The ManicaPost
Chenai Mutasa
Post Correspondent
For almost two decades, ill-informed Zimbabweans have been blaming Government for the current economic situation.
Leading the pack of Government accusers are members of the opposition parties, particularly MDC, and some civic society activists who choose to have selective amnesia to the role they played in the destruction of the country’s economy.
Since 1980, the Government of Zimbabwe has had the people at heart as evidenced by the various policies and programmes that were meant to stimulate the economy and improve people’s lives.
Government pursued noble policies such as education for all, health for all, land for all and economic empowerment for all, to mention but a few, to improve people’s lives.
But most of these policies and programmes were hampered by a group of saboteurs who went around the globe bad-mouthing the country. They have also been working in cahoots with the country’s detractors to bring down the Zanu PF-led Government at whatever cost.
This has been the turning point for the country and its populace.
The genesis of the country’s problems can be traced back to July 1999 when the MDC was officially launched.
The party was created to oppose whatever the Government was doing. To make matters worse, the MDC was foreign funded. It was being handled by the West, being guided towards the political steps it should take to the detriment of our great nation.
In its first year of formation, MDC vehemently attacked and castigated the land reform programme.
To them, it was good and plausible for whites to have vast pieces of land, while Zimbabweans were congested in rocky and non-arable areas.
The opposition party went on a crusade preaching that black farmers were inferior to their white counterparts.
It became clear then that by opposing the land reform programme, which Zimbabweans fought for in a protracted liberation war, the MDC was never for the people, hence its strategy of burning down the house to kill a mouse.
It is a known fact that some of the challenges bedeviling our nation are because of the sanctions imposed by the Western countries on Zimbabwe after the MDC lobbied and begged for them.
These sanctions have caused untold suffering to Zimbabweans as they are meant to isolate the country from the international community. They managed to do this until the Second Republic embarked on a re-engagement exercise.
In January 2002, the late MDC leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, called on South Africa to cut off fuel and close the border to Zimbabwe in order to ‘deal’ with Zanu PF.
Mr Tsvangirai was quoted saying: “I think SA will have to go it alone and do something effective on the ground, and South Africa should say, okay, under those circumstances we are going to cut fuel, we are going to cut transport links.”
Since then, MDC has pursued the “burn it to the ground” motto, despite the massive suffering it has brought to Zimbabweans.
In August 2018, MDC Alliance vice-president, Mr Tendai Biti, in an interview with the Daily Maverick declared that “the international community is not going to be fooled by this madness. We will make sure they (Zimbabwe) don’t get a cent.”
Mr Biti’s statement was just a reflection of the entire MDC leadership’s mentality. They want Zimbabwe to be starved of international financial assistance, to perpetuate the narrative that the Government has failed.
To show that the MDC is anti-Zimbabwe and unremorseful for playing a part in destroying the economy at a time when the country is grappling with the devastating effects of Covid-19, the party’s officials are working flat out to ensure that Zimbabwe does not get assistance from international lenders such as the World Bank.
In a leaked letter allegedly written by Mr Biti to the World Bank Group president, Mr David Malpass on May 21, he pleaded with the international lending institution not to extend any loan to Zimbabwe.
This is the calibre of the opposition we have in Zimbabwe. The opposition that wants to be on the Presidential throne through the suffering of the masses.
To them, the plight of Zimbabweans does not matter as long as they set their feet at State House.
It is comforting to note that Zimbabwean voters are aware of the calibre of the opposition leaders and have been consistently voting Zanu PF into power.
Recently, MDC reactivated their nefarious operations of tarnishing the country’s image through stage-managed abductions.
The alleged abduction of Ms Netsai Marowa, Ms Cecilia Chimbiri and Ms Joanna Mamombe was a calculated move meant to attract the attention of the international community.
In a well-choreographed manner, whenever there are incidences of these alleged kidnapping and abductions, the MDC social media trolls are quick to tag the Western embassies and other foreign dignitaries so that they depict Zimbabwe as a pariah state that should be shunned in all business dealings.
For being used as Western puppets to cause the suffering of their fellow countrymen, history will judge the party harshly.
