MDC-T's mother of all violence to fail

In its desperation to get into power, the MDC-T has since its inception shown an unbridled penchant to use non-electoral avenues to push government out of power.

This desire was clearly spelt out by the party's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, when during its infancy he expressed his craving to force his way into power without honouring the electoral route prescribed by the Constitution.

While addressing a rally in Harare in October 2002, Tsvangirai told his supporters that if President Robert Mugabe does not step down before elections scheduled for that year, ‘we will remove you violently."

This was a precursor to a host of other violent and non-electoral attempts by the party to railroad itself into power.

As times passes, the MDC-T unleashed its arsenal of boycotts, stay-aways and violent demonstrations that usually ended with the stoning and burning of ZUPCO buses and other Government installations.

Reports also emerged indicating that the party sent youths to Botswana and South Africa to train as militias with the mandate to cause political havoc in the country.

A former senior official of the MDC-T, David Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues: 50 years of tyranny, attests to the violent culture in the opposition party by condemning the deployment of youths to neighbouring countries for military training.
The orgy of opposition violence reached a crescendo when the MDC-T organised what it called the ‘Final Push', which was supposed to end at State House with the unconstitutional dethronement of President Robert Mugabe and the dreamed ordainment of Morgan Tsvangirai as the President of the country.

This was the height of the MDC-T's madness and rabid bid to grab State power through non-electoral means.

With its ideology apparently steeped towards violent means to get into power, it is not surprising that the MDC-T is now talking about conducting what it dubs the ‘Mother mother of all mass demonstrations."

This is nothing new. It is just a play of words, with the ‘Mother of all mass demonstrations' being interchangeable to the doomed ‘Final Push'.

As the mother of all mass demonstrations, this planned political misdemeanor is targeted at usurping power through non-electoral avenues.

It is targeted at achieving what the so-called ‘Final Push' failed to accomplish, which is to unconstitutionally install Tsvangirai as the President of Zimbabwe.

Maybe it is out of full realization that it does not have the electoral stamina to ever win elections against ZANU PF that the MDC-T is focusing on grabbing power through the back door.

From boycotts, mass demonstrations, stay aways and the so-called final push, the MDC-T has vainly deployed measures parallel to the electoral route in a bid to shorten the constitutional mandate of President Mugabe.

Given an opportunity, the MDC-T would be ready to even stage coups in order to get Tsvangirai into power.

It is sad that the party now wants to sanitise these disruptive measures using the veil of some constitutional provisions. The MDC-T Spokesperson, Obert Gutu said the mooted ‘Mother of all mass demonstrations' was legal because the Constitution accords all citizens the right to demonstrate.

But it must not be forgotten that the Constitution does not allow the abuse of the same constitutional rights to cause instability in the country or to foist opposition leaders into power.

Although the MDC-T continues to use these non-electoral measures to challenge for power, the people of Zimbabwe had long-frowned at such shenanigans.

Zimbabweans are peaceful and would never accede to the use of such disruptive political interventions in the country.

The people know very well that Government is only changed through elections and any attempts to effect regime change through non-electoral means would fail.

This is the reason why the opposition party had postponed its ‘Mother of all mass demonstrations' from 7 April to the 14th day of the same month. This was after the realization that there were no takers for its ill-advised march.

Anticipating that the ‘Mother of all mass demonstrations' would be a flop, the MDC-T's media partners are already publishing excuses, saying Government is likely to crush the demonstration.

The demonstration would indeed fail dismally as Zimbabweans are not interested in insurgent behaviour but are interested in bread and butter issues.

Instead of enunciating alternative policies to deal with the sanctions-inspired economic challenges, the MDC-T is busy plotting demonstrations after demonstrations.

It is puzzling how the party thinks that the demonstrations would resolve the closure of industries, high unemployment and the food shortages facing the rural populace.

The country does not need disruptions and all these power games from the opposition parties. What it needs is the space to rebuild the economy.