THE opposition MDC Alliance’s United States branch is
planning a demonstration against President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Saturday at
the United Nations headquarters in New York to press him to commit to key
electoral reforms.
Mnangagwa is in the US for the UN General Assembly meeting.
In an interview yesterday, party organising secretary Murozvi Mada said they
would seek to make the international community understand the situation in
Zimbabwe.
“We are planning to stage a demonstration on September 29
and this is for the reason that we tell the international community that we had
rigged elections in Zimbabwe. Our main objective is to show the people at home
that we are together and that we make the international community aware of
events back home,” Mada said.
The demonstration will be held well after Mnangagwa’s
address, which was scheduled to begin at 9pm last night, but Mada said their
target audience would still receive their message.
Mnangagwa has already met Zimbabweans in that country and
asked that they contribute meaningfully to the rebirth of the country.
Mada said Mnangagwa’s meeting with Zimbabweans in the US
would not pacify them.
Mnangagwa says he is trying to change from the governance
style of his predecessor Robert Mugabe, who was also met with demonstrations in
the US during his annual UN visits.
Tawanda Dzvokora, the acting chairperson for North Dakota
and Minnesota, said their dates could not be moved as it was tradition that
they demonstrate on Saturday to allow for Zimbabweans from all over the US to
converge.
“All roads will be leading to New York, where the MDC is
holding a demonstration against Mnangagwa. The purpose of the demonstration is
to reiterate what the MDC president Nelson Chamisa has said before what other
leaders have said that Mnangagwa didn’t win the 2018 elections and that he is
not the legitimate President of Zimbabwe,” Dzvokora said.
“We will be telling the world that the person they are
meeting in New York did not win the elections and that he will be faced with
the legitimacy problems that faced Mugabe and the same problems that brought
Zimbabwe to a halt. The issue of legitimacy has to be resolved.”
But Zanu PF’s secretary for legal affairs Munyaradzi Paul
Mangwana described the planned demonstrations as “nonsensical”.
“I am not sure what they want to achieve. That is hell lot
of nonsense and they just want to show off for nothing and that demonstration
is meaningless as far as we are concerned,” Mangwana said.
“They know very well that these elections were endorsed by
the courts. They can go and climb a tree, the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe
ruled in the victory of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“No matter how much noise they make in the USA, Zimbabwe is
not in the USA and we are not a colony of any country. They can try to show
off, but that doesn’t change anything on the ground.”
Last year, MDC activists protesting against Mugabe’s
continued rule and his plans to run in the 2018 elections at the UN clashed
with pro-Zanu PF group — the December 12 Movement — which organised its own
demos in solidarity with the ageing former leader.
Mugabe was forced to resign in a de facto coup in November
last year, which catapulted Mnangagwa to power. Newsday
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