But he blasted the new administration for the way it handled protestors in Bulawayo who demonstrated against Mnangagwa’s involvement in Gukurahundi.
“Political difference must be celebrated and the people must be allowed to express themselves. That is why I was shocked by the new regime’s iron-fist response two weeks ago to Zimbabweans in Bulawayo who sought to alert the government of the deep-seated wounds that are still festering since the Gukurahundi atrocities of the 1980s,” he said.
“That response was wanton, unjustified and shows that the Mnangagwa administration still has a lot of work to do to earn our faith and trust.”
Full statement
Monday, 08 January 2018
President MorganTsvangirai's New Year Message
Fellow Zimbabweans, our schools are opening tomorrow and our industry or what is left of it is due to open starting end of this week. We begin this watershed year amid a lot of promise and mammoth national expectations for bright and positive prospects for this great country that we all love.
Last November we all united, for a patriotic cause, to orchestrate a huge fall of an intractable political edifice that had for decades stood between the people and their collective hope.
We all saw and reveled at the fall of a strong man who had ruled this country with an iron fist and bludgeoned the people for selfish political ends.
In came a new administration on the back of a military-backed effort that still raises very valid and genuine questions about the constitutionality of allowing soldiers to dabble in civilian political affairs.
However, despite the palpable and justifiable national relief at the fall of Mugabe, huge challenges remain for the new administration.
Firstly, the new administration has to articulate a clear and comprehensive roadmap to legitimacy that includes implementation of the much-needed reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections in a few months time. It is disheartening to note that we are already behind schedule and last week, I raised these concerns to President Mnangagwa when he made an impromptu but welcome gesture to check on me following my public disclosure that I had been diagnosed with cancer of the colon.
This new administration has to earn its legitimacy through a proper election. It must seek the people’s mandate. The new government has to break away from the past and genuinely chart a new trajectory to a dispensation of clean politics that truly puts the country and its people first. It has to respect diversity and to appreciate that despite our different political formations, we are all patriotic Zimbabweans who yearn for the best for our country.
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