In an interview with The Zimbabwean, Gumbo said that the war veterans and collaborators, most of whom are Zanu (PF) sympathizers, were likely to block Tsvangirai’s ascendancy to power in the event of an MDC-T victory in the next elections. Gumbo’s sentiments confirm long held fears among Zimbabweans that a smooth transition of power in Zimbabwe was uncertain.
“We have people who fought for the country, the war veterans, and you think they would just smile. What about the land that we acquired? We want to keep the farms. Honestly, the situation will be messy if MDC is to win in the upcoming elections. It will be chaotic I tell you. This is a very serious issue,” he said.
Gumbo’s remarks come barely a month after he publicly declared the possibility of a coup if Tsvangirai was to win, saying the military would not accept him. “We will be asking for too much from our guys (the military) to accept these people who we all know fought against them and were responsible for the deaths of many comrades,” he told e-News Channel Africa.
A week earlier, the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, also told the BBC that Zanu (PF) and the military would not accept a “foreign-sponsored” victory for Tsvangirai. “Young people participated in the liberation struggle to gain control over our resources.
Many friends died and are buried in unmarked graves. Now if anyone is going to say: ‘When I come into power I am going to reverse that,’ they (the military) have every right to say: ‘Please – you are asking for trouble. You will be asking for trouble,” he said.
Gumbo accused the MDC formations for being immature, saying they had failed to bring development to the country.
“The problem with MDC is that it has a mentality of fixing and scoring points rather than focusing on serious issues. Thus, they are always looking for faults within Zanu (PF) instead of focusing on developmental issues,” he said. However MDC-T spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora dismissed Gumbo’s threats.
“That’s the problem with Zanu (PF); they want to remain in power forever. They are panicking because they know that their time is up but we are not moved by their threats.”
Commenting on the recurrent coup threats by Zanu (PF), a political analyst, Pedzisayi Ruhanya said: “When the people make a decision, there is no amount of intimidation that can derail their desire to free themselves from dictatorship”.
Another political analyst, John Makumbe, said: “I am not surprised because Zanu (PF) is violent in nature and when you hear them passing such comments, they already have a rigging plot in place.”
What do you think?
Should the MDC take these threats seriously?
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