Editorial Comment: MDC-T must stop giving West sanctions ammunition

heraldThe July 31 harmonised elections are a fait accompli. Office bearers deriving from those elections have since taken their oaths of office and are in Office as Team Zanu-PF, scoring goals for all Zimbabweans including those who voted for the opposition. And if the MDC-T and other fringe opposition parties are serious about faring better in 2018, they need to look in the mirror and admit that they were not alternatives to Zanu-PF.

They simply lost to a better party that had appealing candidates, a powerful message that resonated with a populace seeking salvation from over a decade of ruinous economic sanctions.

The MDC-T’s refusal to concede defeat is giving Westerners the excuse they need to maintain their illegal sanctions regimes, the same way the party’s claims of human rights abuses and closure of democratic space provided cover the West’s illegal sanctions regime.

We do not know whether MDC-T officials are aware of this or its part of their grand plan for election 2018.
Should they be banking on sanctions to deliver protest votes, we would like to draw the attention of the opposition leadership to the advice that was freely dispensed by head of the Sadc Election Observer Mission, Cde Bernard Membe, as he presented the regional bloc’s final report earlier this month.

This is what Cde Membe had to say: “Let me tell you this passionately from my heart, and if there are opposition leaders here and if there are opposition people in this conference, you know this question of sanctions must be fought by all parties. To tell the world to remove the sanctions because if you don’t it’s very difficult for the opposition to win elections. As long as sanctions are there this Zanu-PF will prevail for 100 years to come if you hear me.”

The MDC-T would do well to take this advice to heart for the simple reason that our highly literate society is discerning. They know who was responsible for lobbying for sanctions. They know who sought to profit from their misery, and they also know who continues giving Westerners the excuse to strangulate them.

As such the MDC-T has gotten off to a bad start for 2018, where the party faces oblivion of it continues to walk with Westerners against African and Zimbabwean opinion.

MDC-T supporters who attended the party’s 14th anniversary celebrations at Sakubva Stadium in Mutare heard for themselves, Mr Tsvangirai failing back his claims that the elections were rigged.

It is time the supporters took the party leadership to account.
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF, the party they hope to depose in 2018, is scoring goals for the people.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

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