The elections on 31st July came and went. Most
Zimbabweans worldwide were shocked, disillusioned and outraged by the election
results.
Bright Manjengwa, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, Caston Matewu and Abel Kamwendo
It was within this
backdrop of despondency that the president himself Morgan Richard Tsvangirai
addressed the party faithful in Croydon on the 26th of October 2013. A lot of
questions were also being asked and many wondered if we would ever see a
democratic Zimbabwe. Some UK and
Ireland branches were represented by their executives and our branch,
Southend-on-Sea, was well represented. Three of our branch members, Patty
Murwira, Maidei Ali, Charles Dliwayo and Abel Kamwendo were selected to be part
of the security and Protocol detail.
Like most
disgruntled Zimbabweans, we had many questions to ask and but due to time
constraints only fielded five of them during the meeting with the president.
Stanford Biti , Southend branch chairperson, presented the questions for South
East District to the president and the
rest of the other districts followed suit.
Dr Tsvangirai acknowledged that people were in shock and
angry at the blatant theft by the Robert Mugabe regime. He explained to the
party cadres how the election was lost, in fact stolen from us. To him, it was
not an election but "A military intelligence run operation". Zanu PF
started their ballot rigging preparations for the 2013 election during the
Presidential election runoff in 2008. Dr
Tsvangirai implored cadres to be patient and reassured us that the leadership
in Harare are trying to find ways to effect a legal audit of the ballot.
Preparations for the next election are already underway, he said.
On the UK and
Ireland External Assembly, he regretted that Harvest House had downgraded the
Province to a coordinating committee. He promised to discuss the issue with the
rest of the leadership in Harare at the next Congress. He preached unity both
in the diaspora and Zimbabwe for the party to succeed in the next election.
When he questioned our [diaspora’s] commitment by asking what action we took on
Election Day, the Southend-on-Sea branch was the only one that demonstrated at
the Zimbabwe embassy. Stanford Biti informed the President that our Branch
“shut down the embassy”.
Out of the 5
questions we raised as a branch, only 2 were responded to by the president due
to time restrictions. We hope he will get back to us in due course with the
rest of answers. Everybody pledged their support for the party and work ahead.
Now we look toward preparing for the next election.
Abel Kamwendo
Committee Member
