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There has been considerable controversy surrounding the MDC’s decision to have its 41 elected members of Parliament sworn in and participate in Parliament. A variety of criticisms have been made but most focus on arguments that the decision is a betrayal of those losing MDC candidates who had their seats stolen from them by ZANU (PF) and that the presence of MDC MPs in Parliament legitimises the entire election, ZANU (PF)’s rule and the new Parliament itself.

At the outset let me state that most of us in the MDC understood that the elections would be rigged and that there was very little prospect of us winning. Indeed when we announced our decision to participate we said we would do so under protest and that was because we understood that the playing field was warped and that ZANU (PF) would use every trick in the book to deny the people of Zimbabwe the right to choose candidates of their choice. Whilst some in the MDC were carried away by the huge crowds who attended our rallies, especially in the last two weeks of the campaign, many of us continued to say both privately and publicly in campaign rallies (and to the media) that the elections would be rigged.

In the Sunday Telegraph of the 20th of March 2005 I was quoted extensively in an article entitled “Zimbabwe election has no chance of being fair”. Part of the article reads: “he also suspected that ZANU PF would simply announce the results in its favour, regardless of the votes cast… they have all the machinery in place to rig it… the big question isn’t if they will do it, but how they will do it”. I and others in the MDC were under no illusions. If you ask anyone who attended any of my rallies they will tell you that I had repeatedly said that Mugabe would not allow us to win and that the election should be seen as part of a process not an event.

Sunday Independent (SA)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

In the course of this week, thousands of poor Zimbabweans living in Harare, Bulawayo and other urban centres have had their lives destroyed by an increasingly vicious, brutal and paranoid regime.

On the pretext of a “clean-up”, the regime’s police and army have systematically gone through our cities and towns arresting street vendors, confiscating their goods and destroying the homes of poor people.

While there is no doubt that some of these roadside shops and shacks are an eyesore and unhygienic, and while there is no doubt that virtually all are strictly speaking “illegal”, they have to be seen in the context of the fastest shrinking economy in the world, which in turn is characterised by 80 percent unemployment and rampant inflation.

The state of the economy is a direct result of the insane policies implemented by the Mugabe regime since 1997, when it first decided to send troops to protect its leaders’ interests in the Congo.

The chaotic land invasions orchestrated by the regime from 2000 to secure its grip on power have dealt a near death blow to the economy. The regime’s excessive spending on protecting itself and maintaining the elite’s luxurious lifestyle has resulted in greatly reduced spending on health, housing and education.

The vast majority of the people affected by this callous campaign are victims of these policies. Through no fault of their own they have been driven out of the formal sector and, in order to survive, have had to try to earn an honest living by street vending.

Because the regime has spent billions on a huge military and a bloated, inefficient and corrupt cabinet, rather than on housing, hundreds of thousands have been forced to build shacks so that they have a roof above their heads.