Open Letter to Courage Shumba
The open letter by Courage Shumba to Morgan Tsvangirai cannot go
unchallenged. I am not a registered member of either Zanu-PF or MDC but I really
cannot make head or tail of his contribution. Can Courage please explain what he
means by?
- African driven regime change. To my knowledge the
MDC advocates a regime change effected by the people of Zimbabwe through
a free and fair election. What is not African about that?
- As regards sanctions, my understanding is that MDC
supports targeted sanctions against travel by the top Zanu-PF functionaries. I
personally have no problem with those sanctions. In fact the net should be
widened. To stop public funds from a
poor country such as Zim from being used to shop at Harrods is an act of service
to the nation.
- As regards development aid, the west has decided
that they will no longer give aid to regimes that do not respect good governance
and human rights. This is now their position with or without MDC. So I do not
see how the MDC has anything to do with it. In any event aid given to a corrupt
regime such as ours will not get go the intended beneficiaries?
- Courage, you say you are a student in a Masters
programme and yet you make a weird conclusion that because an MDC activist
called for war on Zimbabwe, therefore the Party itself
called for war on the country. The official MDC position has never been to call
for military intervention in Zimbabwe. To my knowledge the MDC has
always advocated for peaceful change through free and fair elections and
dialogue. For post grad student your contribution has to many spelling
errors.
- You also seem to suggest that the MDC should
accept the results of a flawed election as free and fair. To me that would be a
total and complete betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe. The
elections in Zim cannot be accepted for the simple reason that the playing field
was not even. Besides +/- 30 % of the electorate was deliberately denied the
chance to vote. For that reason the MDC should not accept the results even if it
will take another century to achieve freedom.
- I do not remember where and when the MDC ever said
Zanu-Pf has no support at all. They do, but it’s not popular
support.
True
Zimbawean