'MDC-T must decide whether its for or against Zimbabwe'

Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T party must take full responsibility for the chaos and destruction of property that happened mainly in Harare last week. They started it and must accept the consequences of the mayhem, especially if they allow themselves to be led and dragged by the nose by an irresponsible media which incites demonstrations and violence.

Retailers, formal and informal, last week lost thousands of dollars worth of property when MDC-T youths went on a rampage on Wednesday and on Friday to demand what they called electoral reforms. In their senseless demonstrations they were joined by hoodlums of all descriptions.

The result was the looting of shops and destruction of market stalls for ordinary vendors who don't share the party's violent quest for power. A question many people now ask is whose interests the MDC-T represents? Here is a party formed in 1999 claiming to represent the interests of the workers. Most of those have since been made redundant due to a contracting economy after the same MDC called for sanctions on the country for it to get into power.

Heartless and unrepentant as ever, the MDC-T and its leadership have not only either denied the existence of sanctions or supported them outright, but they have now taken sides with white business against blacks and workers.

The party has shown that it doesn't care about the welfare of the workers or those who have been retrenched and are showing both resilience and resourcefulness by starting their own small enterprises. What the Western-sponsored opposition is obsessed with is getting into power. In fact the message coming out now is that it is prepared to seize power by violent means.

We cannot understand how a political party claiming to be fighting for democracy and human rights can at the same time foment violence and the destruction of business which employ its supposed supporters. It has gone beyond that by instigating attacks against law enforcement agencies. They have turned the police into their political enemies.

Vendors and retailers last week had their wares looted, burnt and shops attacked in an orgy of violence only the MDC-T can think up. Their rowdy youths were armed with stones, catapults, iron bars and bricks in a clear sign that they were not interested in a peaceful demonstration or submitting a petition and going back home. They were spoiling for war.

But they well knew that they could not win the war they wanted to provoke.

That is why they resorted to guerilla tactics of using ordinary people going about their business as human shields. They threw stones and other missiles at the police and quickly ran into crowds of people for shelter.

It is a primitive strategy which they wanted to use to turn ordinary people who don't support their cause against the police.

Another sinister agenda was to lend credence to their vacuous claims that the Zimbabwe Republic Police attacks innocent citizens. It is this strategy which they want to use in their appeal for foreign intervention in the country, part of further evidence that the MDC-T is Zimbabwean only in the dark skins of its leaders.

In everything else, this is a foreign party which is seeking to have foreigners invade the country so that they install their stooges into power.

The MDC-T and its leaders have always opposed Zanu-PF's black empowerment programmes. American, Canadian and Australian embassies last week issued statements condemning the same government policies while pretending to defend human rights. The British were only absent because of the trouble they courted unto themselves when they voted to pull out of the European Union.

What was remarkable about those self-serving statements was their silence on matters of law and order, which underpin democracy and the rule of law. Instead, they chose to attack the police.

In other words, the Government of Zimbabwe is supposed to let anarchists take over. The Constitution of Zimbabwe is supposed to sanction anarchy in the name of individual rights.

When all is said and done, we hope the MDC-T has the full appetite for the fight it is spoiling for. Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation. It shall defend its territory and the MDC-T must decide whether it is for the people or it wants to be a fifth column in league with foreigners.