Tsvangirai MDC denies shelving protests

Violet Gonda
2 June 2006

The Zimbabwe Independent reported Friday that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s diplomatic charm offensive to drum up support appears to have temporarily put a planned "cold winter of resistance" on the back burner, in favour of international intervention to help end Zimbabwe’s crisis.
In response Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for the Tsvangirai MDC said, “These statements seem to be emanating from corridors of those perennial doomsayers.”

The story headlined “Tsvangirai shelves protests” said the MDC appears to have softened its stance adopted at its national congress in March where Tsvangirai promised to lead protests to “remove Mugabe.” The newspaper went on to say that hard-pressed Zimbabweans will have to wait a little longer before the "cold winter of resistance" begins.

The article seemed to have echoed general sentiments made by many Zimbabweans who have been asking just when the MDC would carry out its programme of mass protests.
But Chamisa said the opposition party’s programme for mass action was in full swing. He said, “Mass action that the MDC and the rest of the country is going to embark on is not an action that is stoppable; is not an action that is shelveable because of the situation in the country – it’s a national mood and it’s difficult to try and slow down the pace of the struggle.”

According to the Zimbabwe Independent, party insiders also said the MDC was putting together an engagement package that Mugabe will find “very hard to resist.”
When asked about this Chamisa said that the only negotiations they will have with Mugabe will be to try and locate his exit plan. “We are not going to waste our time trying to entice Mugabe’s dictatorship… so those who think that our position is in anyway meant to provide carrots for Mugabe, we have neither the carrots nor the intention or the capacity to give those carrots to Mugabe. In fact if we have anything – we have the stick.”