Tsvangirai says Mnangagwa is lying just like Mugabe

Monday, 04 December 2017

Mnangagwa never engaged President Tsvangirai

The short-lived Minister of Information and now Presidential advisor Chris Mutsvangwa told a motley crowd in Chinhoyi on Saturday that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had engaged president Morgan Tsvangirai with the intention of creating an inclusive Cabinet with MDC Ministers but the MDC leader, driven purely by selfish interest, had given the precondition that he ought to be included in the presidium of the new administration. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For the record, President Tsvangirai was never consulted by anyone. The new State President never engaged him and it is unfortunate that the new administration appears bent on thriving on the same lies, dishonesty and stinginess with objective facts as the old Mugabe regime.

President Tsvangirai was never consulted. He only exchanged pleasantries with President Mnangagwa when he congratulated him during their brief exchange at the swearing-in ceremony at the National Sports stadium on 24 November 2017.

President Tsvangirai cannot be against an inclusive set-up when it was him who first broached the need for such an arrangement as it was only an agreed transitional set up that could soft-land the national crisis and institute reforms for a free, fair and credible election next year.

As long as there had been formal discussions and an agreed mandate of that inclusive set-up, President Tsvangirai and the MDC had already said they are amenable to such an arrangement but no one formally approached him. What we have always been against is to be an appendage of a factional Zanu PF government that is not prioritising reforms ahead of the next election as well as the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans.

The whole matter has never been about President Tsvangirai and his personal position in that inclusive set up. It has never been about him and in any case he was never approached by anyone, whether formally or informally.

Now it appears the more things change, the more they remain the same. President Mnangagwa and his administration appear shackled by the same dishonesty as the previous administration.

It is unfortunate that this new administration naively sought to project a selfish and self-centred leader in President Tsvangirai when in fact Zimbabweans know the truth.

For President Tsvangirai, it has never been about himself but what is in the best interest of Zimbabweans. That is why, despite winning the only credible election on 29 March 2008, he still agreed to be part of an inclusive government, albeit in the junior position of Prime Minister of the country. President Tsvangirai has never been fixated with personal positions but about the people.

This time his only concern is about a return to legitimacy which can only come through a free and fair election next year. An agreed transitional mechanism would have assisted in instituting the necessary reforms ahead of the 2018 elections but no one approached him.

Zimbabweans are tired of governments and leaders that lie and take them for granted. It appears the so-called new dawn has instead turned out to be a new sunset of lies and boobs as evidenced by the shameful fits and starts even in sculpting a cogent administration.

The lies about President Tsvangirai do not come as a surprise. This whole government appears built upon a quicksand of falsehoods and mistruths. That Mutsvangwa himself barely lasted 24 hours as a Cabinet Minister speaks to the ineptitude of this so called new dawn of our time.

In the meantime, President Tsvangirai is urging Zimbabweans to register to vote.

#2018 Chakachaya.

Luke Tamborinyoka
Presidential Spokesperson and Director of Communications
Movement for Democratic Change

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