Live Updates: MDC-T Manifesto Launch
As Zimbabwe heads towards elections, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party is today launching its election campaign manifesto inside Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera. Nehanda Radio will be giving you live updates and pictures from the proceedings.
Tsvangirai says Zanu PF’s only option is to eliminate MDC-T supporters but they will not be able to kill the minds and hearts of Zimbabweans.
16:11 – Tsvangirai calls for 100-day project to tackle corruption and will also convene an international conference to mobilise financial support.
16:05 – Tsvangirai promises free education from Grade One to Grade Seven
16:04 – Tsvangirai “Zvekuti ngoda kwaMarange inobiwa, zvekuti kune vamwe vane minda five zvinopera.”
16:02 – Tsvangirai “But nyika haibudiriri when health care is only for the elite, education is inaccessible, resources are looted and inequitably distributed and the rights of women and children are trampled on.”
15:56 – Tsvangirai “We have never underestimated the challenges this nation faces after three decades of mismanagement.”
15:50 – Tsvangirai address: “Our political counterparts seem hell-bent on driving Zimbabwe away from the family of nations. The level of arrogance is shocking. Internationally, we have brought the country out of isolation.”
15:43 – Tsvangirai: “Thanks to the Government Work Plan, our hospitals are functioning again, we have tamed inflation, our supermarket shelves are full again.”
Tsvangirai: “Our positive contribution is a matter of public record. When we came into government, we launched the Government Work Programme.”
15:34 – Tsvangirai lights the flame of change before he starts signing a song encouraging supporters to remain strong in the struggle
15:20 – Theresa Makone says as women they are not happy with what President Mugabe said insulting Lindiwe Zulu (President Jacob Zuma’s International Relations Adviser).
15:10 – MDC-T Youth Assembly President Solomon Madzore addresses the crowd at Rudhaka Stadium. He boldly states that President Mugabe and wife Grace must remove all their belongs from State House immediately after the elections.
15:00 – All the aspiring MDC-T candidates for the forthcoming harmonized elections are now being introduced to the crowd province by province
14:52 – More introductions now underway at the manifesto launch
14:46 – Crowd roars as MC says big up to Baba Jukwa
14:20 – Abel Mauchi begins another poem, 29 March. Crowd going wild. Millennium Wave yatanga
14:12 – MDC-T Secretary General Tendai Biti and Minister for Economic Planning Tapiwa Mashakada and Minister of Energy and Power Development Elton Mangoma arrive at Rudhaka Stadium.
Download MDC-T Election Manifesto Here
14:10 – Abel Mauchi is introduced by Nelson Chamisa and delivers a great poem about violence.
14:08 – Morgan Tsvangirai has now arrived inside the stadium
13:45: Chamisa now introducing members of the National Executive, followed by the Guardian Council of the MDC-T, an organ of Elders
13:35 – Nelson Chamisa who is the National Organising Secretary of the MDC-T, takes to the podium and announces that party president Morgan Tsvangirai will be arriving very soon.
Proceedings underway at MDC-T Manifesto Launch inside Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera. Thousands still streaming in.
13:18 – MDC-T provincial leaders currently being introduced. The atmosphere is electric inside Rudhaka Stadium.
13:00 – Despite the Zanu PF launch being screened live by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), the MDC-T event is not being screened.
MDC-T supporters in jubilant mood on their way to Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera for manifesto launch.
