Big support for Tsvangirai UK rally

By Lance Guma
25 June 2007

A venue hired by the MDC UK executive turned out to be too small when over a thousand Zimbabweans turned up for Morgan Tsvangirai’s rally in Luton, 54 kilometres outside London. The opposition leader took time out from a European trip of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign to address members of his party. National Constitutional Assembly Chairperson Lovemore Madhuku, Luton North Member of Parliament Kelvin Hopkins, ZINASU student leader Tendai Mudehwe and the entire MDC UK executive were present. You could have been forgiven for thinking Luton was a suburb in Harare as the local police constabulary had to deploy officers to monitor the large crowds who could not get into the hall.

A sombre atmosphere briefly took over the rally as Tsvangirai asked the children of the late National Chairman Isaac Matongo, Stanley and Vongai, to stand up and be acknowledged by the crowd. Eldest son Stanley broke down into tears and had to be comforted by friends. Tsvangirai’s speech itself was measured and cautious. He avoided dismissing mediation efforts by South African President Thabo Mbeki instead using a Shona idiom about three different bulls in a kraal. Loosely translated he implied that Mbeki had the ability to put Mugabe under pressure and this was the advantage in having him as broker. He challenged Zimbabweans in the diaspora to also contribute in any way they could to the fight for freedom in their homeland.

Answering questions from the crowd on what the MDC was doing to improve the plight of asylum seekers in the UK, the MDC leader said his party could not tell the British government what to do. Turning to Luton’s Labour party MP, Tsvangirai urged him to press his colleagues in parliament to ensure Zimbabweans are treated humanely while in the UK.
One party member stood up to query the appointment of Hebson Makuvise the MDC’s Chief Representative in the UK. Tsvangirai said this appointment was not unique to the UK and that worldwide he had appointed several individuals to act as diplomats on behalf of the party.

MDC UK Chairman Ephraim Tapa criticized party members who did not turn up for party activities in the UK, but only attend meetings when Tsvangirai was around. He said out of the hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans in the UK only 4500 were registered party members. Meanwhile on Monday Tapa issued an apology to party members who failed to get inside the hall. In an interview with Newsreel he said a last minute cancellation of the open-air venue in Kent had created the problem. The police in Kent advised the owners of the grounds that the expected crowds were too big for them to handle. This left them with only 5 days to find a venue and in the end they were forced to use the community centre in Luton. ‘The hall we ended up using had been booked for the end of the month for our fundraiser,’ Tapa explained. He said they had to negotiate a change of dates and use it for Saturday’s rally, as a last resort.

NB: The full address by Morgan Tsvangirai and Lovemore Madhuku in the UK can be heard on Reporters’ Forum this Wednesday. Lance Guma presents a special edition of the programme covering everything that went on.