via allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: No Coalition With People First – MDC-T 28 June 2015
MDC-T activists yesterday said they do not want their party to enter into broad coalition talks with the People First (PF) project fronted by the likes of once feared former Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa.
They said the PF leadership included Zanu PF officials who were allegedly at the forefront of political violence and election rigging for decades until their recent expulsion from the ruling party.
The activists from across the country were speaking at a belated United Nations Day in Support of Victims of Torture and honouring of the party’s 307 members who have died of torture or political abuse since 1999.
Shepherd Maisiri from Headlands told the gathering that negotiating with Mutasa and ousted former vice-President Joice Mujuru was tantamount to betraying activists killed, maimed and tortured allegedly with the complicity of the duo.
“There should be nothing about having coalition discussions with Mutasa and Mujuru that we hear the national executive is planning and if that happens that leaves us with no option but to walk out of the party considering what we went through at the hands of these people,” Maisiri said.
Earlier on Maisiri’s wife, Jackie, narrated her ordeal at the hands of Mutasa between 2000 and 2013. The Maisiri’s lost their son Christpowers in February 2013 after he was burnt to death when their home was razed by suspected Zanu PF activists in Headlands where Mutasa was MP until his recent ouster.
“Didymus is a bad person so is Christopher Chingosho (Headlands MP) or Mai Mujuru. They participated in the election rigging and abuse of people in Zimbabwe therefore we should never work with them,” she said.
Hundreds of activists and survivors of torture who filled the hall openly supported the duos sentiments causing discomfort among the top table that had the MDC-T standing committee including party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
In an interview, Tsvangirai said party supporters showed raw emotions but the MDC-T leadership would see how they would conduct coalition negotiations.
“Those were the sentiments that expressed deep emotions and experiences of the activists in their own constituencies but we as a leadership we are always motivated by the interests of what is good for everyone,” Tsvangirai said.
The emotions of the grassroots members show the deep chasm between leadership and followers on how the MDC-T should approach coalition talks especially with the People’s First.
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