The City of Kings Backs President Tsvangirai

President Tsvangirai, who arrived with Vice President Thokozani Khupe and senior party officials, entered White City Stadium in the city of kings to a rapturous welcome from Bulawayo residents.

The carnival atmosphere was punctuated by song and dance. The people arrived from all corners of Bulawayo; from Pumula, Makokoba and Magwegwe. They came to make a bold statement against the Zanu PF dictatorship. They came to make an unequivocal support for President Tsvangirai.

President Tsvangirai outlined the five key issues the MDC regards as fundamental in this election. The issues of governance and a new, people-driven Constitution, a working economy with real money, a people-centred land and agrarian reform agenda, social services and national integration and reconciliation.

He said the people of Matabeleland had suffered the biggest brunt under Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship. President Tsvangirai said the MDC regarded as key the respect of rights of minorities, the integration of all Zimbabweans into a united family and the celebration of all Zimbabwean nationals in their diversity.

President Tsvangirai said the MDC was alive to the emotional, physical and psychological trauma suffered by the people of Matabeleland as a result of Robert Mugabe’s military onslaught which left 20 000 innocent civilians dead in the 1980s.

“Never again in the new Zimbabwe should a government unleash the military against a defenceless people. The MDC will set up a Gukurahundi fund to help these people. We must never tolerate a government that regards one tribe as inferior to others. We must have a situation where everyone, irrespective of their tribe, aspires to hold any office in the country of their birth,” the President said to a tumultuous applause by the people of Bulawayo.

President Tsvangirai said the election on 29 March 2008 was a referendum on Mugabe’s rule.

“He cannot come to us seeking our votes when he has destroyed this nation. The people of Zimbabwe will vote for the MDC. They will vote for the change they can trust,” he said.

Vice President Hon Khupe, secretary-general Hon Tendai Biti and national chairman Hon Lovemore Moyo also addressed the crowd which independent analysts say is the biggest political gathering in Matabeleland in many years.
President Tsvangirai will today address two rallies in Matabeleland South province. He will address a rally in Gwanda this morning before proceeding to Beitbridge in the afternoon.                MDC Information and Publicity Department
Mr. Nqobizitha Mlilo M (LLB-UCT)
Political Liaison
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-Zimbabwe)
Regional Office
4 Homestead Road
Bryanston
Johannesburg
South Africa

Phone  : +27 11 726 1687
Fax      : +27 11 799 6110
Cell      : +27 83 527 4650
email   : mlilo@mdcregional.co.za

www.mdcregional.co.za
www.mdczw.org

“The bottom line is that we must rise and confront what is before us” President Morgan Tsvangirai

Yesterday, today, together marching to a new Zimbabwe

“Its either we will be free or we will be martyrs”-Che Guevara

“What the future has in store for me I do not know. It might be ridicule, imprisonment, concentration camp, flogging, banishment and even death. I only pray to the Almighty to strengthen my resolve so that none of these grim possibilities may deter me from striving, for the sake of the good name of our beloved country, (Zimbabwe), to make it a true democracy and a true union in form and spirit of all the communities in the land.”
Adopted from The Road to Freedom is Via the Cross; Inkosi Albert Luthuli.