Tsvangirai Rally In Chiredzi Ahead Of Weekend Elections

By Gerry Whitehead
(Lowveld News)

The MDC rally was held at Dorman Long Township near the Hippo Valley Estates mill not Dumisa Township as I had reported yesterday.
Morgan Tsvangarai arrived late from a morning rally that the party had organized at Chikombedzi; some 150 km away on some of the worst roads in Africa (No feed back on this rally yet)

No sooner had Morgan arrived 10 police officers also arrived in a L/Rover which I had seen parked near the mill an hour before. (Obviously waiting for word of Morgan’s arrival.) The police spoke to Mishek Marava (The shadow MP for the MDC Zaka East) who went over and spoke to Morgan obviously to tell him that he was out of time for his meeting. (This was confirmed later)
Morgan ignored this and managed to give a 15 minute speech where he described the hardships that the ZANU PF Government had caused the people and the only way out was to vote for the MDC. He never once mentioned the break away faction and ended by daring the police to arrest them, telling them that he was ready for this if they did try.

The rally ended with a prayer by Elias Mudzuri (The suspended mayor of Harare) who finished with “we hope that GOD will give the police some new boots.” This did bring out a roar of laughter from the crowed including the police. (All the MDC rallies that I have been to have started and ended with a Prayer)

The rally I feel was a disappointment as there were only about 80 people there and they seemed to be very subdued and Morgan did not have enough time to get his full message across.
The good news though, is that on the way to and from the rally I was greeted with the MDC’s hand signal many times, in fact for the last 3 to 4 months I have noted an increase of these signals, not once in the last 12 months have I seen a ZANU PF fist signal directed at me. I have found the people in the communal areas very friendly but always begging for a hand out. However this is very different on the occupied farms, there a white person would be in grave danger, this is where Mugabe’s supporters are located.
Mugabe in just 27 years has turned this country into a land of dying people, thieves and beggars.

There is no doubt in my mind that sooner or later the economics in this country will trigger mass action, hopefully the leadership in the MDC will be ready for this.