Tsvangirai drops bombshell

Politics
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday claimed that President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party is offering him a senior government post, as the party seeks legitimacy following last month’s election, which he described as the biggest fraud.

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday claimed that President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party is offering him a senior government post, as the party seeks legitimacy following last month’s election, which he described as the biggest fraud.

REPORT BY STAFF REPORTER

Addressing thousands of mourners at the Warren Park Hills Cemetery in Harare at the burial of an MDC-T activist, Rebecca Mafukeni, who died in remand custody on Monday following her arrest two years ago over the alleged murder of a police officer, Tsvangirai said the country was shocked by the results of the elections.

“We have said to them if you won the election, let’s see how you are going to govern,” he said to cheers from the mourners.

“Now that they have stolen the election, they want to talk to Tsvangirai, but we have nothing to talk about.

“You have to solve your legitimacy question first and the only solution for the people of Zimbabwe is to go back to a free and fair election.”

Tsvangirai said the outcome of his Constitutional Court (Concourt) hearing, which will begin on Saturday, did not matter, as he and his party knew that Zanu PF had stolen the election.

“Even after stealing, they have nowhere to start and that is why they are asking where Tsvangirai is, so that we can talk,” he said. “The problem facing this old man (Mugabe), is that he just wants power only; power without responsibility is useless.”

The outgoing Premier said Mafukeni’s death was an indictment of both the prison and justice systems in the country, which should be a priority for a transformed government.

“You can’t spend two years on remand before being tried because that is justice denied and delayed,” he said. “We arrest people for political reasons, leaving thieves (and) criminals running around.”

Meanwhile, the Concourt will on Saturday hear an election petition filed by Tsvangirai challenging the election results in which the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declared Mugabe as the winner. The MDC-T leader has demanded that the electoral authorities hand over to him registers of assisted voters at all polling stations where people cast their votes during the elections.

Tsvangirai alleges that a high number of assisted voters were forced to feign illiteracy and other excuses so that they could be assisted by some Zanu PF officials to cast their votes in favour of Mugabe’s party.

The outgoing Premier has also demanded unlimited access to all the presidential election materials used in last month’s election and to be furnished with the full set of presidential election results per constituency and copies of the voters’ roll used in all the polling stations, including the one used in the special voting process.