“Today what I want to tell the nation is that I am challenging President Robert Mugabe to go with me on a public debate. Here I want us to be beamed live on local and international television stations articulating what we will stand for if elected into the presidential post.
“Mugabe and his cronies have in the past launched a scathing attack on my person and so I am saying, let’s go live and have a public debate so that the nation and indeed the world can have first-hand experiences of what we stand for,” said Tsvangirai.
President Robert Mugabe and other top Zanu (PF) officials are on record for denigrating Tsvangirai on the basis that he has no capacity to lead Zimbabwe because he has no liberation war credentials. They have also labelled him a puppet of Western countries who need immense hand-holding on articulating and pursuing national issues.
“Zimbabweans are intelligent. They can never be deceived on issues to do with who can deliver them from the current economic and political quagmire. Personally I am not afraid of Mugabe. I defeated him in 2008 elections and so I would not fail to say out the issues that made Zimbabweans settle for me and those that made him lose,” said Tsvangirai.
Various columnists who are pro-Zanu (PF) have also attacked Tsvangirai in state media giving the impression that he is a man of poor intellect and wisdom who cannot be entrusted with occupying the office of the president of Zimbabwe.
Post published in: News
Public debates are good, especially if the public is given room to ask questions and air their views.