MOSES MATENGA PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday said he would not allow the army to interfere with the electoral process and warned the military against scaring and intimidating voters during polls. The MDC-T leader also said he was declaring a third revolution to oust nationalists who had failed to justify the deaths of thousands of freedom fighters during the liberation struggle by leading the country to ruin. Addressing MDC-T and Zanu Ndonga supporters at the late Zanu founder Ndabaningi Sithole’s Freedom Farm in Chipinge, Tsvangirai said he had a right to be president of Zimbabwe if elected and the military top brass should accept that. “The issue of scaring each other is not right at all. I have the right to be president of this country if people choose me,” he said to rapturous applause from the more than one thousand people in attendance. “We must unite Zimbabwe. The issue of tribe and race is an old political thinking, we need equality. We are a laughing stock, the country is suffering because of lack of vision and we cannot have the country that has soldiers intimidating people.” Army generals have threatened not to salute Tsvangirai in the event that he wins elections. There were also reports of the military being deployed in rural areas, with the MDC-T alleging that this was meant to intimidate people into voting for Zanu PF and President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power for the past three decades. The army is also accused of unleashing an orgy of violence ahead of the June 2008 presidential run-off leading to a sham election that kept Mugabe in power. The MDC-T has said at least 200 of its supporters were killed by suspected Zanu PF militia, war veterans and state security agents during the violent poll. The Prime Minister said it was time for a third revolution to rid the country of backward thinking nationalists that were hindering the country’s growth. “The new generation of African leaders has to embark on a revolution, not because we hate President Mugabe and other nationalists, but because they have failed to justify why thousands died during the liberation struggle,” he said. On the constitution, Tsvangirai said those opposing the process must study the draft carefully and stop criticising it from positions of ignorance. “I told the president (Mugabe) that the constitutional process was going well and must allow for an election, so that he can go and rest,” he said.
‘MDC-T PRESIDENT IS THE NDONGA LEADER’
Meanwhile, the MDC-T leader endeared himself to the crowd by chanting Zanu Ndonga slogans, at the memorial of the party’s late president. In response, the Zanu Ndonga chairman, Reketai Semwayo said their party did not have a leader and they viewed Tsvangirai as their president.
“I am the national chairman of Zanu Ndonga, Zanu Ndonga has no president. The president is Morgan Tsvangirai,” he said to huge applause. The memorial was attended by Sithole’s children, Sifiso, who is based in Swaziland and Tapiwa based in the United States, who spoke on behalf of their mother. Sithole’s brother Isaac, senior MDC-T and Zanu Ndonga officials were also present.
