MDC readies mass action
By Sydney Masamvu Political Editor -Fin Gaz 5/30/02 2:45:41 AM (GMT +2)
THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) meets on Thursday next week to finalise plans to launch an indefinite nationwide mass action to force a re-run of the March presidential election controversially won by President Robert Mugabe. The mass action, code-named "Operation Restore Legitimacy", is aimed at pressuring the government to hold a fresh ballot before the end of this year and is spearheaded on three fronts — the legal action, the mass action and through the engagement of the international community.
According to information obtained by the Financial Gazette this week, the entire MDC leadership has in the past two months been engaged in intense ground work and logistics planning to prepare for the mass action to challenge Mugabe’s poll win, which the opposition party and the international community say is fraudulent.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday declined to discuss the pending mass action.
"I am not in a position to discuss that issue at the moment. It is still an internal matter which is being finalised within the party structures and the relevant stakeholders," he said.
"When everything is finalised, the action which we will take will speak for itself."
But MDC insiders said the party’s decision-making national executive will meet next Thursday to decide the exact date and timing of the mass action after hearing progress reports from teams assigned to work on the action.
Mugabe, who says he legitimately won the March vote, has vowed to crush any mass action or "people power" challenge mounted over his disputed re-election.
According to the insiders, the MDC has assembled 15 lawyers from within its ranks to compile a comprehensive case on its still-to-be-heard legal challenge of the presidential election.
It has also been engaging the international community and regional leaders to highlight the controversial issues surrounding the poll.
Welshman Ncube, the MDC’s secretary-general and leader of the party’s team in talks on the future of Zimbabwe with the ruling ZANU PF, and MDC’s shadow foreign minister Tendai Biti have been spearheading this exercise.
The team has been responsible for lobbying the 54-nation Commonwealth, the 14-member Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the 15-nation European Union (EU) to take action on Zimbabwe’s flawed presidential ballot.
According to documentary information, the MDC leadership has already met some members of ruling parties in the SADC to spell out its concerns and position.
Zimbabwe has been suspended from the Commonwealth and excluded from NEPAD, a new African economic development blueprint, while the EU, New Zealand, the US and Switzerland have slapped sanctions on its leadership over the March vote.
The SADC, while endorsing Mugabe’s re-election, has expressed mixed feelings on Zimbabwe’s breakdown of the rule of law and political and economic crisis.
The insiders said Tsvangirai, vice president Gibson Sibanda, national chairman Issac Matongo, youth head Nelson Chamisa and women’s league boss Gladys Matibenga were in the team involved in mobilising the internal mass action by holding rallies to sell the plan to the party’s faithful.
The MDC’s leaders are being assisted by its provincial leadership, which is being revamped in readiness of the planned mass action.
Dozens of civic organisations joined the coalition with the MDC by educating Zimbabweans on the planned action and how to sustain it, sources said.
Reports of the threatened mass action come after talks between ZANU PF and the MDC aimed at finding a solution to Zimbabwe’s grinding political and economic crisis collapsed two weeks ago.
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