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Transcript of 'Hot Seat' interview with Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga from the Mutambara MDC
Violet Gonda, SW Radio Africa
February 29, 2008

http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/hotseat040308.htm

Violet Gonda: On the programme Hot Seat this week I am speaking to Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga, the Deputy Secretary General of the Mutambara MDC. Welcome Priscilla.

Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga: Thank you, thank you Violet.

Violet: Let me start with the electoral environment in the country right now and with the elections around the corner, do you think they will be free and fair?

Priscilla : Certainly, we have never been under any elusion that these elections will be free and fair but what is getting clearer by the day is that these elections will actually be much more difficult and that the environment will also be much stricter than it has been or that it was in 2005. Because we are noticing that the police for example are stopping candidates from doing evening meetings. I know that Trudy Stevenson has been stopped from having her evening meetings and she's currently trying to do a court petition at the moment. We know that people have been picked up for doing door-to-door campaign, they now have something ridiculous like a charge called Criminal Nuisance or something like that, and whilst we had amendments on POSA, that were supposed to create much more freer and better environment, the police are not taking on any of those things that they have put on to POSA. They are forcing themselves onto new meetings and wanting to sit into party meetings. They are not acknowledging the rules that you can have 15 people gathered without necessarily having to asking police permission. So clearly, you can see that ZANU PF is going to make this election much, much, much more difficult than it has been in 2005.

Violet : Clearly things are worsening and one would ask why participate in such an environment?

Priscilla : Well we have made it very clear, our formation has made it very clear, that we will participate in every election because we want to make the cost of the dictatorship expensive; we are not going to allow ZANU PF to have a free ride in anything in any form of election. We will fight them tooth and nail in anything that they will try to do; secondly we do not believe that just passing boycotts will make a difference. We need to show ZANU PF for what it is - a dictatorship. If ZANU PF allowed us to have free and fair elections there would not be a dictator, there would not be a dictatorship, so the very fact that they are behaving the way that they are behaving only proves our point and we will make sure that we make it clear to the world that when we say this is a regime that is not going to allow for a proper and easy transition of change over of power, then we need to put it to practice and we will do this every other minute and every other time there is need for a contest. We will contest them.

Violet : What about the issue of the Presidential race. Why did Professor Arthur Mutambara stand down in the Presidential race?

Priscilla : You will remember that from day one what Professor Mutambara always said is that we want to make sure that every vote counts. It does not matter how small that vote is, it does not matter who is voting but as long as that individual is voting against Mugabe, we do not want to ever sit down and say we wasted a vote. The only way you can make a vote count is to make sure that you have a one Presidential candidate. We've spent the last 8 months talking to our colleagues in the other MDC and had hoped that we'd reach an agreement to make sure that at least we would have one candidate from President to the lowest level and unfortunately our colleagues had a different thinking around what we should be doing and decided to pull out at the last minute. When Simba Makoni came into the race and because we still believed in the one candidate philosophy, we then decided that whilst we may not necessarily have an electoral pact with him, we will call upon our supporters and everybody else to make sure that they do put their vote on for Simba Makoni because he is standing against Robert Mugabe.

Violet : I will come to that issue about your alliance or the relationship you have with the Simba Makoni formation. But I want to go back to the issue of Professor Arthur Mutambara standing down. Does it not hurt your chances as the Mutambara MDC - does it not hurt your chances of representation when you don't have a Presidential candidate?

Priscilla : Certainly not! We think it is stupid for anybody right now to think that if you have three candidates you can make it with those three candidates - and in that way I am talking about opposition candidates. All it would mean is that the more Presidential candidates you have, the less you have chances to win the Presidential race and in our thinking what we need in Zimbabwe right now is to make sure that we make use of the capacity and the resources that we have, and we believe that we should spend our energies and resources in making sure that we have enough Senators and enough Councillors and enough Members of Parliament to make a difference - when you need some kind of coalition of forces of the opposition. And that is what we are spending most of our energies on, instead of putting in energies on a Presidential race where you know by the mere fact that you now have three opposition people that are running the chances of actually making it in that race is pretty. And we have decided to actually be the ones who will say "we will pull out", if only to enhance the chances of those that are staying in to be able to beat Mugabe.

Violet : Could it be said that Professor Arthur Mutambara knew he had no following and that your group was weak and that is why he opted for a parliamentary seat?

Priscilla : Well people can say whatever it is they want to say but I am sure that any person that has any form of brain would understand that just merely trying to run in a race and you already are three of you, would mean that you would divide whatever vote that you have. Whether he was the one who was going to have the least vote, for us it's not important. All it means is that whatever votes he was going to get is a vote that could be added to another Presidential candidate who is fighting against Robert Mugabe. So it only makes sense to anybody to then decide that this is what we are going to do but he had also said "I still want to be a player, I will find a constituency, I will mobilise at a constituency level and I will make sure that the vote that I will get from that constituency level becomes a vote that adds up to the totality of the votes against Robert Gabriel Mugabe." I think people should be concentrating much more on the principle, and the value and the need to begin to say, "this is not about Arthur Mutambara, it is about making sure that I become part of a group, part of an alliance that works against Robert Gabriel Mugabe, because for some of us this election is not about who becomes the best opposition leader. This is about how do we ensure the we enhance the chances for the people of Zimbabwe who have had so much suffering, to get rid of this regime and to get rid of Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Violet : But on the issue of representation, you didn't field candidates in many of these constituencies - whether it's for the Parliamentary race or the Senatorial. Now is this an exception that you are weak and what is your game plan since you don't have a lot of candidates?

Priscilla : That actually not true, that's actually not true. In fact we fielded 65% of the places where we needed to field. And again our fielding has just not been willy-nilly, we literally have fielded in areas where we believe we have the potential to be able to make a difference. We do not believe that you can go and field a candidate in Umzumba Maramba Pfungwe where up until now we have not been able to hold a rally and attract more than a 1 000 people in UMP. But in those areas where we have structures and we have work that has gone on we have actually fielded candidates. You'll remember that when we did the rural council elections, again people asked us the same questions; "Oh the Tsvangirai grouping had fielded candidates in every other area," but if you look at the results of those rural council elections - we had 41 they had 40 but they had fielded in more areas. So we will be able to see whether fielding in every other place makes a difference or making sure that you invest your resources, you invest your time in those constituencies in which you believe you have the capacity and the ability to be able to win. So we believe that in is close to 65-70% of the places in Zimbabwe we have fielded candidates and that's where we are spending most of our time in. We are not going to waste our time in places where we know up to now we have not done enough work.

Violet : Since now you are not contesting in the Presidential race, have you now accepted that you are just a parliamentary opposition?

Priscilla : Certainly not. I don't know where people are getting that from and the world over; you will find that people only begin to negotiate on particular leadership when they now have seats in their hands. It would be interesting and we may want to have these discussions after the 29 th and actually indicate who has more power in the event that you are now discussing serious coalition within opposition forces. So anybody who is going into these elections and think they can have a clean sweep, are probably lying to themselves. Any opposition force that is going on right now should be going on with the understanding that any government that is going to be coming, is going to be a government based on a coalition, going to be a government based on issues of power sharing and perhaps at this stage that's what Zimbabwe needs. We have had more than 28 years of a dominant party. We need to begin to dismantle that kind of thinking.

The reason why most other countries in Europe are successful is because you don't necessarily have a one party that is dominant. It is dangerous it should never be repeated. Power rests in Parliament, power rests in Senatorial, power rests in local government and you can only begin to put yourself in checks balances if you do have that. Yes it is clear we have made up our minds, at this stage we are not necessarily running for President but you may be surprised that in terms of forming a coalition government we may actually be the political party that holds power and controls whoever becomes the President after 29 th of March.

Violet : Now tell us a bit more about this coalition because Professor Arthur Mutambara told journalists that he had made an alliance with Dr Makoni and I think I saw an article a couple of weeks ago where you were quoted also saying that you had formed this alliance with the Makoni formation. But Dr Makoni has been on the record, he's been interviewed on South African radio saying that he is not seeking alliance. So what really is the relationship between your group and that of Dr Makoni's?

Priscilla : Let's just correct that. Professor Mutambara at the press conference did not refer to any alliance. I have not referred to any alliance. What we said at the press conference was that we were endorsing Simba Makoni as the Presidential candidate. Simba Makoni is standing as an Independent; he is not in alliance with us. We do not have an electoral pact, we have no agreement. We were seeking an agreement with our colleagues in the MDC because we have always been in one party. We were talking around issues of reunification. We have not discussed with Simba Makoni over issues of policy, over issues of ideology. We have only said for purposes of this election because you have three candidates - you have Robert Gabriel Mugabe, you have Simba Makoni and you have Morgan Tsvangirai. We were having discussions with Morgan Tsvangirai who refuted and said he does not want to be working with us as a formation.

You are then left with two Presidential candidates: who is Simba Makoni and Robert Gabriel Mugabe. We cannot support Robert Mugabe because we are fighting against the system of Robert Mugabe. Which leaves us with one candidate and that particular person has said, "I am standing as an Independent, I am willing to work with every other Zimbabwean who believes that I have the potential of being a Presidential candidate," and we have said at a strategic level - because we believe this is somebody who is coming from ZANU PF, who has the potential of breaking down the institution of ZANU PF - we will endorse his candidature.

So at no point have we spoken about an alliance with Simba, at no point have we said we have an agreement or an electoral pact. We have said we are endorsing his candidature; it is like the Kennedys waking up in the morning and saying we are endorsing the candidature of Obama. You are merely saying I am asking every other person who believes in me and think they can vote for me, that when they vote for me, they can also vote for Simba Makoni. But you are not necessarily saying I am going to be standing up and talking of the policies of Simba. It is not our mandate, we hold no brief for Simba Makoni but at this particular point in time given the candidates that we have for Presidential he is the candidate that we have endorsed.

Violet : Some will ask that how is it you will still endorse a man like Simba Makoni who refuses to say he is against Robert Mugabe and refuses to publicly condemn what the system has done. Does this not worry you that you are endorsing such a person? How would you answer that?

Priscilla : Again it is not true that Simba Makoni has said he is not against Robert Mugabe otherwise he would not be standing against the man. He has said his politics is not about fighting individuals and I think it is a good policy. It is a change to the concept that when you go into an election and you are opposing an individual you should be seen as particularly an enemy to this individual. It is a change of that culture and a change of language. I at a personal level appreciate that we have got somebody who is beginning to make a difference between being an opposition or a competitor to say I am against you. You are never against an individual. You are merely at that time a competitor for a particular post. So let's clear that.

What he has also said is that he would have preferred under normal circumstances to be able to hold a contest with Mugabe within the ZANU PF because he believes that his leadership in ZANU PF has led to the kind of disastrous policies that are in ZANU PF, but because he was not given an opportunity to do so precisely because that system has become undemocratic - he is doing it outside the system. That he believes there are people who are within ZANU PF who still believe that ZANUPF is a good party but are against leadership things of Robert Mugabe and certain policies that are being undertaken within that political party. Who still supports him? And I think it is right for somebody to be that open and to be that frank. If ZANU PF had given him an opportunity he would have wanted to change ZANU PF and still contested under ZANU PF but he was not given the opportunity to do so and he is now doing it as an Independent. It's actually nothing wrong with doing that.

It is exactly the same as somebody like Jacob Zuma. If he had not been given the opportunity to be able to stand in the ANC and challenge Thabo Mbeki, if he had then gone out and said I still believe in the ANC, I believe it is a revolutionary party but because it has not allowed me as Jacob Zuma to be a contestant in the ANC I am now forming a political party or I am standing as an Independent. How does that make a person a bad person? I don't understand.

Violet : Priscilla it's known that your group has shadow structures on the ground in Zimbabwe and it appears that Dr Makoni has none or no structures at present. So are you his surrogate structures now or rather, what is he getting from your endorsement?

Priscilla : Precisely not. What is sad about Zimbabweans Violet is that we have become such a skeptical nation that even when the opportunities are provided to make a difference, we spend so much time being negative. For me what Simba Makoni did this time is the most brilliant strategy that anybody in ZANUPF has ever thought about, because if you get out of the system you do not inherit the structures of ZANU PF. If Simba Makoni had gotten out and said I am forming a political party, it would have been difficult for him to inherit some of the structures that are in ZANU PF. So in fact, what the structures that Simba is using for himself are ZANU PF structures. So you literally have two parties within one. You have a Simba Makoni side and you have a Robert Mugabe side. What does it mean? It means you have the best strategy of destroying that particular institution. The reason why opposition political parties have failed year after year is because we have always been operating from outside of ZANU PF and not necessarily eating ZANU PF from within. And what Simba Makoni is attempting to do -whether he will be successful or not successful -- but for me it is a beginning of something that we need to have if we are going to destroy the institution of ZANU PF. And not one person can give me an example of any African Political party where you have been able to deal with it without finding ways of dismantling it either by having some people from within the system eating out of it or by having people within the system beginning to challenge the system and I think it is the best thing.

So, if he is able to balance dividing ZANU PF and picking out people that are from outside the ZANU PF without necessarily having to sit down on the table and saying this is what I am going to give you, the reason why our own arrangement that we were trying to do with our brothers and sisters in the Morgan Tsvangirai group, the reason why they failed is that people became so pre-occupied with provisions and where they are going to be - to such an extent that people lost the bigger picture. People were more worried about how many seats and who is going to be standing in what area in Bulawayo and Matabeleland that they forgot the struggle was about Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

With Simba Makoni no one is sitting around him trying to find out whether they will be a cabinet minister. That can only happen afterwards. At the moment if you support Simba, you are only supporting him because you believe he is able to mobilize enough votes to dislodge Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Simba is not looking to dislodge ZANU PF, he has no candidates to dislodge ZANU PF. Simba is looking to dislodge Robert Gabriel Mugabe. We are looking to dislodge ZANU PF at Parliamentary, Senatorial and Council level. I think if we were all of us, as Zimbabweans, were to agree that this is the two tier strategy we are going to use that would to be the formula to do so but unfortunately Zimbabweans being Zimbabweans, we are spending so much time doing a critique around; "Why is it someone that was in ZANU PF is now outside ZANU PF, why he is not castigating ZANU PF?" I think it is sad and sometimes I actually think that Zimbabweans deserve Robert Mugabe because sometimes we behave like we deserve him.

Violet : But Priscilla with all due respect you must understand that people have suffered at the hands of this despotic regime so it's only natural for people to feel this way. That's why people would ask your group that what makes you think that Simba Makoni will be different since his been part of this regime for a long time. And you yourself have admitted that you don't know his strategies, you don't know his policies, so how can your group trust this formation if you don't know anything? All you have done is to... (Interject)

Priscilla : No! It's not totally true to say we don't know Simba, we know Simba. We know Simba is the one Minister of Finance who was fired by Robert Gabriel Mugabe because he happened to speak his mind. We know that Simba is one Zimbabwean ... (interject)

Violet: But do we really know... (Interject)

Priscilla: Sorry?

Violet : But do we really know the conditions for which Makoni was fired, do you really know why he was fired?

Priscilla : Yes! I know that! I was the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee and I know that Simba was fired because at that stage he was against the monies that were going to be given to the war veterans, the $50,000 that was going to be given to war veterans. I now that Simba was fired because at that time he was talking about the issue of devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar. People should not pretend they don't know that and everybody in ZANU PF who you speak to, knows that if there is anybody who in a Politburo meeting and was able to take Mugabe on and ask him questions it would be Simba. So we know that.

But I think also Violet every other person who is in the opposition right now, the majority of them, perhaps with some of us who have not been necessarily been in ZANU PF, the majority of those people have been in ZANU PF. Morgan Tsvangirai was a member of ZANU PF. He was a member of ZANU PF. When he was a secretary general of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, he was a member of ZANU PF. He would invite Ministers in ZANU PF. We have war veterans from ZAPU and ZANU who currently are leaders in the Movement for Democratic Change. We can not punish people because they were part of the system at some stage. If somebody said I tried to deal with the system when I was there now I have gotten out of it I want to challenge this individual they can't be punished. In fact they are having double standard. All those people who were part of ZANU PF should never be in the opposition if that is the position that we are going to take.

The only thing that I said about Simba is that the reason why I could sit down and openly say to you we are having an agreement with the Tsvangirai grouping is that at the time we were discussing, we were discussing a reunification and we were discussing the values and principles that set up the Movement for Democratic Change. So I could come out tomorrow and say I have an agreement with these guys because that agreement followed the values and principles and everything else in an ideological issue. Those things have still not been clarified by Simba - at the moment, which is why I did not go into an electoral pact and I still feel that if I have enough votes, if I have enough MPs enough Senators I will be able to influence some of the policies that he has if he then seeks a coalition with me. But at this particular point in time I think he has got the best chance of dealing with Robert Gabriel Mugabe. He holds the biggest axe to deal with this man and I will support him. What is the alternative?

The alternative is to say Robert Gabriel Mugabe stays in power. The alternative is not to support Morgan Tsvangirai because he has said he doesn't want my support. So that is the position that we are in as the Mutambara grouping and clearly given the choices that we have at the moment the only choice that we've got is to endorse Simba but we are not going to be his foot soldiers. We cannot speak on his behalf; we can only say given these choices we think our best bet is Simba. If the people of Zimbabwe think Morgan Tsvangirai is the there best bet we respect their decision to do so. But I as Priscilla when I get into that ballot box will vote for Simba because he is the one who has asked for my vote. I wanted to give my vote to Morgan Tsvangirai he said he doesn't want it and I respect his position and I will not force him.

Violet : Why do you think Morgan Tsvangirai said he didn't want your vote? What went wrong?

Priscilla: Some of us who were part of the negotiations, I will tell you Violet, are still in shock because by Saturday at 12 midnight we could have signed that agreement but by 7:30 in the morning Tsvangirai was a completely different person altogether. I believe two things could have happened. The first thing is I believe either during the process in which we were negotiating they were not negotiating in good faith, that they were playing some game that we will have to find out one day. Or if I give them the benefit of the doubt I believe the system, which is the CIO, must have gone to Tsvangirai between the time we finished our meeting at 12 midnight on Saturday to 7:30 in the morning and must have either lied to him and said to him if you go back to these guys and say to them; "unless if you give me the entire Matabeleland, I am not prepared to go into this process with you."

Told him that we were so desperate that if he demanded for the entire Matabeleland we would still agree to an agreement. But certainly sometime later on in life somebody will be able to write a story or will be able to tell us who went to Tsvangirai's house from midnight on Saturday to 7:30 . Because we had a meeting on Friday and if at that meeting on Friday while we were negotiating, if the negotiations had broken down, I would honestly be saying to you Violet that we both can be held responsible for those negotiations breaking down. Because at some stage we all got emotional and I remember all of us picking up our papers and saying this is useless! The only person who sat in that room and looked at all of us and said, "you can be as angry as you want, you can throw as much tantrum as you want but I, as Morgan Tsvangirai am not walking out of that door facing the people of Zimbabwe under a divided MDC."

So I am very convinced that from the time we started talking on Thursday, Friday and even Saturday Morgan Tsvangirai was committed to having a united MDC but something happened between 12midnight and 7:30am . And anyone who knows who Morgan saw between 12 and 7:30 will one day tell us who that individual is because that person was paid big money and he was paid big money by the system! That's all I can say.

Violet : Some analysts say it was egos and nothing regarding policies and strategies that could have caused the unity talks to fail. Do you agree?

Priscilla: No but I am telling you Violet, in fact our formation has put out a day blow by blow account of what was happening on each day from the time we started negotiating to the time that these things broke down! And if those analysts have anything to say they should go and look at that blow by blow account and be able to tell us, like I am saying, what happened between 12 midnight and 7:30 ? Because at 12 midnight on Saturday we were only left with talking on two constituencies and those constituencies were whether we were going to be giving Morgan Tsvangirai two other constituencies -- one from Mat North and one from Mat South in exchange to nothing or whether they were going to be giving us two other constituencies in exchange for something. We had gone through all the egos that you are talking about. We had gone through all the tantrums and the madness that could have broken the negotiations and it does not make sense to me that Tsvangirai was able to go through all the madness of these negotiations and decided on the Sunday at 7:30 to say he is no longer interested in these negotiations. Something happened! Somebody spoke to him! And that person can only be someone who new that a united front would be a sure way of Robert Mugabe getting out of power and that is the person that the analysts and everybody who cares about Zimbabwe needs to find out. At least I personally am going to spend all my living life trying to find out who that person is because he is a very dangerous individual and I say "he" because I believe it can only be a man.

Violet : Now Priscilla why would you believe it could only be a man and not some women in the opposition?

Priscilla: Because at the time those negotiations were taking place -- there were only two women on the Tsvangirai side. It was Teresa Makone and Thokozani Khupe. At the time we came back to Zimbabwe and started these negotiations the only other two women in the opposition were myself and Miriam Mushayi. Secondly we could not have been the people who went to Morgan Tsvangirai's house. So the people who were present on the last day of these negotiations were the men and Teresa Makone. I do not want to give Teresa Makone the power that she may have turned this thing around. After all she had just entered the leadership in the last few days. It is possible it may have been her but I believe out of the men who were sitting at that table and in my mind it is wrong to say it is this individual but when I finally finish the book that I am writing I may just have the guts to name this particular individual because I have a very strong suspicion that among those men that were negotiating, one of the very high profile people in the Tsvangirai camp -- who is said to have gone to Tsvangirai's house at about 1:30 in the morning -- is the person who was sent by the security forces. And is the person who actually made sure that these negotiations don't come to fruition.

Violet : Had you established a coalition with the Tsvangirai MDC would you have pushed harder for a broader coalition with Makoni as well?

Priscilla: Certainly. I actually believe that if we had had the United Front Simba Makoni would have had no choice but to actually come into the broader grouping because it would have been established already that you'd have no choice but to work within the broader formation of the progressive forces. The reason why Simba was then able to come out as an Independent is I purely believe it's because the kind of coalition, the kind of reunification that needed to take place between the two MDC had fallen through.

The other aspect which people are not talking about which I am going to talk about Violet, is the very fact that we have the males in Civic Society who are working very hard to make sure that this United Front did not take place. And some of those males have spoken to me personally so I am not talking about things that I have heard from outside. These males have said they want Morgan Tsvangirai to participate in this election as an individual with a fractured MDC. They want to make sure that Morgan Tsvangirai loses this election so that he gets out of the way so that those males who are in Civic Society will then come in and inherit the structures that are in the Morgan Tsvangirai group and become the leaders in the MDC -- Tsvangirai grouping. These are the same males who were at the center of divisions of the MDC, the same males that have organized a convention and have decided as Civic Society they will say, "we will endorse Morgan Tsvangirai," when everyday of their lives they are the same males who have been talking to some of us, calling Morgan Tsvangirai a sellout with Amendment 18, calling him unreasonable, calling him uneducated, calling him all sorts of names. And it is the same males who are standing up right now pretending that they are supporting Morgan Tsvangirai. And it is important for the world to know that... (Interrupted)

Violet : But who are these people?

Priscilla: ... These are the other forces that are making sure that the MDC will never be a re-united front because it limits their chances of getting into politics. But trust me you will be able to identify these males after the 29 th of March and you will understand what I am talking about.

Violet : How are people going to know and what are they going to do after the 29 th of March and are you able to name these people?

Priscilla: This is why I am saying if I name them now people will tend to think I am merely doing so because I want to malign certain individuals but the reason I am putting it out to the public is that when people begin to see their behaviors after the elections, they will understand what I was talking about. If I know what is going to happen after the 29 th -- if after the 29 th none of the Presidential candidates that are standing against Robert Mugabe have made it for President, you will be able to see the kind of political formations that are going to be coming out after the 29 th. But let it be rest assured that Morgan Tsvangirai should know that the people that are standing up and saying "you did a good job not to re-unite with the Mutambara group, you did a good job for you to stand on your own," those are the same individuals who will be waiting to take him for his burial after the 29 th. And people will know who these males are and it will be much more clearer because they will have to come out of the woodwork where they are hiding right now.

Violet : Now briefly because I am running out of time, some consider you as sellouts and Roy Bennett said recently that you people have gone back home to ZANU PF -- and there are others who accuse you of being part of a plot to bring back ZANU PF through the backdoor - how would you respond to that, briefly?

Priscilla: I will not even dignify those kinds of statements with any responds Violet! When we ran for the Senatorial elections we were called sellouts, we were called people who were trying to sanitize ZANU PF. The same individuals that stood on podiums and castigated us are the same individuals today who are not only running for the Senate but are beating people up in their own political parties so that they can become Senators. I have no time for people who think like that. You can lie but you cannot lie to everybody like that. I have never been ZANU PF, I have fought ZANU PF from the time that I became anybody that can stand up to the system, I will fight ZANU PF until I die and it does not matter how many times you stand up because you think it will give you more donor money to castigate us, it will not change the Priscilla that I am. I will fight for justice and if you are part of the people that are working against the issues of justice, we will also fight you and it doesn't matter how much and how many times you call me a sellout I know who I am and God will vindicate some of us. It may take 10years, it may take 15years but people will remember that some of us speak for justice all the time!

Violet : And on that issue about your group standing for justice can you finally tell our listeners what your group is offering the electorate, as elections are around the corner.

Priscilla: Ours is very simple. The reason why we are contesting against ZANU PF, the reason why we are saying we are an alternative is because of one thing. We believe that ZANU PF has betrayed the poor, the peasantry, and the working class. They have betrayed the ideals of the liberation struggle. We are the political party that wants to go back to those ideals. The ideals of freedom, the ideals of justice, the ideals that says if you are a Zimbabwean it does not matter what political party you come from you are a Zimbabwean and you should be treated with dignity. The ideals that says every person is important irrespective of the class, of tribe, of gender. And in everything that we do -- whether it is in the economy, whether is social services we will be guided by those particular principles. And that is what we stand for.

Violet : Thank you very much Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga.

Priscilla: Thank you Violet.

Comments and feedback can be emailed to violet@swradioafrica.com

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