Thousands of Zimbabweans gathered at Zimbabwe Grounds in Harare on Saturday to witness the formation of an opposition coalition set to take on President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party in the 2018 general elections.
The event monitored on different media platforms from Washington attracted thousands of people drawn from Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, Professor Welshman Ncube’s MDC formation, Tendai Biti’s People’s Democratic Party and several others.
All the party leaders including Agrippa Mutambara (Zimbabwe People First), Jacob Ngarivhume (Transform Zimbabwe) and three others urged Zimbabweans to back the MDC Alliance in the 2018 general elections, saying they will revive the country declining economy if elected in the forthcoming polls.
Tsvangirai told the ecstatic crowd that they have crafted the alliance as per the people’s demands for all opposition parties to unite before the general elections.
He said, “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.”
He said all the MDC formations 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.”
All the opposition leaders also urged Zimbabweans to register to vote in order to defeat Zanu PF.