MDC: Gokwe rally marks significant shift in rural support

By Lance Guma

28 July 2006

Isaac Matongo, the National Chairman in the Tsvangirai MDC, has said a rally they held in Gokwe on Thursday clearly demonstrated a significant shift in the rural areas towards supporting the opposition. In an interview with Newsreel Matongo said for a long time Zanu PF relied on violence and intimidation to block the MDC from making any inroads in the rural areas. But according to the MDC over 10 000 people attended a rally in an area called Kwa Sahayi, in Gokwe, and the fact that they attracted such a crowd bore testimony to the ever increasing disaffection with Zanu PF and a search for new solutions to the country’s problems.

Matongo said because there had been a reduction in the number of incidents of violence people were now coming out in their numbers to show their true allegiances. The rally was a lively affair with people voicing their concerns. He says farmers in Gokwe are withholding thousands of bales of their cotton produce because the market was so bad they could not make enough money to survive. The opposition say they are confident Zanu PF’s perceived dominance in the rural areas is now just ‘perception’ and that people in those areas are voting with their feet and attending their rallies.