Tsvangirai and MDC team unveil roadmap at UK press conference

By Tererai Karimakwenda
26 May 2006

At a press conference Friday at the House Commons in the UK, MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai unveiled the party’s roadmap for democratic transition in Zimbabwe and called on the international community to assist. Tsvangirai and a MDC team that includes secretary general Tendai Biti are in the UK to engage civic society, government officials and supporters in the diaspora. Their MDC faction recently won a parliamentary by-election in Budiriro and have been attracting large crowds at rallies where their message has been a call for mass action.

In the UK Tsvangirai said the Zimbabwe crisis is an international problem. He called on the United Nations and other groups to intervene in the political and economic crisis. The Reverend Martine Stemerick attended the London press conference Friday and she told us Tsvangirai spoke very powerfully about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. She said he summarised the sad statistics that show inflation over 1000% and unemployment which is at least 80% with the majority of Zimbabweans living on less than a dollar a day. As for the international community she said: “He appealed to government institutions, the UN, civic organisations, people in the churches etc that people need to be reaching out and helping Zimbabweans. Obviously the onus of the responsibility is on the people of Zimbabwe but without international assistance at this point it would be very difficult.”

We also spoke to MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti who told us that Zimbabweans have to do something for themselves first. He said: “I think the primary responsibility belongs to the people of Zimbabwe. So I think when we engage the international community the starting point is what are we as the opposition, what are we as Zimbabweans suggesting and offering? What are we going to do ourselves?” Biti added that we fought apartheid as an international people and we should fight dictatorship as a people.

As for the party’s roadmap Biti said: “On our part we unveiled our roadmap to democratic transformation in Zimbabwe that is centred around the crafting of a new people driven constitution, that must be subjected to a referendum in response of which free and fair elections must be held. Clearly that roadmap is one that the international community will be interested in.”

Tsvangirai and his MDC delegation will be addressing supporters in the diaspora and meeting with many different organisations over the weekend. We will follow their progress and hopefully bring you audio from his rally in London scheduled for Sunday.