via MDC, Zanu PF in war of words – DailyNews Live • 20 December 2015
HARARE – A war of words has erupted between top officials of the opposition MDC and their Zanu PF counterparts after the ruling party’s national political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of causing the suffering of Zimbabweans.
Addressing party supporters at a rally in Bulawayo to drum up support for the Zanu PF candidate for the Nkulumane constituency by-election, Killian Sibanda, on Wednesday Kasukuwere launched a scathing attack on Tsvangirai saying the opposition leader is now a finished politician.
“Tsvangirai you have brought suffering to the people of Zimbabwe, shame on you Tsvangirai, shame on you Thokozani Khuphe (MDC vice president), into oyiyenzayo siyazonda (we are against your actions). We must just tell the MDC that Bulawayo is not your stronghold anymore; this is now Zanu PF territory. We must send the message that tatamba zvakwana (no more time for games),” Kasukuwere said.
Ironically, Tsvangirai’s MDC is not taking part in the by-elections citing an uneven electoral playing field as the reason for boycotting the polls.
“We are now saying bye-bye Tsvangirai, there is no more a party called MDC, it’s now finished, we are looking for a small hole somewhere to bury it. All they have done is to split into many formations,” he said.
The MDC split last year with the party’s former top guns Elton Mangoma and Tendai Biti moving out to form their respective political outfits.
Kasukuwere’s utterances yesterday attracted a sharp rebuke from MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu who dismissed his remarks as “crude, crass and uncouth” and coming from a self-confessed political thug whose moral standing is “dubious, and unconventional”.
Gutu maintained that his party remained the most popular in Bulawayo and that come the next elections in 2018 “that are coming after electoral reforms” the MDC would reclaim all the parliamentary seats there.
“The MDC is a civilised party and we shall not descend to his level of intellectual inadequacy. Kasukuwere should be reminded that his party is on fire and should be concentrating on bringing sanity to the crumbling yester-year party to resuscitate its waning fortunes,” Gutu charged.
“He should be reminded that those people who live in glass houses should not throw stones lest we expose them for the moral perverts that they are”.
The Nkulumane by-election was necessitated by the death of the MDC legislator for the area Thamsanqa Mahlangu.
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