Tsvangirai says Mugabe should not use the ethnic card to propel his wife

In the same vein, we cannot accept a situation where the country is subject of dynastic rule and tribal hegemony, which can only deprive other citizens of their rights. We have condemned Mugabe and his tired nationalism. We will condemn him for using the ethnic card to propel his wife, or anyone else for that matter, to succeed him in national leadership based solely on selfishness and on tribal grounds.

It is in this context that at the launch of the MDC Alliance in Bulawayo, President Tsvangirai bemoaned the current political discourse where we now hear about the 'Zezuru unconquerables, the Karanga  Invincibles, Ndebele hegemony and so forth. This for us means using ethnicity as a basis for dominating others and depriving them of their right to equal opportunity.

 It is on this basis that Mugabe has refused to resolve the national question, preferring instead to blackmail the nation while masterfully playing the ethnic card.

Zimbabwe—and indeed other Afrian countries—have suffered because of this needless evocation of ethnicity, which in our case led to the Gukurahundi genocide in the 1980s. That genocide will always remain a grim national story; a scar on the conscience of Mugabe’s government, that is if they have any conscience at all.

It is President Tsvangirai’s unstinting belief that it would be regrettable in this digital age for this nation to sink into the plumbing depths of ethnicity instead of building a prosperous nation underpinned by growth, unity and inclusivity.

The national challenge is to build to a nation and not to fragment the people of this great country on the basis of ethnicity or to twist President Tsvangirai’s comments in Bulawayo in a doomed and futile attempt to project him as a tribalist.

We will not lose focus on what needs to be done.

We have a nation to build.

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

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