Tsvangirai declares 2017 the Year of the People’s Power- urges the youth to chat and tweet Mugabe out

Full message

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

President Morgan Tsvangirai's christmas message delivered to Harare structures

Background

I want to take this opportunity to say a short Christmas message to you all as the structures of Harare province. I felt I owed you a message because the rains washed away our last rally at Zimbabwe Grounds some three weeks ago.

The past year has been momentous in many respects. It saw the massive traction of this party through our public demonstrations in the provinces, starting with Harare on 14 April, 2016. After our demonstrations, we saw the emergence of many social movements to confront the regime. This must continue even in the next year.

It is a year in which we saw unprecedented State brutality as police moved in to violently crush legitimate protests that are sanctioned by the Constitution.  Coupled with the fact that Itai Dzamara is still missing, this regime continues to entrench its dismal human rights record.

On the economic front, the situation has been worsening as evidenced by the introduction of bond notes. However, the introduction of bond notes is just palliative care on an economic patient who needs open heart surgery. We cannot cure the symptoms and think we have dealt with the disease. The solution is not bond notes but the resuscitation of production in our industries.

On a sad note, the courts sentenced our colleagues to 20 years for murder when we all know they are innocent. This was purely a political judgement because we all know Madzokere, Maengahama and Musarurwa are innocent.

As a party, we have lost over 500 of our members since 2000 but no one has been arrested or convicted for murder. This is brazen abuse of the law to achieve the political objective of instilling fear and intimidation.

We are concluding the year with heavy hearts but we will not be intimidated because we know the people’s cause is just. 

The current context

Everyone in the country is suffering. The situation is not unique to Harare but to all the corners of the country. Zimbabwe is in deep trouble and whether you are Zanu PF, MDC or any other political affiliation, the plight is the same.

We are all faced with a bleak Christmas and it is certain that the situation can only get worse next year. As we go home this Christmas, let us take time to discuss with our families and children so that we all participate in the politics of our country.

It is in such difficult moments such as we face today that we all must agree that our future is in our hands. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to participate in all governance matters in our country. The key governance matters in which we must participate include voter registration, the actual voting and to continuously demand that the government of the day accounts for all its acts of omission and commission.

Continued next page

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