By Fungi Kwaramba and Blessings Mashaya
There were signs on Thursday that following its recent lack of effervescence, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC is getting its mojo back, after the former prime minister in the government of national unity led a massive demonstration against Zanu PF’s misrule in Harare.
Thousands of people — most of them MDC supporters clad in the party’s trademark red regalia — brought the capital’s central business district to a temporary halt as they marched in the peaceful demo that culminated in Tsvangirai calling on President Robert Mugabe to leave office now or face the wrath of the people.
Surprisingly, and despite their earlier claims that they did not have enough manpower to supervise the protest march, heavily-armed police were out in huge numbers throughout Harare — seemingly hellbent on displaying and asserting their perceived political bias.
But this neither deterred nor intimidated the determined but merry MDC faithful who marched from the so-called Freedom Square (opposite Rainbow Towers Hotel) to Africa Unity Square in the city centre, painting Robert Mugabe Way red in the process, as they sang freedom songs and waved radical change placards in the air.
Some of their placards were written “old clueless Mugabe should rest”, while others were inscribed “where is our $15 billion?” — a reference to the diamonds that Mugabe himself has claimed were spirited out of Chiadzwa.
Observers told the Daily News that the demonstration, the first of many to come ahead of the keenly-anticipated 2018 national elections, had shown that contrary to Zanu PF propaganda that Tsvangirai and the MDC were now spent forces, the main opposition was very much alive and still the major threat to the ruling party’s thuggish hegemony.
Addressing the crowd, Tsvangirai — who was mercilessly bludgeoned by police and left for dead when he dared participate in a prayer meeting organised by churches in 2007 — said Zimbabweans should ratchet up their demands for their constitutional rights.
“Because of what happened in previous years, I know it’s not easy for Zimbabweans to demonstrate . . . We therefore as opposition parties demand, that Mugabe must go and have an early retirement in Zvimba (Mugabe’s rural home),” he said.
“This is the first demonstration . . . we are going to other provinces and we are also going to have a national demonstration here in Harare. As the MDC we are not afraid. We are prepared to lead the struggle even at its worst time,” Tsvangirai added.
“We are here to tell Mugabe and his regime that they have failed to provide leadership to the national crisis. The two million jobs which were promised to us have turned to be two million vendors.
“Mugabe has no solution to the crisis we are facing because he is tired. We are not demanding an overthrow of the government, we are demanding a dignified exit for tired Mugabe.
“We are saying to Mugabe this is time for him to listen to the voice of the people. The people shall rule, the people shall liberate themselves,” Tsvangirai also said to thunderous applause.
Save for a relatively minor incident when panicky and trigger-happy law enforcement agents threw teargas into the mass of protesters, the march was overall peaceful and orderly.
Political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya, who was closely following proceedings said “Tsvangirai has done the right thing and is now reconnecting with the masses”.
“The situation has changed from 2000 when people were employed. Now the base is in the vendors, the economically disadvantaged and Tsvangirai is going back to his base.
“The vendors of today are different to the vendors of yesteryear when things were normal. The vendors of today are educated but do not have jobs,” Ruhanya added.
Ahead of yesterday, all eyes were on Tsvangirai as he plotted the first serious mass action that the MDC has embarked on in more than a decade — with both friends and foes keen to see the impact, or lack of, of the protest march as the 2018 national elections beckon.
Speaking after High Court judge Justice Happious Zhou gave the MDC the green-light to proceed with the demo on Wednesday, party secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora said “evil would have triumphed over good if they had been stopped from demonstrating”.
“The judge ruled that there were no sufficient grounds to stop this demonstration. The judge also said the presence of police was not necessary for the exercise of the right to demonstrate. He even said the police must facilitate the demonstration.
“The ruling represents a milestone for the future. Indeed, we do not expect to be coming back to the courts when we plan other demonstrations. We hope the police have learnt their lessons.
“Whoever is the officer who is going to try and stop us tomorrow is going to personally bear the responsibility of what happens tomorrow, including paying the costs. Any disruption of the demonstration will be unlawful,” an elated Mwonzora said.
The court also ruled that police officer commanding Harare Central district, Newbert Saunyama, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri and Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo should pay all the legal costs that were incurred by the MDC in its court challenge.
Since Zanu PF controversially won the 2013 elections, the economy has been on a precipitous downward slide, with thousands of companies closing shop and hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs in the process.
Thursday’s demo was also seen as a replay of the 2007 mass prayer that was violently disrupted by the police — with the indefatigable Tsvangirai a living victim of the law enforcement agents’ heavy-handedness then.
Drawing parallels between now and 2007, both political and economic experts say the country has once again hit the depths of humanitarian and economic despair that were last experienced before the establishment of the government of national unity in 2009.
Then, the country’s seemingly unending political crises precipitated an economic meltdown of monumental proportions — which culminated in the death of the Zimbabwe dollar, as well as mass emigrations.
Indeed, and despite the best efforts of Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya and his team to mitigate the situation, the debilitating cash shortages that hit local banks a few weeks ago are worsening, sending the country’s long-suffering citizens and the few remaining companies into panic mode.
Analysts say the cash crunch manifests “the sad reality” that Zimbabwe’s economy is continuing on its catastrophic downward spiral — a consequence of the country’s decades-old political crises that are widely blamed on Mugabe and Zanu PF.
The country started experiencing serious cash shortages at the beginning of this year, resulting in the central bank imposing limits on withdrawals — a move that is said to have seen many companies and individuals opting not to deposit their money with financial institutions, thereby worsening the crisis.
The Daily News has also previously reported that there are growing concerns that Zimbabwe has once again hit the depths of humanitarian and economic despair that were last experienced in 2008, when the country’s seemingly unending political crises knocked Zimbabwe’s economy cold.
Many political and economic observers have also warned that 2016 will in all likelihood be harder all-round than 2015, which was itself generally described as an annus horribilis (horrible year).
They said there was “little hope” that life would get better for most Zimbabweans, and that if anything, the country’s ailing economy would get sicker, while the deadly factional and succession wars ravaging the post-congress Zanu PF were set to worsen.
Economic and political experts have also said that the recent human trafficking scam associated with some Kuwait nationals also showed that Zimbabweans had now become so desperate that they were willing to do anything, no matter how dangerous, to survive.
Only a month ago, the Harare Magistrates’ Courts charged a Kuwait embassy official with human trafficking — after about 200 local women had allegedly been lured to the Gulf region country where they were turned into slaves.
And instead of attending to the country’s worsening political and socio-economic crises, Zanu PF bigwigs are embroiled in their party’s mindless bloodletting, in which a faction loyal to embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is engaged in deadly factional and succession wars with a group opposed to him succeeding Mugabe. Daily News