Tsvangirai urges Zimbabweans to demand free and fair elections as ZANU-PF is already rigging the process

A message to our liberation war icons

On behalf of the party I lead, the broad democratic movement and on my own behalf, I want to assure the war veterans, ex-detainees and restrictees that Zimbabweans sincerely welcome their joining the legitimate national demand for the institution of democracy, beyond mere liberation and political independence. We sincerely welcome their withdrawal of support from the notion of one-man-rule and one-centre-of power which were never the objective of the brutal and protracted liberation struggle.

Together, let us confront those who have betrayed the ethos of that sacred war. Together, we can all complete the unfinished business of the liberation struggle. Indeed, our war veterans, with the support of the generality of our citizens, did not only fight for independence. They also fought for democracy and it was always going to be inadequate to assume the struggle was over merely upon the attainment of independence.

I promise the nation and our war veterans that some of us remain sticklers to the solemn commitments we collectively made in the Constitution, especially on the sanctity of our land and that the land reform programme is irreversible.

Fellow Zimbabweans should heed our assurance that we have no intention of stripping anyone of their land; save only to address issues of inequality in distribution and productivity on the land that genuinely belongs to us as Zimbabweans.

Some of us believe in giving beneficiaries the right to land so that this land, for which so many died, can be both an asset and a legacy that can be passed on to future generations. True, there will be rationalization in the allocation of land without any reversal of the sacred principle that Zimbabweans must own their land.

The Constitution is clear on the value we must attach to the liberation struggle and the war veterans who brought us independence through a brutal and protracted war. Their welfare and their plight are matters that we value and hold in sanctity.

Everything that is happening in our country today, including this despicable attempt to steal the next election, is a divergence from the core values and principles of the liberation struggle.

Our brothers and sisters went to war, not only to liberate the country but also to democratize it. As a nation, we have always placed a premium on the right to vote, then referred to as one-man-one-vote, itself one of the reasons the heroic people of Zimbabwe went to war. Any attack or subversion of the right to a credible vote is an assault on the ethos of the liberation struggle.

I want to assure Zimbabweans that we will do everything we can to protect their vote, even though we cannot do it alone. We appeal to all Zimbabweans to work together in the patriotic quest for this nation to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Indeed, I am encouraged by the growing national convergence in this regard, as well as the current efforts to rally all Zimbabweans beyond political parties to forge an alliance that will inspire the people and assure everyone of a new dispensation, come 2018.

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