WAR veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda yesterday said there was no need for President Robert Mugabe to include MDC-T members in his new government saying doing so would be tantamount to “subverting the will of the people”.
REPORT BY DUMISANI SIBANDA Sibanda, who spent a year “camped” mostly in Masvingo drumming up support for Zanu PF ahead of the July 31 polls, said the results of the elections were a clear statement that the MDC-T had lost ground to Zanu PF.
“In the first place, we never had a government of national unity – because that means parties sharing the same vision and moving in one direction,” he said.
“What we had was an inclusive government forced by the circumstances of the 2008 election results and so we were in a march where the parties were moving in different directions.”
Sibanda was reacting to recent media reports suggesting that MDC-T and Zanu PF officials were engaged in behind-the- scenes negotiations to form another coalition government. This follows unsuccessful court applications by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai seeking nullification of Mugabe’s victory, which he described as “a monumental farce”.
“This time the will of the people is clear and there is no need to promote MDC-T officials,” he said. “ Tsvangirai is dead. He is refusing to die. I don’t know of a person who drinks poison and does not realise they are committing suicide.
“You cannot tell your own people that you do not support indigenisation and expect them to support you. “You cannot say in 2013 that you do not understand the need to defend your land when Ambuya Nehanda and King Lobengula did appreciate that way back.”
Zanu PF in its 2013 election manifesto, played up the indigenisation programme as its trump card while the MDC-T campaign was premised on job creation and attracting direct foreign investment.
