MDC's response to Mangwana tirade

For three days now Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, one of the Co -chairs of the Copac select committee has abused, insulted and defamed the MDC and its leadership over our withdrawal from the partisan Copac publicity outreach campaign which has been going on in all the ten administrative provinces of the country.

Mangwana's idiocy has known no bounds.

He must know that we can count far better than him. He must also be aware if he did Grade 1 arithmetic that we have enough Members of Parliament to cover the country's 10 provinces. Mangwana is also aware that as a party we offered to deploy our other MPs to the other 8 provinces where we were not represented and this was flatly refused. It is this refusal which is in itself disrespectful and contemptuous of the MDC that resulted in us resolving to pull out of the publicity outreach campaign.

The hypocrisy of that refusal is borne out by the fact that whereas we were rudely informed that no party was allowed to deploy any of its MPs and or officials who are not part of the 25 -member select committee, Mangwana and Mwonzora proceeded to deploy in the Bulawayo Province publicity outreach programme, Kucaca Phulu to represent the MDC-T. As everyone knows, Phulu is neither a member of the select committee nor an MP. It is this arrogance by fools with over inflated egos that we have had enough of.

We wish to place it on record here and now that we are tired and irritated by the continuous abuse by Mangwana and his party supported by his sidekick Douglas Mwonzora of the MDC-T which has been in an unholy alliance with Zanu-PF against the MDC for over 2 -years now.

In the past we have either turned a blind eye or the other cheek when this unholy alliance has disrespected, maligned and abused the MDC and its leadership. From now on we state most categorically there will be no other cheek to give.

We will act in self-defense in every instance. If and when we are punched we will punch back, if and when we are hit, we will hit back. If and when we are disrespected, we will disrespect in equal measure. Let those who have taken our professional approach, our fidelity to integrity, our commitment to respectful politics for weakness or cowardice be forewarned.

As such anything that comes out of Mangwana's mouth on this matter is preposterous, dishonest, hypocritical and intended to mis-inform the public and should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

In his latest tirade, Mangwana dishonestly speaks about a meeting that never occurred. To our knowledge Copac never met to discuss the matter. As far as we are concerned, the position of Mangwana and Mwonzora is not a sacrosanct position of Copac. A tripartite arrangement is not valid unless all 3 parties are represented.

Our case is clear on the principle of inclusivity in all the GPA processes. It is not for Mangwana to nitpick that which he finds convenient. Being loud does not mean being right and it is a lesson that Mangwana will sooner learn.

MDC is left with absolutely no doubt that Mangwana's verbiage is a sign of his frustration for failing to adequately defend Zanu-PF's ridiculous positions which he had been tasked to make sure were included in the draft constitution, and is as such taking cheap shots at Professor Welshman Ncube in an attempt to persuade his masters to keep him in a job that his party openly feels he does not deserve.