Tsvangiari set to address rallies in rural Zanu (PF) strongholds

By Tichaona Sibanda
24 April 2006

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday told his party faithful to remain optimistic and resolute in their determination to confront the dictatorship.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said over 30 000 people thronged the Zimbabwe grounds in Highfields to hear the party leader say the real test for the ‘big fight’ was now on the horizon. Tsvangirai said the main challenge for his party now was to confront Zanu (PF) ‘head on’ by taking the fight to its rural strongholds.

So far he has held over 15 rallies mainly in cities and towns but has yet to set foot in rural Mashonaland, the powerbase of the ruling party. The MDC’s top leadership is expected to break for a retreat soon, where its believed the strategy to sell its programme to the rural folk will be thrashed out.

Thereafter the party will embark on an extensive programme to brief Zimbabweans on the way forward on the planned peaceful mass demonstrations. Chamisa said the second phase of their planned strategy would be to go deep into the heartland of the ruling party.

‘We have finished briefing people at constituency level, the next step from here is to go right down to the remote village, every rural village, growthpoint and every township,’ Chamisa said.

Addressing party delegates to their second people’s congress last month, Tsvangirai alluded to this fact by saying ‘our liberation influence has expanded significantly countrywide.’

‘We drive the main political agenda in Zimbabwe today. The democratic struggle has consolidated itself. The people have turned their hearts and minds away from tyranny. The people are ready to reclaim their space; to reclaim their sovereignty; to recover their dignity and their rights. I recognise the immense cost of the dictatorship,’ Tsvangirai said.

Lucia Matibenga, the chairperson of the party’s women’s assembly, reiterated that all women in the party were fully behind any planned mass action organised by the MDC.

‘Every women is involved in this programme and we will achieve it as one,’ she said.

See pictures