MDC-T calling for a new start that has already started

At Zimbabweans United for Democracy (ZUNDE) we welcome calls for united front as long as we are united in values, objectives and strategy. We view MDC-T call for a fresh start on these criteria and would like to stress that the start has already been made. In October 2013 a fresh start was made and it has now gained momentum. We are all smart and we all know the meaning of fresh.

In his address in UK soon after the July 31 2013 collapse of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirayi challenged those that thought there were other ways of pursuing democracy in Zimbabwe to go ahead. The challenge was taken and ZUNDE was launched. A number of people from all political parties who were disheartened by their parties strategies  joined on the ZUNDE machine. They are now confident that now there is a genuine movement to dismantle Zanu PF dictatorship.

Some of our opposition friends would want to persuade retrying the same hoping that luck will be ours at some attempt. We don't believe so. Zimbabwe politics is not an argument on a court arena. We are fighting the most cruel and unorthodox dictatorship with several degrees in violence. This is not a pillow fight but a deep trenches inch-by-inch exchange of fatal blows. Our fight is not against mere flesh but against the principalities of darkness, the cruel clutches of corruption, heartless mercenaries whose hearts have been sired by a hot iron. Our adversaries will not hesitate to kill, abduct, maim or rape as they did during Gukurahundi and 2008 elections. This is why it is most disturbing when MDC-T calls for unity with people who have graduated from the violence schools of these merchants of violence.

Surely there is nothing fresh about MDC-T teaming up with the worst of Zanu PF. MDC-T failed, on more than four attempts, to the extent of seeking a GNU with Zanu PF in which MDC-T leader asked, as indicated by SA moderator, Robert Mugabe to lead the GNU because "he was the only one able to control the army generals". Recently and as a token of the GNU experience, MDC-T chose to donate seats to Zanu PF than allow a fellow opposition to survive. This is a typical fresh start that we will find questionable and treacherous.

I do not imagine any Zimbabwean to see any freshness in Temba Mliswa, Jabulani Sibanda, Didmus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo. The best these people can do is to express remorse, ask for forgiveness and give a full disclosure to the nation about details of Zanu PF atrocities, including who killed who or did what so the nation can start to heal on the basis of truth and reconciliation. Doing it the way Morgan Tsvangirai is going about it is promotion of impunity, something ZUNDE will never be part of.  

Even the MDC-T leadership cannot consider itself fresh after their flirtation with Zanu PF in the GNU which brought us where we are now – next to the poorest country in the world according to the Global Finance magazine. They tried to renew but the attempt collapsed, with former MP Settlement Chikwinya calling the renewal project a betrayal! Such experiences make caution absolutely necessary.

ZUNDE has proposed a fresh start in which the strategy is different, the players are more energetic, the ideas are new and above all the focus is on democracy rather than personalities. A fresh player is not an old player but one with vision, energy, hope and better techniques. We have laid down our unity framework and have discussed corporation with many political players and agreed to cooperate where it matters.

I strongly believe that a coalition without values is empty. We have had many of such attempts. Just before every election since 2000 the opposition has attempted to unite or at least show a commitment to. Such agreements broke a few hours after the press conference where they were announced. In 2013 it was the same. MDC-T, Mavambo, Zapu etc. told us they had united. After the elections we saw a reversal and the coalitions were replaced by a MDC-T, MDC-M and Zanu PF GNU unity. Only a few days Mugabe announced in Bulawayo that the GNU marriage was never going to succeed. Should we play the same card again? NO. We must do better, especially knowing that MDC-T spent five years in the big tent and came out empty handed without even a single reform.

In the near future I foresee converted cadres from Zanu PF, MDC-T, ZAPU, People First joining this winning fresh start and we will accommodate them as comrades. The momentum is picking speed and we also welcome members from the civil service, security services and civic organisations who are genuine about developing our country. This is the fresh start in ZUNDE. We focus on post-Mugabe hope.  Government workers, security institutions and war veterans are not the enemy. The enemy is the Zanu PF dictatorship and those who are propping it up from within Zanu PF and also from within the former opposition.

A clean start cannot include corrupt politicians, sell outs or people who have terrorised, exiled, abducted, raped and tortured opposition members to the scale of Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina and Mavhoterapapi of 2008. How are we going to change anything if these people remain leaders? MDC-T big tent, in this respect, leads onto Mugabe's lap.

ZUNDE strongly believes in genuine unity, progressive coalitions and fresh starts but we will not go for a cheap marriage of convenience that provides a safe haven for corruption and looters. For Jabulani Sibanda, Didmus Mutasa and Temba Mliswa to be elevated to angels at a prayer meeting for a victim of violence, that was inappropriate if not mentally torturing.

ZUNDE's unity framework and call is not a trap. We do not seek vengeance; we seek healing. We are not seeking to swallow any party but to work together where we can. We are not posing for donors but we are indeed uniting our people. Our song is not about repeating other's failures but it is a plea and invitation that we have seen the future and that it's achievable.

I am not calling Zimbabweans to the past but to the future of peace, hope and prosperity. Together, we can overcome the Zanu PF painful past and create a better future for all of us.