DURING the MDC-T’s 17th anniversary celebrations when everything had been set up for Morgan Tsvangirai to speak, the lethargic opposition leader was in his usual insipid form, ominously threatening to unleash another round of violence against the Government.
Tellingly his pronouncement that President Robert Mugabe ‘risked’ being removed from power through massive protests if he did not retire soon came as a ‘warning’.
Yet it only helped buttress the point this newspaper has made many times that Tsvangirai’s politics is based on violence and confrontation, not on the ballot.
“This is a regime that survives on violence against innocent people. We want to make sure that this regime faces its end. There are two options to the endgame. The first option is a violent endgame. The second option is a peaceful transition,” said Tsvangirai.
He claimed ZANU PF had ‘ruined’ what he said was ‘the jewel of Africa’ so much that violence was among the ‘few’ options that now remained for the removal of ZANU PF from power.
“Mugabe must choose between these two options; a violent option where we get to a point where someone is shot with live ammunition because he or she was simply demonstrating, or when we reach a stage where Mugabe chooses to install his wife Grace as president then it becomes gloves off and we confront the regime,” Tsvangirai said, tongue in cheek.
“But there is an alternative option. Mugabe must retire. The whole world is now saying Mugabe must retire, and after he retires, there comes a peaceful transition.”
And just like on previous occasions, his press people once again have a job to do, damage control.
It is no longer difficult for state security agencies to locate the hand behind the recent spate of violent demonstrations that have hit the country in the past few months.
Tsvangirai and his stuttering MDC-T are behind the violent protests and his statements in Bulawayo are a precursor to what is to come.
Zimbabweans must take heed.
Many say Tsvangirai is a mere puppet. That is correct.
Others say he is a simpleton when it comes to political acumen. Again that is correct.
But Tsvangirai is much more than that.
He is simply out of depth and woefully out of touch with political realities of the country.
The Government cannot be removed from power through means alien to the ballot box.
The MDC-T began plotting to destabilise Zimbabwe in July 2016 and had members of its youth wing trained in paramilitary tactics and urban violence outside the country, The Sunday Mail reported recently.
Senior MDC-T figures, including Tsvangirai, are seized with this matter as they began plotting in July when shadowy elements, going by the hashtags tajamuka and thisflag sparked civil disturbances in Harare, Bulawayo and Beitbridge.
Faced with irrelevance and donor fatigue, MDC-T hawks started planning civil disobedience using youths to execute the plan.
In all this, the ballot is not an option as Tsvangirai claimed in Bulawayo.
Theirs is not a struggle to achieve ‘electoral reforms’.
It is about making the country ungovernable.
In Bulawayo, Tsvangirai claimed the MDC-T was ‘aware’ ZANU PF had started rigging the 2018 elections by sending state security agents to Israel to polish rigging strategies.
“The issues of reforms are not negotiable. We have to continue fighting to get the electoral reforms. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) must remove all obstacles to free and fair elections. Now as we go towards the 2018 elections, we know the elections have already been rigged. We know ZANU PF has sent 150 agents to Israel on election rigging tactics,” he said.
What comes out of these lies is that the MDC-T has already resigned to the fact that they are headed for yet another electoral thrashing and they will cry ‘rigging’ when 2018 comes.
There is nothing new here.
There is also nothing new about their violent tactics.
In fact, it is the MDC-T which is notorious for unleashing violence and pointing fingers at ZANU PF.
In April 2008, during a briefing to the Security Council meeting, the then United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe said though the MDC-T claimed ZANU PF had launched a campaign of violence against its supporters, reports indicated that MDC-T supporters were also resorting to violence and intimidation.
“There are reports that ZANU PF has incited a campaign of abuses against MDC officials and supporters… Reports also suggested ‘an emerging pattern of political violence inflicted mainly, but not exclusively, on rural supporters of the opposition MDC party’, some reports also indicated some MDC supporters were resorting to violence and intimidation.”
Zimbabweans must brace for disruption of their daily chores.
Indeed in 2000, while addressing workers on May Day workers celebrations at Rufaro Stadium, Tsvangirai, the then newly appointed leader of an opposition political party and former secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, stunned the Nation when he said:
“What I want to tell Mugabe today is that go peacefully or we will remove you violently.”
In May 2011, Tsvangirai made a baffling statement when he was addressing his supporters in Chegutu where he was quoted as saying, ‘his party would emulate protests that toppled governments in North Africa if it deemed it necessary’.
With desperate times calling for desperate measures for Tsvangirai, Zimbabweans must be on guard to thwart any attempts to destabilise the country.
Let those with ears listen.