‘MDC can go hang’ – Chiwenga




VP Chiwenga
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PRESIDENT Mnangagwa reached out to the MDC Alliance after his July 30 election victory, a gesture the vanquished opposition party rejected as they chose to disrespect him, hence zanu-pf would return the gesture, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said here yesterday.

In his Vote of Thanks after the President’s keynote address, VP Chiwenga slammed MDC-Alliance for disrespecting the country’s leadership.

Zanu-PF beat MDC-Alliance, garnering over two thirds majority, with President Mnangagwa wrapping up the Presidency in the first round.

The MDC-Alliance attributed its loss to alleged rigging despite the fact that they lost in the country’s widely hailed electoral contest to date.

Said VP Chiwenga: “President, you personally stretched out your hand to the opposition after zanu-pf’s July 30 landslide victory.

“But the opposition spurned that hand. You have since withdrawn the well stretched hand.

“All of us follow, principally those of us in Parliament are very happy that our Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs (Ziyambi Ziyambi), acting in his capacity as leader of the House (in Parliament), sent a clear signal of paying back the opposition in the hard coin they have tossed us. They have chosen to disrespect our leader who is the Head of State of our nation (President Mnangagwa).”

“We have no reason to handle them with the respect they have voluntarily rejected,” VP Chiwenga said to applause from delegates.

Last week, Minister Ziyambi chastised opposition parliamentarians for seeking to raise questions with Government ministers yet they chose not to recognise President Mnangagwa, who appointed the ministers.

Minister Ziyambi said ministers would only respond to questions from opposition parliamentarians once they recognise President Mnangagwa as the winner of the July 30 Presidential elections.
The MDC Alliance has, ironically, been agitating to be included in Government.

VP Chiwenga said zanu-pf stands by the President to see him attain his Vision 2030 that seeks to ensure the country attains a middle income status in 12 years’ time.

President Mnangagwa, he said, had reset the direction of the party.

Chiwenga has maintained that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is the ruling Zanu PF party’s sole presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, saying there is no vacancy for the post.

Speaking in Esigodini, Matabeleland South province at the party’s annual national people’s conference today, the Vice President and Second Secretary of the party urged the party to be wary of those trying to fan unnecessary divisions within the top leadership through making reckless utterances.

“We have often heard abrasive and discordant voices striving to know better than the collective will and wisdom of the party, voices which shun party platforms for fora outside and against the party. After your clear address today Cde President, restless tongues must go quite,” he said.

“I want it heard now and far that from now until 2023 when next elections fall due, you are our one and only presidential candidate. As Zanu PF, we believe in Cde Mnangagwa’s capabilities to propel the country to an upper middle income economy,” added Vice President Chiwenga.

The Vice President also pledged the party and government’s commitment to ensuring that the national economic agenda that has been set by the president is realised.

Meanwhile various party wings, affiliate organisations as well as friends such as China and Palestine delivered solidarity messages at the conference.

– Herald