via Tsvangirai wants talks to save economy – DailyNews Live by Fungi Kwaramba 27 MARCH 2014
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has ruled out forming another unity government with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF, but called for multi-stakeholder national dialogue to save the economy.
The MDC leader says he cannot work with a Zanu PF party that is “arrogant”, but warned that, sooner rather than later, the ruling party will have to come to the negotiating table in order to extricate itself from the mounting economic woes.
“The solution necessarily is not a GNU because we all know what has happened at the end. Takabetsera (we helped) Zanu PF when we negotiated the GNU,” Tsvangirai told a news conference this week.
He said the economy was burning, while government was failing to pay its workers.
The former trade unionist said circumstances will force Zanu PF to open dialogue notwithstanding its “arrogance”.
“We all know the character of Zanu PF,” Tsvangirai said.
“Zanu PF is arrogant, Zanu PF is violent. Zanu PF thinks that it has won the election but the opposite is true. Arrogance has got its own limit.
“When you can’t pay the civil service, including soldiers and police, then it (is incumbent upon you) to have national responsibility and say how do I resolve that.”
Zanu PF has rejected Tsvangirai’s call for national dialogue, lampooning the ex-prime minister as a dreamer who is desperately missing government perks.
But a bullish Tsvangirai said Zanu PF can no longer ignore the mounting national challenges.
“If you continue burying your head in the sand, it’s you who is going to burn and I don’t think Zanu PF is stupid enough to burn,” Tsvangirai said.
“We are saying the time has come to have leadership of the national crisis and that leadership comes from Zanu PF.
“It comes from MDC to once again say let’s put people first.
“But if they continue to be arrogant, what do you expect us to do, to cry?
“We will watch them but I can tell you that is not going to solve the problem and I can tell you they will have to come around and sit down with others to resolve this national crisis (because) it will not go away.”
Tsvangirai said the onus lies with Mugabe to approach the opposition in order to find viable solutions to the crippling economic woes.
“Ours is the people’s project and we are not losing focus on the important things such as preparing for the next election and being a credible alternative to this Zanu PF government that has dismally failed to deliver even on its election promises,” Tsvangirai said.
“The country is on its knees and we have a serious national crisis on our hands as a country. Now they cannot even pay government workers their salaries.”
COMMENTS
The problem is that Zanu and Mdc think that they have Zimbabwe as their personal property. We will never enjoy our country as long as these two institutes exist. They don’t love or care about us.
Looters all of them. We need to change the leading team in MDC. ZANU is beyond redemption.
Poor Tsvangirai! Seeking relevance and obviously missing the trappings of the little power he had in the GNU. Pathetic.
its poor Rudadiso (por Ruu) tsvanirai is fighting for you and me. Very few people are like him. With or without education, he has the clout. He is the only “messiah” Zimbabweans have for now. Open you eyes, hey!
Why bother Tsvangson? You saved Zimbabwe from total collapse in 2008 but who’s saying thanks?No one!Not Zanu,whose bacon was saved by Biti’s sound financial policies.Not the daft povo who’re now accusing you of wanting the trappings of power. As long as they’ve a bit of hupfu and choumoelier they’re happy. I say let the country collapse and burn to the ground! Then maybe people will wake up
Difficult not to agree. Seeking relevance. Clueless. Business as usual.
If the GNU and stabilizing the economy were exploited by ZANU, what exactly is his new strategy?
Tsvangirai go back to your women. You are useless!. Full of talk and hot air. You only want talks to save yourself. Zimbabwe needs new good strong people orientated leadership. Mdc leadership had their chance, cocked up big time. Time for proper change.
Which dialogue would they want to initiate ?, on what capacity will the Mdc be approached by ZANU pf ? By the way who won the election by a land slide victory ? , so vanoda kubatsirwa nei ivo vakahwina , let them burn in their burnt wagon
You Zimbabweans are stupid. Your economy is literally s*#t, you have absolutely nothing and still you attack tsvangirai and support mugabe. What fools. so much for being the so called “most educated people in africa”. I don’t see your intellectual credentials, only stupidity. wake up for goodness sake. makaputsa here? liyizithutha yini?
It’s most literate not most educated. They can read and write yes but what is it do they read and right? Fb, twitter,…..etc., hence the levels you are witnessing. If MDC did assis turn around the economy then, they, snd other citizens outside ZANU couls still assist. Indeed the whole nation, by changing the way things are being done by ZANU.
Apart from getting financial stimulus for the economy, there is need to stimulate the entire populstion into activities that are pro-the nation. Right now not many citizens would risk doing anything that ZANU or certain individuals in it will not grab or legislate out of existence. The entire ZANU post election was hinged on ZimAsset getting Chinese sponsorship, the better part of it would rnd up in their private pocket, though. ZimAsset would eventually fail due to corruption but for a few years, ZANU would have been seen to be actively doing something for the country and its failure eould not need be announced before the 2018 elections. The root causes of our predicament are known and must be addressed. ZANU wiil not address them as they, in their individual capavities, benefit immensely from them. ZANU never had a plan B in place as they were so certain of Chinese support. Now that they are clueless, it would appear as ig the whole country is clueless, yet not. Only in engaging the citizenry, not necessarily the MDCs can new avenues be charted othrrwise it’s a downward slope.
I think Mr T is very marginalised he can not see beyond I wish if he could open his eyes and see that the circle is not a square I used to blame the renewal group but I think they are right about change of leadership though Mangoma or Biti are not suitable candidates aswell wish if Jongwe was still around
Only God knows what sickness Morgan suffers from.At this rate i am beginning to agree with those who are calling for leadership renewal because the man simply cannot keep his foot far,far away from his big mouth.The very people he wants to ‘help’ are laughing scornfully at him and yet he persists.Mkoma Morgan,concentrate on putting out the fire engulfing your house…damn it!
Morgan Tsvangirayi, this is time to prepare for 2018 elections. It is not your problem that Zimbabwe is in a mess right now, leave that for ZANUpf to sort out. This is your moment to sell your message given the state of the economy. It is your time to come up with a strategy backed up with the plans for 2018, stop trying to play the messiah. You said tongayi tione, and please stop flipping around, be consistent and continue hammering your message home, ZANUPF are liars and continue pounding the message to the electorate. Why should Mugabe come to the round table with you at this point in time, and by the way do not be a stumbling block if you can not think rationally.
Tsvangirai does not care about saving the Zimbabwe economy or its people; all he wants is a chance to get back on the gravy train!
Well said Mkori. those with eyes shall see,those with ears shall hear. We will continue informing the people the idiocy of the crop of leaders we have.
At least we all agree that Zanu is just a bunch of thieves.
All we have to do is tell the people that MDChas been under training from Zanu. They were pre-warned not to link up with these looters, seeing what happened to Zapu. TSVangirai did not listen.
Now Zanu is scorning them big time.
Leadership renewal should be done now before its too late.
the whole cabal of Zanu do not pay taxes, do not pay for electricity, Do not pay for water. Do not pay their phone bills. they are riding on the backs of the poor.
wE DO NOT WANT TO HERE THE ZANUFIED STATEMENT that the grass roots will choose the leader when we know a bottle of coke can get you a girl friend.
This is a nation we are talking about. Lets be serious and bring in dignified ,wise and honourable patriots to lead us forward.
Coloured, Ndebele, Shona, White, Woman, Gay. for as long as they are true to the task, bring them in .To hell with political correctness, we need nation building as the main qualification.
Whilst I agree w those who ar calling for leadership renewal bt on this issue I fully support MT. If u read carefully what he is saying not what e reporters are saying, this u can do by reading his quoted speech, is let’s have a national dialogue. I don’t c anything wrong w that cos the national dialogue he is proposing will include all stake holders ie opposition parties, CSO, students, academics, churches, NGOs etc etc. Its not like he wants a gnu 2. That he said NO and to me that’s e way to go. Am actually expecting all other political parties to back his calls. This is not to say they will merge w mdc bt just to work together. It shd also not be a means to gang agst zpf bt to work together as Zimbos. Obviously zpf haibvume bt it shd be tried then kana zvaramba yes gang agst zpf. This can be done to force it to implement political and institutional reforms. Its for e best of all parties to work together to thwart rigging so that kana zpf ichiwina it must do so fairly even thru vote splitting by opposition parties as long as we feel e electoral process was fair