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Tsvangirai vows to continue drive to topple Mugabe
Mail & Guardian (SA)
September 21, 2006

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=284633&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

The drive to oust Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe had not run out of steam despite the muzzling of protests and splits in the Movement for Democratic Change, according to the country's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Southern African country has been beset by unemployment running at 80% and the annual inflation rate hit a world record levels of more than 1 200% last month.

With bread shortages reported in bakeries and electricity blackouts a frequent occurence, opponents of President Mugabe's 26-year rule should be in a prime position to take advantage.

"Our mass democratic resistance is definitely coming," Tsvangirai said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

But while Tsvangirai was once able to attract thousands of Zimbabweans to attend rallies in the late 1990s, a planned series of nationwide protests last week was stopped in its tracks as the organisers were arrested and rank-and-file demonstrators failed to turn up at the meeting points.

While a strict enforcement of the public order act, which bars unauthorised protests, was partly to blame for the day of action's failure, it also appeared to epitomise the weakness of the opposition since the MDC divided into rival factions last November in a dispute over whether to contest senate elections.

Tsvangirai, who still heads the largest MDC faction, said he was not about to throw in the towel and was planning a new round of mass protests against the 82-year-old Mugabe.

"Nothing short of a resolution of the current crisis will deter us. We are deeply concerned with the struggles people are going through every day to survive as a result of mismanagement by the Mugabe regime."

Last week's day of action was organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) which was headed by Tsvangirai in the 1990s.

Several of the ZCTU's current leadership sustained injuries after being arrested at the start of the march last Monday, including secretary general Wellington Chibebe who broke an arm.

Tsvangirai, who has had his own run-ins with the Mugabe security forces and was at one stage put on trial for plotting to kill the president, said that the assaults on the ZCTU leaders was part of a plan of intimidation.

"The attack on the ZCTU leadership was carefully planned by the regime," Tsvangirai said.

"As a labour-backed party, we feel that our base is now under siege. There was no justification for denying workers their right to express themselves."

Tsvangirai however insisted the opposition movement would not be baited into resorting to violence, citing a recent march on Parliament when he delivered a petition to the speaker to protest the state of the country.

"We have already shown our commitment to peaceful change by the march we made to Parliament on September 1. Whatever will follow will depend on the preparedness of the general populace."

Tsvangirai has been keeping a low profile in recent months and was conspicuous by his absence at the ZCTU protest. He gave his interview after the announcement of the findings of an internal MDC probe into an assault on one of its female lawmakers who has fallen out with Tsvangirai.

The implosion of the MDC has left many opponents of Mugabe despairing.

Tsvangirai however believes that the attack on Trudy Stevenson was the work of the security services who are trying to drive a wedge through the opposition ranks by "heavy infiltration in the party".

The government has scoffed at the suggestions that it was behind either the attack on Stevenson or the assaults on the union leaders after their arrests.

Security Minister Didymus Mutasa refuted Tsvangirai's claims and said the attacks on the union leaders were "unfortunate".

"They [ZCTU] were told not to break the law and they did that but that is not to say we as government were behind their attacks," Mutasa said.

"It was unfortunate that they were attacked but we were not responsible." - Sapa-AFP

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