenanigans ever since. We have been to court and 12 years later we are still waiting for the ruling of that application. We have reported murder cases that have been brushed aside by police. We have pursued the legal route and the fact that The Mail &Guardian succeeded in pursuance of its own agenda cannot be used to accuse us of not doing enough," the former prime minister said.
"We are pursuing the only cause of action available to us and how else would you want the MDC to do? Take up arms, just to be seen to be doing something? How else in an undemocratic environment would you want us to react to this?"
In the past Tsvangirai has threatened to walk to Zimbabwe House, President Mugabe's official residence, in a still-borne project code-named Final Push. During the formative years of the MDC, he called on President Robert Mugabe to "please go peacefully or we will remove you violently", but never kept his word.
The report compiled by judges Dikang Moseneke and Sisi Kamphepe in the aftermath of the 2002 presidential election concluded that the poll could not have passed as being free and fair.
Tsvangirai said he was outraged by the role of some Sadc countries "in subverting democratic processes of another sovereign state".
He said African leaders have a tendency of sweeping "dirt under the carpet or just looking away".
"When the genocide in Rwanda was taking place, the majority of African leaders remained silent about it. Likewise, when violence flared up in Zimbabwe with innocent civilians being butchered in broad daylight, Sadc countries turned a blind eye.
"To an extent, the spirited efforts to hide this report shows that South Africa has wittingly or unwittingly aided the subversion of democratic processes in Zimbabwe, wantonly violating official Sadc guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections, which they helped to create," he added.
At the height of the country's political problems, then South African leader Thabo Mbeki pursued what was then referred to as "quiet diplomacy" in which he engaged authorities in Zimbabwe as well as the opposition, while rebuffing overtures from western government to come down hard on President Mugabe.
Tsvangirai said after going through the report he was convinced more than ever that Sadc leaders protected each other.
"One can only conclude that in the case of President Mbeki he was pursuing stability rather than democracy and as far as he was concerned, as long as Zanu PF is in charge, fair enough. This is vindicated by the fact that he commissioned a legal and generals' report which reveals the extent of abuse then does nothing. We have seen an old boys club trying to defend each other at the expense of the people," he said.
The former premier paid tribute to "the audacity of journalism; the unstinting pursuit of the truth particularly by the press corps at The Mail and Guardian".
"But while it has taken 12 years for the judges' report to be made public, the irony is that even after those 12 years, this report has come out earlier than the verdict of our court challenge that we filed in 2002. Today, we are still awaiting judgment on our court challenge and it appears the ruling on my court petition filed in 2002 may not even come in my lifetime," Tsvangirai said.
He said while he had not been surprised by the contents of the report: "We are deeply appalled by it and we unreservedly deplore what was done by the South African government to try to sweep this report under the carpet."
Tsvangirai has lost in all the elections he has contested since the turn of the century.
He argued the Kampepe report was a mirror image of the 2013 electoral outcome that he, as has become the norm, disputed.
Tsvangirai told journalists at a press briefing in Harare that his party had done all it could under the circumstances by challenging the outcome of poll results in the courts.
He was reacting to a decision by the South African Constitutional Court
to grant The Mail &Guardian newspaper access to a report compiled by a team of jurists relating to the 2002 presidential election.
"We have been victims of Zanu PF shenanigans ever since. We have been to court and 12 years later we are still waiting for the ruling of that application. We have reported murder cases that have been brushed aside by police. We have pursued the legal route and the fact that The Mail &Guardian succeeded in pursuance of its own agenda cannot be used to accuse us of not doing enough," the former prime minister said.
"We are pursuing the only cause of action available to us and how else would you want the MDC to do? Take up arms, just to be seen to be doing something? How else in an undemocratic environment would you want us to react to this?"
In the past Tsvangirai has threatened to walk to Zimbabwe House, President Mugabe's official residence, in a still-borne project code-named Final Push. During the formative years of the MDC, he called on President Robert Mugabe to "please go peacefully or we will remove you violently", but never kept his word.
The report compiled by judges Dikang Moseneke and Sisi Kamphepe in the aftermath of the 2002 presidential election concluded that the poll could not have passed as being free and fair.
Tsvangirai said he was outraged by the role of some Sadc countries "in subverting democratic processes of another sovereign state".
He said African leaders have a tendency of sweeping "dirt under the carpet or just looking away".
"When the genocide in Rwanda was taking place, the majority of African leaders remained silent about it. Likewise, when violence flared up in Zimbabwe with innocent civilians being butchered in broad daylight, Sadc countries turned a blind eye.
"To an extent, the spirited efforts to hide this report shows that South Africa has wittingly or unwittingly aided the subversion of democratic processes in Zimbabwe, wantonly violating official Sadc guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections, which they helped to create," he added.
At the height of the country's political problems, then South African leader Thabo Mbeki pursued what was then referred to as "quiet diplomacy" in which he engaged authorities in Zimbabwe as well as the opposition, while rebuffing overtures from western government to come down hard on President Mugabe.
Tsvangirai said after going through the report he was convinced more than ever that Sadc leaders protected each other.
"One can only conclude that in the case of President Mbeki he was pursuing stability rather than democracy and as far as he was concerned, as long as Zanu PF is in charge, fair enough. This is vindicated by the fact that he commissioned a legal and generals' report which reveals the extent of abuse then does nothing. We have seen an old boys club trying to defend each other at the expense of the people," he said.
The former premier paid tribute to "the audacity of journalism; the unstinting pursuit of the truth particularly by the press corps at The Mail and Guardian".
"But while it has taken 12 years for the judges' report to be made public, the irony is that even after those 12 years, this report has come out earlier than the verdict of our court challenge that we filed in 2002. Today, we are still awaiting judgment on our court challenge and it appears the ruling on my court petition filed in 2002 may not even come in my lifetime," Tsvangirai said.
He said while he had not been surprised by the contents of the report: "We are deeply appalled by it and we unreservedly deplore what was done by the South African government to try to sweep this report under the carpet."
Tsvangirai has lost in all the elections he has contested since the turn of the century.
He argued the Kampepe report was a mirror image of the 2013 electoral outcome that he, as has become the norm, disputed.
Source - Zim Mail
