By Gondai Kamumango
MDC co-vice President, Tendai Biti has contradicted his leader, Nelson Chamisa after declaring that demonstrations would continue nationwide despite Chamisa declaring that demonstrations be put on hold until that party’s anniversary celebrations.
A source who spoke to Harare Post revealed that Biti said this while addressing a party meeting in Mutare over the weekend and promised to engage ‘like-minded’ organisations namely, Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union in Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) and Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) in rolling out more intense demonstrations nationwide.
“We shall not stop organising demonstrations, we shall demonstrate nationwide until we remove the evil regime, ZANU PF from power. We will engage like-minded organisations like ZINASU, ARTUZ and ZCTU in the struggle,” he said.
Biti also revealed a five point plan that the party intends to undertake in its bid to dislodge President Emmerson Mnangagwa and ZANU PF, among them mobilising rural support in order to weaken ZANU PF in its strongholds.
The open admittance that the rural areas are ZANU PF strongholds betrays the opposition narrative that ZANU PF is only in power through vote rigging, intimidation and violence.
The other plan mentioned by Biti involves offering better service delivery through the MDC led municipalities.
“On top of mobilising the rural support to rally against ZANU PF, we shall also strive to offer better service delivery from our municipalities while also putting maximum effort in eradicating corruption that is now rife in these councils,” Biti said.
The statement by Biti also exposes the truth that the MDC has not been offering the service that the residences of the respective towns and cities’ entrusted them with.
On the issue of sanctions, Biti also highlighted that as leadership, they were going to lobby for more targeted sanctions from the international community while also lobbying with Western Embassies in the country to continue its isolation of ZANU PF and Government.
The source also said that during the plenary session, the violent nature of the MDC came to the fore when the members suggested that the party youths receive military training and take up arms to confront ZANU PF.
Another unnamed member added that they should engage militia groups like RENAMO of Mozambique to provide the training, ammunition and weapons in their planned confrontations with ZANU PF in the name of defending themselves.
“We should consider reviving the DRCs (Democratic Resistance Committees) and engaging groups like RENAMO in Mozambique to provide our youths with training, ammunition and weapons to equip our youths with necessary equipment to defend themselves from the Security forces’ heavy handedness,” he said.
These sentiments were also shared by party members in Midlands province during a meeting chaired by Lilian Timveous.
The statements by Biti show that there is major divisions within the MDC hierarchy on the way forward as the party is quickly running out of new ideas.
