Saturday, 05 August 2017
President Tsvangirai's speech at the launch of the MDC Alliance
Zimbabwe Grounds, Harare
Introduction
We gather here today having listened to your solemn plea for unity amongst the democratic forces in the country. While all the democratic voices are not here, our diversity here stands as a testament to the encouraging the fact that Zimbabweans are converging on the one important idea of putting the people’s collective interests at the fulcrum of our national politics.
Faced with a failed leadership that has abandoned the people, today we gather here in this political mixture that can only give hope and confidence to a despondent nation.
It is you, the people who demanded this unity and today, we have come here to publicly testify that we heeded your call. We have not closed the door to anyone and more will join this huge people’s train to stability, peace and growth.
Today, we show that we have graduated from a dark past of needless fragmentation. That needless fragmentation not only deflated hopes and punctured national confidence but it slowly led to people staying away from national processes and losing faith in elections.
In the end, apathy and despondency stood out as the winners.
The fight against violence and for political reforms and an even playing field became weaker as our politics became scattered and personalized.
We had to reverse those negative developments that bred apathy and dimmed all prospects of change in this country. The kaleidoscopic mix of our political identities today is meant to infuse hope and to underline the theme of the alliance that we launch here today; and that underlying theme is that Alone, we can go fast but together we go far.
Fellow Zimbabwean, we gather here with the sole aim of going far in meeting the national expectation of bringing positive change in the lives of the people. Far defined as hope, confidence and the honest pursuit of the happiness of the people of this great country. We have no other country except this one and we come to you today united in our diversity to show that we listened to you; to your sonorous cry that together we can only be stronger.
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