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MDC spoils for bare knuckle fight

A TOP MDC Alliance executive yesterday ruled out the possibility of entering into another South Africa-mediated government of national unity (GNU) and threatened to scale up mass protests to force out President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s “corrupt government”. BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE Speaking to NewsDay from his hideout, MDC Alliance vice-chairperson Job Sikhala (pictured) said: “There are moments and times we must put a stop to all the evil around us. Zimbabwe cannot continue on this self-destructive path imposed on the nation by Mnangagwa’s rogue regime.” Sikhala said although the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance welcomed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to send envoys to cool down political tension in Zimbabwe, they would resist attempts to force them into a unity government with Zanu PF. This was in reference to the 2009-13 GNU between Zanu PF and the two MDCs which was facilitated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of Sadc. The opposition claims Zanu PF emerged the main beneficiary of the unity government, although it had lost the presidential race to the late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. “Any attempt to seek an elite political settlement where the usual political suspects will get into an incestuous political relationship will be totally rejected. The current struggle of the masses has outgrown individual and political organisations’ narrow interests. People want to be the main stakeholders to the state of affairs. They want a raft of institutional and governance reforms to entrench public interest. As long as the attendant issues of the masses are not attended to, democratic expression will be action without end. We have now resolved that the democratic struggle must now be without end until all issues are attended to. We are now not going to announce our next move. We will just act without announcement until people’s victory. It’s now action without ceasing,” said Sikhala, who was recently forced into hiding by State security agents who stormed his Chitungwiza home ahead of protests planned for July 31. He added: “How would a normal government call its citizens terrorists simply because they have called on it to put an end to looting and corruption? Such an arrogant and heartless response requires a response in equal measure from all of us. This is our country and we cannot continue to allow perverse and intolerable behaviour to go unchallenged. “In terms of Zimbabwe’s Constitution, all Executive, Legislative and Judiciary authority is derived from the people. Terrorists and dark forces can only be agents of the rogue regime that are abducting, torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering Zimbabweans who are targeted only for political reasons. “Rather than for Mnangagwa to end the scourge of corruption and looting, he has unleashed State security elements to abduct, torture, maim and intensify human rights abuses,” Sikhala said. Sikhala’s call for mass protests came as South Africa’s opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema urged Zimbabweans to stop socia

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