We gather here today having listened to your solemn plea
for unity amongst the democratic forces in the country. While all the
democratic voices are not here, our diversity here stands as a testament to the
encouraging the fact that Zimbabweans are converging on the one important idea
of putting the people’s collective interests at the fulcrum of our national
politics.
Faced with a failed leadership that has abandoned the
people, today we gather here in this political mixture that can only give hope
and confidence to a despondent nation.
It is you, the people who demanded this unity and today, we
have come here to publicly testify that we heeded your call. We have not closed
the door to anyone and more will join this huge people’s train to stability,
peace and growth.
Today, we show that we have graduated from a dark past of
needless fragmentation. That needless fragmentation not only deflated hopes and
punctured national confidence but it slowly led to people staying away from
national processes and losing faith in elections. In the end, apathy and
despondency stood out as the winners.
The fight against violence and for political reforms and an
even playing field became weaker as our politics became scattered and
personalized.
We had to reverse those negative developments that bred
apathy and dimmed all prospects of change in this country. The kaleidoscopic
mix of our political identities today is meant to infuse hope and to underline
the theme of the alliance that we launch here today; and that underlying theme
is that Alone, we can go fast but together we go far.
Fellow Zimbabwean, we gather here with the sole aim of
going far in meeting the national expectation of bringing positive change in
the lives of the people. Far defined as hope, confidence and the honest pursuit
of the happiness of the people of this great country. We have no other country
except this one and we come to you today united in our diversity to show that
we listened to you; to your sonorous cry that together we can only be stronger.
An alliance beyond political parties
We gather here as more than just the seven political
parties. As you have seen and heard from the solidarity messages, our alliance
goes beyond just political parties to include students, women’s movements,
vendors, war veterans, the church, labour, transport operators and touts, the
civic movement and other social networks. It is simply a broad church of
diverse Zimbabweans brought together by a common desire to bring about positive
change in their lives.
Our broad mass shall be stronger and will complete the
tortuous journey towards democracy that saw the murder of more than 600
opposition activists in the past 17 years , not to mention the over 20 000
innocent Zimbabweans callously murdered during the Gukurahundi genocide. This
arduous and painful journey includes the thousands of sons and daughters of
this land who died in the liberation struggle so that our national dream could
live again.
So today, we gather here united beyond the parochial banner
of party slogans and symbols. We gather here as a broad alliance of Zimbabweans
fighting for a new, competent national leadership and the pursuit of a new
governance culture in line with a progressive national Constitution that we
made ourselves and loudly affirmed in a referendum.
Our common policy agenda
I have said it before and I will repeat it here that this
alliance is not just about seats, titles and posts. It is far much greater than
that. It goes beyond the narrow and petty interests to include a common and
credible policy agenda that will serve as a key signpost to the positive change
that we seek as a country.
In the coming months, we will be presenting to you our
comprehensive policy agenda for Zimbabwe that we are now polishing up as an
alliance. Our coming together is substantively more than just an election pact
about seats and a post-election governance structure and will see us present to
you a robust policy agenda that we will embark upon after the next watershed
election.
Given the comatose state of our industry, our dilapidated
infrastructure and the country’s despicable and tenuous predicament, it has
become imperative that we embark on a transformation and not a simple recovery
agenda. As I have said before, recovery is an understatement of what we need to
do. We simply need to start afresh.
Indeed, our national predicament in all facets is now well
beyond any patchwork. It simply demands a robust transformative agenda. All
alliance partners are converging on that transformative policy agenda that will
yield a people’s manifesto with minute details on the key tenets for
transformation, not recovery.
Fellow Zimbabweans, I assure you we will not commit the
same grievous mistake made by our colleagues when they came into office in
1980, with the mistaken belief that independence was the destination when in
fact 1980 actually marked the beginning of a critical phase of the struggle.
They came in without a cogent plan and we must not travel the same ruinous path
of simply seeking change without a cogent plan.
Our alliance goes beyond simply consigning Mugabe and Zanu
PF to the dustbins of history. We are very clear that the real work and purpose
of our alliance begins the day after the defeat of the strongman and his
clueless colleagues.
Put simply, ladies and gentlemen, our alliance is sprucing
up a common policy agenda that we are certain will drive the country out of the
current doldrums and put the smiles back on the face of the people of Zimbabwe.
Conclusion
I wish to conclude that today is not a day of speeches but
an occasion of celebrating our coming together as you the people demanded.
Today, I have reunited with my former colleagues in the MDC
as well as with the leaders of other political parties and social movements
that are with us today. We have not allowed ourselves to be prisoners of the past.
Instead, we are determined to be drivers of the future. Personal egos and petty
differences cannot stand in the way of the fulfillment of a hope whose hour has
come.
In the same spirit of our unity here today, I urge the
nation to rally together and to encourage each other to be active participants
in national processes especially as we brace for the impending voter
registration period.
Indeed, alliances, slogans and our endless complaints in
the townships and in the villages will not help us if we do not register to
vote. In our various political parties and in all our social networks, let us
register to vote because our future is literally on our hands. We stand on the
cusp of a new country and only a huge turn out on the polling day will make a
palpable difference.
Students, vendors, traditional leaders, women’s groups, war
veterans and other social movements must all turn out I their numbers to
register to vote.
As a coalition and as an alliance, we will traverse the
country, reinforcing the same
message of encouraging everyone to participate in
the bringing of positive change in our country.
We need to restate publicly the gospel of unity. In bars,
in churches, in the villages and in the urban areas where we stay, let us
remind each other that future generations will not forgive us if we allow next
year’s chance to slip away. It is a glorious chance that comes to us the
ordinary people once in five years and we must make the most of it.
Let us embolden this huge coalition for change, underpinned
by the knowledge that we cannot do this alone in our exclusive social spaces.
Let us reunite and join the MDC Alliance in voting for one Presidential
candidate, one parliamentary candidate and one ward representative under the
banner of the MDC Alliance.
Zimbabweans remember the positive change that we brought
into this country between 2009 and 2013, even though we were tethered with
clueless partners. With an exclusive mandate to govern this country in 2018
under the united banner of MDC Alliance, we can only do more and go far in
fulfilling the collective aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe.
Make no mistake about it; you the people under the banner
of the MDC Alliance will resoundingly win the next election.
We appeal to the region and to the world to stand by the
people of this country as they navigate these dicey moments under a brutal
regime. The world must stand with the people and not with the country’s
leaders.
Today we begin the march to victory and indeed, together we
will go far.
Congratulations Zimbabwe for endorsing this huge alliance
as it marches to a resounding victory.
We heard you and we have heeded your call. In my case, I
spent one and half months traversing all the country’s districts and the
people’s message was clear and unambiguous that that there is no substitute for
the unity of all democratic forces.
As our colleagues in Zanu PF disintegrate into factional
smithereens--and as they foist on us a clueless 94 year old as a Presidential
candidate---let us galvanize the nation for the huge lesson we will teach them
in 2018.
That lesson is never to take the people for granted.
August is that great month when we celebrate Heroes Day in
Zimbabwe. It is befitting that we have chosen the month of August to showcase
this one huge heroic act of togetherness through this massive crowd of many
political colours that is gathered here in the Zimbabwe Grounds.
It could only happen at no other venue but the Zimbabwe
grounds, that citadel of the national spirit. On the eve of every new dispensation
in the history of this country, this venue has always proved to be an
unshackled bastion and ceremonial home of people power.
Today, we send a message to the world that together we are
stronger. Indeed, together we can. And together, we will go far.
Together. Tose. Sonke.
Today we have put this regime on notice.
Thank You Zimbabwe
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