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MDC warns foreign embassies to stop funding Zanu PF
Movement for Democratic Change
January 06,
2011
Zimbabweans
have noted with concern cases of continued political duplicity each
time Zanu PF openly receives foreign donations and funding for its
programmes while it cries foul when other parties merely receive
unsolicited endorsement and solidarity messages from foreigners
and numerous universal human rights defenders. The latest case happened
on Wednesday when Zanu PF politburo member Webster Shamu received
nine tractors from Libya on behalf of the party to inflate his teetering
political fortunes in Chegutu East constituency.
While the state
broadcaster, the ZBC, brazenly announced that the donation was purely
for Zanu PF, the state press tried to down-play the partisan nature
of the gifts despite the appearance of Shamu, a Cabinet minister,
donning a shirt emblazoned with a Zanu PF insignia. Zimbabwe's
strict laws forbid external funding for political parties. The MDC
has been accused times without a number of being a recipient of
Western support when there is abundant evidence showing the party
as wholly indigenous.
The MDC was
founded by workers and peasants in response to their persistent
impoverishment. The party is funded by the underprivileged and poor
Zimbabweans through their toil and hard work, inspired by a strong
national sentiment, hope and an insatiable desire for holistic political
change and far-reaching transformation. Wednesday's Libyan
donation represents a rising pattern in Zanu PF involving officials
who abuse their ministerial positions to cajole Harare-based embassies
to donate money, equipment and a plethora of trinkets to Zanu PF's
rural supporters.
These items
range from maize meal, sewing machines to agricultural equipment
under the guise of support for national programme when all the facts
show that the projects are patently partisan and selective. If other
parties were to pursue this argument to its logical end, Zanu PF
would live to regret as the party is on record as having lost international
goodwill, faith and confidence because of its unmatched record of
dictatorship, tyranny and corruption during the past 30 years.
Other embassies
which have sided with Zanu PF have cited, deceptively, what they
have termed their historical links with that party as the main reason
for open support. The MDC wishes to make it abundantly clear that
the people of Zimbabwe will never forget any lines of support to
a sunset party like Zanu PF because of the hard times the former
ruling party subjected them to for a period covering two generations.
Because of Zimbabwe's post-colonial history, any country that
hobnobs and tries to breathe life to a dictatorship and a humanly
hazardous party, such as Zanu PF, must realise that the people of
Zimbabwe always take such actions seriously. They shall reserve
their natural right for an explanation when the sun rises in a new
Zimbabwe.
The MDC calls
on the Inclusive Government to urgently stop the illegal practice
and urges foreign embassies to use state institutions and non-governmental
organisations as agents and conduits for gifts meant for development
assistance and poverty alleviation. We were further dismayed by
the involvement of Munyaradzi Kajese, a civil servant and Zimbabwe's
chief of protocol, in the sourcing of the Chegutu tractors on behalf
of Zanu PF. Kajese's contract with government binds him to
serve all Zimbabweans in their diversity. Once again, we urge the
people of Zimbabwe to rise to the moment and demand access to any
foreign donations given to the nation in their name and use them
for collective good.
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