Ngiyesaba News

Hi All,
Thank you Mr Ngwenya for your provocative, constructive comments that where good for debate. I 'm however uncomfortable by the tone of your e-mail and the fact that your correspondence seems to be an open letter to Mr Mdlongwa and yet are given open and wide distribution. I hope I'm wrong in my analysis “and if not I forgive you for your oversight” as I believe even in a democratic party, there must be a difference between a dialogue at management level and open debate. Also given your position as Branch Chair, I think that you are within your right to discuss your concerns or make your contributions direct to Mr Mdlongwa and away from the public frown, before bringing your concerns open as this will help confusing our membership or sending the wrong signals to our competitors. Since your distribution is open, I have decided to respond as same.

Njabulo: I would like to know where MDC UK stands on Simba Makoni being our candidate for 2008 presidential elections.
Langa: MDC's approach towards this election is and has always been 'One candidate philosophy to dislodge Mugabe. It is based on the premises that another 5 years of Mugabe rule will spell disaster for Zimbabwe and that the problems besetting Zimbabwe are so big, above party politics and of such National significance that they need collective effort of all democratic forces to come together. This is also a challenge to Mugabe's tactics of 'divide and rule' where he has divided people according to race, tribe, religion, region, urban areas against rural areas, war veterans vs non-war veterans, rich against poor, security forces vs civilians etc to retain power. To break that strategy, unity of purpose becomes the counter strategy, hence linking up with Makoni’s and Tsvangirayi’s. Once Mugabe is gone and the situation in Zimbabwe is normalized, can we be able to pursue and market our own political party brands to the electorate where there is an even playing field.

Njabulo: We don't want a situation whereby leaders are forced to people. When MDC split we went to look for Arthur, and now its Simba without even addressing a lot of issues.
Langa: Arthur was elected by a congress in Bulawayo the second capital city and was therefore not forced on people. Simba is not our president and therefore does not need our congress to approve. The only people who will decide if he is fit to become the next president of Zimbabwe are the Zimbabweans as a nation through the ballot. On our part, we have mandated our National Executive to make decisions on our behalf based on the programme of action adopted at congress. What they owe us is to keep us posted and maybe informally consult us when they feel necessary. My bone of contention on this one is that the level of communication between us and National executive has been poor of which this is unacceptable. I do understand that the SG and his deputy have been heavily involved in Mbeki negotiations, Reunification talks and of late, the Makoni project, but then, they could have assigned someone else to carry out this important task. This concern has been communicated to the National Executive together with our inputs/resolutions from our UK District Executive meetings. Feedback has been given via the Chairman and the latest being in our last District Executive meeting in Manchester on 26 Jan2008.

Njabulo: This guy is bringing along people who committed genocide [Ghukurahundi era]'the generals like Mbudzi, Mujuru, Zvinavashe without even them apologizing to the victims
Langa: We must be careful of falling into the same trap as Mugabe who blames others (the WEST for his own incompetence) i.e. painting everyone in the military or ex-military as having committed genocide. Not everyone who was in the Army at that time was a member of the Fifth Brigade or even participated in Ghukurahundi. For your own information, we have ex-Zipra fighters who were in the Army who could even help fish out the spy’s of genocide. Also note that even civilians didn’t participate in the Ghukurahundi Genocide. What we should and need to do is to ask those people whom we suspect (Not Makoni's people only, but Mugabe's and Tsvangirai’s people too. lets give an honor too individually and atone for their sins through restorative justice. We don't even know who among our own party, Tsvangirai and his people, what role they contributed towards genocide not only in Matabeleland and Midlands, but even in Masvingo Manicaland and Mashonaland?

Njabulo: Secondly there is an issue of logo, I saw Makoni introducing his sunrise logo which he is going to use for registering his party and candidacy .Are we not going to confuse the voters by having MDC Mutambara logo and this Makoni one.

Langa: Whilst I understand that the logo could be confusing, this issue was raised concerning the two MDC’s answer was that people were wise enough to know their candidates and this had been amply demonstrated in the last Local Government elections. As for Makoni's logo, it is within his right to come up with one as he is an Independent Candidate. If we were to enter into a coalition with him, all we need to do is to advise our supporters to vote for Makoni's presidential candidate instead of Mutambara or Mugabe. In turn, Makoni's people will support our Parliamentary candidates in their constituencies and not field rival candidates against each other.
Njabulo: It’s like we are short of leaders in our camp. Why MDC UK wasn’t consulted on this issue, but when it comes to fundraising it’s consulted?
Langa: We are definitely not short of leaders “by the way you are one of the leaders in your own right”, but it’s just a matter of strategy. Putting more presidential candidates we will be ensuring Mugabe Victory? That’s why we offered the man himself Tsvangirayi. He knows the situation of our country, Zimbabweans are at this moment going through so much suffering and we believe that everything will resume normal when we conquer during the elections future.

Njabulo: The cowards would keep quite while decisions are decided for them, this is not democracy.
Langa: for me I am not a coward and have always fought for what I believe in, even back in Zimbabwe and now in UK. I will never keep quiet when an injustice is being done but I also am aware that this is a collective responsibility and also that it is a learning curve. There is no one who has a monopoly to ideas. My advice is that we should not concentrate on the LIZARDS (small issues) WHILST THE CROCODILE IS FEASTING (Mugabe is the big prize). Once the dictator is gone, we can focus all our efforts in creating a peaceful, forgiving, prosperous, respecting, and caring. That’s what Zimbabweans want. There is indeed democracy in our party also the contributions from you, me and others will only make us stronger.
LK