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Mr Morgan Tsvangirai

Lloyd Gumbo Herald Reporter
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday said if MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai could not fathom losing the harmonised elections, he was free to go hang. The Zanu-PF First Secretary and President who triumphed in the Presidential race after polling over 61 percent against Mr Tsvangirai’s 33,9 percent, made the remarks while addressing thousands of people who thronged the National Heroes’ Acre for the Heroes Day main celebrations in Harare.

Zanu-PF also scooped 160 out of the 210 National Assembly constituencies, wrestling back 61 constituencies the MDC formations won in the 2008 elections.

A visibly shaken Mr Tsvangirai refused to accept results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and has since approached the Constitutional Court seeking nullification of the results citing alleged irregularities.

“Saka vanenge vachirwadziwa nekukundwa hameno zvavo kana vachizvisungirira ngavazvisungirire. Kana imbwa hadzimbofa dzakanhuwidza nyama yavo vakafa vakadaro,’’ President Mugabe said.

He said Zimbabwe held elections in line with the electoral democracy the West claims to advance.
“Takavhotaka maererano nechinangwa chikuru chinonzi democracy. Ndozvamakataura vemhiri zvikabvumwa pasi rose kuti kuve nedemocracy. Heyoka tauya nayo. Tauya nayo munotii?

“We are delivering democracy on a platter. Do you take it? We say take it or leave it, but the people have delivered it and forward ever. Never will we go back on our achievement, on our victory. Tinoramba tichienda mberi. Hatisi vekudududza isu.”

The UN, AU, Sadc, Comesa and other observer groups from Africa have endorsed the elections while the United States, Britain and its dominion Australia — who were not invited to observe — have joined MDC-T in condemning the election.

This has effectively put MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and his Western sponsors on one side, and Africa and Zanu-PF on another side aping the contestation in Zimbabwe over the past decade.

President Mugabe said two themes defined this year’s Heroes’ Day commemorations.
The first was a day when Zimbabweans reflect in remembering all the departed cadres who sacrificed their lives to liberate the country.

The President said it was an opportunity for Zimbabwe to prove to the heroes and heroines that their sacrifices were not in vain as Zanu-PF’s resounding victory ensured that objectives of the liberation struggle would be safeguarded.

“Ndima yepiri inoti nhaka yavatisiira heyo yanga iri mumaoko edu, tiine shoko rabva kwavari rekuti kuenda taenda asi heyo nhaka yatakupai moichengetedza.

‘‘Pakati apo ndokuita bishi. Ny’any’a hedzo dzotungamira dzichitungamidzwa sezvimbwasungata kuti vaye vatakamborwisa vachitorazve nhaka iyi vogova ndivo vanotigovera. Ndimi inoti tinotenda vana veZimbabwe.

“Izuva ramauya kuti takagona kuchengetedza nhaka yedu. Chokwadi yakanga yobvutwa asi takazviona nemeso tikazvinzwira nenzeve tikava nemushandu mukuru.

“Takarwisa, takakunda. Saka tirikuti isu vachengeti venhaka pazuva ranhasi kwamuri imi vakatungamira makairwira mukaifira tiritose. Chamakafira mukatipa, zvamakayambira tikazvinzwa. Tauya kuti titi nhaka tirikuichengetedza, nhaka ticharamba tichiichengetedza. Nhaka haichazobva mumaoko edu. Ndiyo mhiko yatirikuita.

Zvimbwasungata zvakasairirwa musango. Takakunda,” President Mugabe said in apparent reference to the crushing defeat the  western-sponsored MDC formations suffered at the hands of Zanu-PF in the just-ended harmonised elections.

The election results, the President said, showed detractors that unity of purpose was at play in Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe said the election of the country’s Government was a preserve of Zimbabweans and not the West.

He said the Heroes’ Day commemorations also followed two “happy and historic” milestones.
President Mugabe cited the successful conclusion and adoption of a new home-grown Constitution and the widely-endorsed harmonised elections.

“Both events were conducted in a peaceful manner proving wrong those who doubted that Zimbabweans are able to conduct their affairs without external interference. We did it as Zimbabweans. We did it in a peaceful way. We did it in a united way.

“At this point I wish to convey my sense of deep gratitude to all political parties for the peace that we all created in the environment. To churches and all Zimbabweans for upholding the peace before, during and after the elections. Indeed we should continue to cherish our unity in diversity and everything that binds us together as a nation,” said President Mugabe.

He hailed regional and continental bodies among them Sadc, Comesa and the African Union for supporting the country.
President Mugabe also expressed gratitude to friendly international countries whom he said always wished Zimbabwe well in its endeavours.

“Indeed, the emphatic vote that was recently reposed in the ruling revolutionary party Zanu-PF assures us that Zimbabwe shall never be a colony again. Never, never, ever!,” President Mugabe said.

President Mugabe said the country’s foreign policy objectives would continue to be anchored in safeguarding Zimbabwe’s peace and security, sovereignty and territorial integrity and pursuit of policies that improve the standard of living of all Zimbabweans.

In adherence to these principles, President Mugabe said Zimbabwe concurred with all regional and continental organisations that have pursued regional integration, peace and security, gender equality and good governance and socio-economic transformation.

President Mugabe said Zimbabwe continued to work under the auspices of the African Union Committee of 10 in pushing for ‘long overdue’ reform and democratisation of the United Nations by having Africa represented in the United Nations Security Council.