We are just back from a rally to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the MDC - we formed the Party ten years ago today! The rally was the biggest we have had in Bulawayo since we formed the Party and the entire leadership was present.
The rally was preceded by meetings of the National Executive and Council and in those meetings it was decided that the MDC would have to toughen its stance in the transitional government.
The President, Morgan Tsvangirai, will now meet Mr. Mugabe on Monday and tell him that the National Leadership has resolved to give their Zanu-PF counterparts one week to begin to implement the full demands of the Global Political Agreement. In addition, the structures of the Party have been instructed to go back to the rank and file and ask them if it was not time to reconsider our participation in the Transitional Government.
This tougher stance was triggered by several events in the past week or so. First, at the SADC Heads of State summit in the Congo, Mr. Mugabe made a five hour speech in which he stated that the parties to the GPA were working well together and there were no serious problems. Secondly, we felt that our willingness to compromise to try and make this deal work was being misconstrued as compliance and that this impression had to be corrected.
But perhaps the most important challenge came from the ordinary members of the Party who felt that the failure to get Zanu PF to play its part in the Transitional Government was stalling recovery and normalisation. It was felt that after the early progress brought about largely by MDC reforms and their presence in the government, that the economy was still in deep trouble and that social service recovery was a long way off.
Zanu PF procrastination was impeding progress on all fronts; in the constitutional reform process the attitude of Zanu PF leadership was holding up progress and their demands that we short circuit the process and accept the Kariba Draft, was totally unacceptable. The failure to consult on all major decisions and to unilaterally appoint people to posts in violation of the GPA had now gone too far and was not tolerable.