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Zimbabwe`s alternative
| Date: |
23 April 2000 12:00 |
| Producer: |
Carol Albertyn Christie
Nicola de Chaud
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| Presenter: |
Ruda Landman
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai: 'There is a general feeling now that Mugabe is a national liability, and I think it is a very serious transformation from one who was a hero of the people to one who has now turned out to be a villain. It's a very sad turn of events.
'At Independence there was a noble project to fight for national unity, development and social change. But after 10 years when the ruling party developed its own character -which is not promoting that national project, but only for personal gain - people started to divide and contradictions started to sharpen.
'The President accused him of wanting to be political. That is a very serious accusation coming from Mugabe, who believes that only he is allowed to be political. It portrayed a suspicion that Trade Unions might have political ambitions. It didn't occur to Mugabe that those might be legitimate political ambitions.'
That was two years ago, and earlier this month Morgan Tsvangirai came to South Africa to drum up support for his new political party and for his country.
Ruda: 'What changed in between?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'It's become so frustrating to put all your maximum efforts to resolve some of the problems and, when you don't make progress, you have to look at alternative ways of achieving those objectives.
'The people have moved they want jobs. They want a government that deals with poverty; they want a government that deals with corruption; they want a government that deals first and foremost with their economic plight.'
Ruda: 'How do you see the present government?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'I think it's on the way out; it's in the twilight zone. It keeps on preoccupying itself with the past, and it's not defining the future. It has destroyed the economy of the country and there's no solution as to what to do about the current economic crisis.
'Seventy-five percent of people are living below the poverty line. That's a serious deterioration of the standard of living. The erosion has been very deep. One who was earning Z$100 in 1980, today he's earning Z$2 - worth the same.'
Ruda: 'If you were the President tomorrow, what could you do about it?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'We have a programme to stabilise the situation. First of all you must understand that one of the imperatives is to withdraw our troops from the Congo.
'Going in there, we committed enormous resources at the expense of Zimbabweans for no natural strategic interest. The health system collapsed, we have no fuel, we are sustaining a war machine only to prop up an illegitimate government.'
Ruda: 'And once you've pulled the troops out of the Congo, what else will you do?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'Well, there's another issue because we face a budgetary crisis. We also face a foreign currency crisis. We barely have two days' supply of foreign currency. We need somewhere in the region of a billion to two billion US dollars to correct and stabilise the situation.
'Any aid that goes to Zimbabwe must be conditional on three critical issues: observation of human rights; democratic development; and the rule of law.
'Mugabe had to sell something. He cannot continue to sell the liberation, he cannot sell the economy, so he looks for the land trump card. He created conditions where people are diverted from the economic problems to the land issue. So he creates racial hatred. He revives historical injustices by fighting the British, as if we were not a sovereign state of the last 20 years. Mugabe and Zanu PF have failed to install fundamental land reforms over the last 20 years. He wants to revive that. How does he do it? ... He says, 'See, I'm taking land from the whites and giving it to the people'.'
Ruda: 'Is there another solution? Is there other land available?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'The government has got two to three million hectares at the moment. in terms of stud farms, under-utilised land, all that; land that has already been acquired, but has never been settled for the last four to five years. So it's quite a serious contradiction.'
Ruda: 'How serious a problem is the race issue?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'I won't tell you race is no longer an issue, but what Mugabe has done is ignite racial hatred across ethnic and racial divides. So, what he has failed to achieve through national reconciliation, he has achieved through farm invasions.
'We were very sceptical about the credibility of the Registry-General's office to undertake such a Referendum, so we were surprised with the outcome. At the same time, you had the Zanu PF so confident that victory was almost a foregone conclusion. They were equally shocked.
'Whether Mugabe likes it or not, the people are going to deliver the change.'
Ruda: 'Is there a danger of civil war?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'The conflict is the people versus Mugabe, so I don't think we'll have a civil war just because Mugabe is incompetent.
'I've always said conflict is what Mugabe is looking for, so there's an excuse to declare a State of Emergency. So people have to be very careful about the way they confront it.'
Ruda: 'What are the chances of a fairly free and fair election?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'Ideally, what we want to see is a free and fair election. But we are talking here of not ideal conditions. The government is highly intolerant of opposition views - we have no access to the media, the opposition voice is not heard. We have to rely on going directly to the people and addressing the people.'
Ruda: 'From the outside it looks like your country is teetering on the edge of an abyss. Are you still optimistic?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'I'm very optimistic because there's enough potential in the country. The infrastructure is still intact; the people are there; the workforce is there... hardworking people, educated people. General peace. In terms of crime, there is minimal crime. So, yes, it can be reversed.'
Ruda: 'And if you look into a crystal ball... how do you see the outcome?'
Morgan Tsvangirai: 'An MDC victory, obviously. I don't want to sound boastful and confident, but this is the feeling on the ground.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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