Back to Index

President Morgan Tsvangirai’s statement to the press
Morgan Tsvangirai, Movement for Democratic Change
May 22, 2013

Good afternoon members of the press.

I hope you were all part of our policy conference last week and the successful rally we held over the weekend and you saw for yourself that the MDC remains alive and stronger than ever before.

Today, I just want to stress that as a party and as reinforced by delegates to our policy conference last week, we have zero tolerance to corruption.

Our record speaks for itself in that we fired a whole council in Chitungwiza for corruption and they were protected by the Minister of Local Government. We remain the only party that has ever fired anyone for corruption.

Last year, the MDC instituted a Commission of Inquiry to investigate service delivery in local authorities and the probe team was led by our deputy secretary-general, Hon. Tapiwa Mashakada.

That commission uncovered that our local authorities had greatly improved service delivery but some of our councilors had become compromised.

As a responsible leadership, we have taken a position that any councilor or anyone else who was named, implicated, involved or linked to any act of misconduct or corruption will not stand on the party ticket in the forthcoming election.

As a party of excellence, we are allergic to corruption. It would be a betrayal of the party’s values and of the people of Zimbabwe for any credible political party to field anyone who has been implicated or linked to shady dealings while purporting to serve the people. We are taking a stand that anyone implicated or named in that report will not stand in our party’s name, even for primary elections.

The MDC will not tolerate corruption from anyone in the party, even the party President. We will continue to showcase our qualitative difference by taking stern action against offenders and corrupt officials. We will stick to our history, which shows that we take the responsibility of serving people seriously and will not brook any nonsense.

Protecting corrupt officials can happen elsewhere where they can stop the Anti-Corruption Commission from investigating Ministers, but certainly not in the MDC.

There are no sacred cows in our party and we urge the Anti-Corruption Commission to continue executing its constitutional mandate by investigating anyone without fear or favour. We are a party of excellence. We will not compromise service delivery to ratepayers because of corruption. We have been known to take action against corruption and we will continue to do so.

Delegates to the policy conference were clear that corruption is a national scourge that must be tenaciously fought wherever it rears its ugly head. We cannot afford as a party to field the same candidates who betrayed residents’ trust and the party and its values. In all instances where the councilors soiled the good name of the party and the good standing of other hard working councilors, we will ensure that they do not run. Corruption has become a national affiction but as a party we say No to what has become a national disease. We are party that is set to usher in real transformation in the country when we win the next election in the coming months and we are setting the tone of zero tolerance to corruption by the incoming government.

As Morgan Tsvangirai and as the MDC, we will continue to act against corruption.

True leadership demands that we take a stand and we are drawing a line in the sand.

No to corruption in the MDC.

I Thank You

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP