Statement regarding the recent MDC Alliance trip to the UK
12th May 2018
I am back from the UK having accompanied MDC Alliance Presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti.
In the course of four days we met the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Africa Minister Harriet Baldwin, the Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, senior MPs including Kate Hoey, Sir Henry Bellingham and Andrew Mitchell, a senior editorial team from the Economist, a senior editorial team from the Financial Times, including the editor, Lionel Barber, and other distinguished journalists like Matthew Parris. In addition Nelson Chamisa addressed the Oxford Students Union, Chatham House and was interviewed on BBC Hardtalk.
For a trip which was pulled together at short notice and financed on a shoe string budget it was a resounding success. Unlike ZANU PF delegations which draw on all of the resources of the State (and in some respects international institutions) this trip was funded solely on the generosity of individual Zimbabweans. I flew economy, stayed with friends in London and we all used the tube to get around. Tendai Biti paid for his own airfare.
Our message was simple – we like all Zimbabweans want our nation to prosper. But for it to prosper our Constitution must be respected in letter and spirit. We pointed out that there was gulf between the rhetoric of the Mnangagwa administration and action on the ground. We explained that for all the statements of commitment to a “free, fair and credible election” the reality is that less than 3 months from the election ZEC remains a biased, militarised institution. Furthermore the opaque process for the printing of the ballots using same tricks as 2013, the deployment of troops in rural areas, subtlety intimidating the electorate and the ongoing use of the ZBC, Herald and Chronicle as propaganda vehicles (in brazen defiance of clear Constitutional obligations) all show that this regime is not committed to a fair election. We stated that a fair election cannot solely consist of an election which is relatively violence free.
We also spoke about our economic policies – that unlike the “command economic policies” of ZANU PF we will respect the rule of law and the free market. Unlike ZANU PF which pays mere lip service to rooting our corruption but still keeps the most corrupt people in office, we will tackle it head on. Unlike ZANU PF which speaks of giving farmers 99 year leases, but does not do so in any way which gives farmers real security, we will grant bankable title to all farmers. Unlike ZANU PF which continues to spend money it doesn’t have, we will be responsible with the national purse and protect peoples’ savings, investments and bank deposits.
We spoke about our demonstrable track record – that this was not pie in the sky. We reminded our hosts that between 2009 and 2013 the economy grew, that people did have confidence in the banking system, that bank deposits grew, that people could get money out of banks, that schools did reopen, that hospitals did have drugs, that Zimbabweans did start to return home, and that a new Constitution was written and agreed to by millions of Zimbabweans.
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