Charity Maodza Correspondent
THE rabid and violent attack of MDC-T co-Vice President Thokozani Khupe in Bulawayo on Sunday is further unassailable proof that the opposition party not only nurtures violence, but is itself a citadel of violence.
From inception, MDC-T indicated that it would use violence as a tool of choice in a bid to remove President Mugabe from power.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was captured live on television at one occasion urging President Mugabe to step down voluntarily, failing which he would be removed violently by MDC-T hooligans.
Addressing a gathering of MDC-T supporters, who had gathered at Rufaro Stadium to celebrate that party’s first anniversary in October 2000, Tsvangirai declared that, “the time for mass action is now. We say to (President) Robert Mugabe; if you don’t want to go peacefully, we will remove you violently.
“This country cannot afford (President) Mugabe for one day longer.” This reckless statement set the tone for the successive violent conduct of MDC-T supporters as they unleashed a reign of terror against innocent people during their so-called stayaways or boycotts, in pursuit of power. Tsvangirai’s declaration also served as a precursor to the violent attack of Khupe and her Matabeleland colleagues on Sunday.
In view of the foregoing, it is not only contemptuous, but also insincere for the MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu, to try to dissociate his party from the Bulawayo fracas.
Truly, how could Gutu unashamedly blame State agents for an incident that was apparently perpetrated by well-known MDC-T hoodlums such as its deputy national Youth Assembly chairperson Shakespeare Mukoyi, who was positively identified on the day of the attack?
Is Gutu suggesting that Mukoyi had all of a sudden became a State agent?
That is cheap and incredulous propaganda that should not come from a supposedly trained lawyer like Gutu.
Even MDC-T national organising secretary Abednico Bhebhe positively recognised the assailants and unequivocally blamed Tsvangirai for instigating violence against the party’s Matabeleland provincial executive members.
He expressly registered his displeasure, saying; “we are all shocked that somebody sent a team from Harare to come and beat us up. That team came in the name of the president. We are going to confront the president and ask him why he will send a team to beat us up.”
Gutu should then be reminded that violence is a culture intricately embedded into the psyche of all MDC-T supporters.
The party is a well-known bastion of violence and this is on public record.
Intra-party violence is the blood that waters Tsvangirai’s presidency, as several of his former lieutenants were left for the dead by the MDC-T leader’s hitmen.
In February 2014, former MDC-T treasurer-general, Elton Mangoma, was ambushed and savagely attacked while leaving Harvest House by a rag tag of Tsvangirai’s blood-thirsty foot soldiers.
Mangoma was targeted for calling on Tsvangirai to step down.
Way before that in 2006, former MDC-T Harare North legislator Trudy Stevenson and three other provincial executives were severely assaulted by a mob of about 40 opposition party youths in Mabvuku.
Stevenson later positively identified one of the assailants as Tonderai Ndira, who was then on suspension from the party for his violent nature.
Outside the party, the MDC-T had freely deployed its so-called Democratic Resistance Committee (DRC’s) to unleash violence in the country, bombing police stations and traumatising ordinary citizens.
In a highly publicised case, three senior MDC-T members were convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail each for brutally murdering a police inspector Petros Mutedza in Glen View, Harare in 2011. The three; Tungamirai Madzokere, Yvonne Musarurwa and Last Maengahama were found guilty of murder with actual intent.
On sentencing the trio, High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu said; “there is overwhelming evidence that the deceased was struck by a stone that was thrown from a group of MDC-T political party members, who were resisting police orders to disperse.
“Whoever threw the stone did it in solidarity with the MDC-T members and had the intention to kill the police officer.”
Justice Bhunu further noted that the MDC-T activists were chanting slogans, encouraging each other to attack and kill police officers.
Cognisant of the aforementioned overwhelming evidence pointing to a culture of violence in the MDC-T, it is foolhardy for Gutu to try and cheaply distance his party from the daylight attack of Khupe and other MDC-T officials in Bulawayo.
Gutu cannot fool anyone to believe that MDC-T is a violence-free party when it is not.