We will not be rushed into mass action- Tsvangirai

By Lance Guma
09 June 2006

The leader of the MDC Morgan Tsvangirai has warned that his party will not be rushed into a poorly organised process of mass action. Speaking on SW Radio Africa’s ‘Behind The Headlines’ series Tsvangirai said ‘we don’t want a one-off activity that then dies off. We want a sustainable programme until the goal is achieved.’ Responding to concerns that they may overlap their time frame, which they set for the winter, he said they were carefully assessing their ‘window of opportunity’ and that any action will be ‘determined by our own state of preparedness and nothing else.’

He argued that the MDC needed to organise people on the ground before rushing into any action. ‘We have had past experiences from which we have to learn from our mistakes and we believe when that action takes place it must succeed.’ Tsvangirai believes people want to see a more organised effort which has potential for success. He slammed groups that were distributing hoax ‘mass action e-mails’ saying ‘you don’t motivate people by undertaking some adventuristic activity, this actually causes a lot of despondency amongst the people.’ He says the MDC has nothing to do with any correspondence of that nature. Asked why civic groups in the country do not co-ordinate their protests with the MDC, he said they were trying to put measures in place to make sure they don’t have ‘sporadic and fragmented protests.’ Tsvangirai criticised media reports that alleged the party had shelved plans for protests in favour of a diplomatic offensive. He says the stories were speculative and in most cases meant to deliberately discourage people.

Commenting on a Reuters news agency report that quoted party Secretary General Tendai Biti as disclosing their acceptance of a proposal to grant Mugabe immunity from prosecution, Tsvangirai said this was not true. He says the issue is just being discussed in attempts to find a solution that helps the country and the MDC had not yet adopted any fixed position.

Meanwhile the MDC National Executive Committee met on Friday to deliberate on a number of issues. The committee discussed the state of the nation and resolved that an all stakeholders meeting should take place ‘at which the church, the student movement, civil society and political parties hammer out an agenda…acceptable to all Zimbabweans.’ This the MDC say should be followed by a constitutional conference, a new constitution, free and fair elections and a reconstruction and stabilisation programme in the post-transitional era.

NB: For the full interview with Morgan Tsvangirai tune in to Behind the Headlines with Lance Guma next week Thursday and Friday.