THE ROUGH ROAD TO FREEDOM…On this day, 11 September 1999, the MDC was launched at Rufaro Stadium.
But the journey did not begin there.
Before the launch, we undertook a nationwide stakeholders’ consultative process that culminated in the National Working People’s Convention, held from 26–28 February 1999 in Harare. It was convened by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), alongside representatives from more than 40 civic organisations.
We were part of that historic process, representing students under the ZINASU banner.
That gathering laid the groundwork and called for a vigorous alternative political movement, directly leading to the formation of the MDC later that year.
There are important lessons in how the MDC was formed and, more importantly, in what went into it before the movement was formally announced.
For starters, the MDC was inherently a people’s movement, not a political party.
In my considered view, the mistake was prematurely turning this great and glorious movement idea into a narrow political-party vehicle, essentially reducing ourselves to a parliamentary and local-authorities party, far removed from the original idea of conveying and midwifing real change in Zimbabwe.
Different organisations, with different interests, came together to constitute this variegated movement, to birth and deliver a new order in Zimbabwe.
At the launch of the MDC on 11 September 1999, if you had gone to Morgan Tsvangirai, Gibson Sibanda, or any of my colleagues in that stadium and told us that 27 years later, in 2026, we would still be fighting ZANU PF, we would probably have dismissed you or disciplined you!
We were so convinced it would be a walkover. A sprint. A walk in the park.
But the road has been rough. The walk has been tough.
I remember going to a restaurant along Third Street and Josiah Moyo called The Point Restaurant. They served very nice Portuguese chicken and had a bar.
I went there for lunch with Learnmore Jongwe and bumped into Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu, who was enjoying a beer in the presence of Munyaradzi Huni, a journalist with Zimpapers.
We almost had a fight with Chimbetu because we were telling him he was counter-revolutionary for singing “Kuti kuState House kure,” a song he had sung against us in the democratic movement.
We were saying: “Iwe mudhara iwe, you say kuState House kure, iyo State House iri apo!”
It was a big fight! In those days, cancel culture was huge. We had a couple of individuals, including Andy Brown and others, whom we thought were anti-people, so we would boycott their shows.
And I was confidently and boisterously saying: “State House is near.”
I was saying Chopper was sponsored by Zpf. Chopper was correct.
Indeed, State House has been far.
And here we are, just around the corner. Almost there. We cannot have come this far not to arrive.
Arriving is the only logical conclusion.
Having come this far, we will definitely get there.
The enthusiasm we had as young people then teaches me an important lesson: a struggle is not a picnic.
It is not some romantic escapade where everything is honky-dory.
Enthusiasm can easily turn into disappointment, disillusionment and despondency.
But we have chosen to defeat all that negativity and remain focused on the goal.
Democratic and citizenocratic victory in our lifetime remains our objective. And we will get there.
Thank you, Zimbabwe, for believing and standing with us.
They have tried every trick to divide us and break us. But they have hardened us through three decades of struggle for real change and true freedom.
Many have lost property, jobs and opportunities. Many have been killed.
We have been abused, incarcerated and terrorised. We refuse to be compromised. We refuse to be swallowed.
We stand firm. We remain strong , committed and loyal to the citizens struggle for dignity and prosperity.
WE, THE CITIZENS.
We are emerging stronger.
And we are retooling!
Until victory!
#TheNew #FreshStart #Godisinit
Fellow citizens,
I am truly overwhelmed by your incredible support, and I can’t wait to see you all!
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IT WAS ALL ABOUT ED POWER GAMES…ED worked with Tshabangu to engineer illegal recalls that ultimately handed ZANU-PF a fraudulent two-thirds parliamentary majority, in clear violation of both the law and democratic principles.
Unfortunately, when the recalls began, many failed to recognize that this was part of a long-planned strategy orchestrated by ED. It was never about the claims that the CCC lacked a constitution or formal structures. In Zimbabwe you can not submit party candidates to ZEC without a party constitution. Parliament and Mudenda were in possession of CCC constitution but chose to ignore it on instructions from his Zpf Boss. Those no constitution and nil structures narratives were merely a smokescreen.
Some individuals, driven by their disagreements with Nelson Chamisa, celebrated the recalls, unaware that they were in fact celebrating the erosion of democracy and the weakening of our nation. The foundation for the current constitutional amendment agenda was laid in 2023 through those engineered and unlawful recalls.
However, all is not lost. The real struggle lies ahead. The task before us is to continue fighting for a Citizens' Government—one that reflects the true will and aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe. The future of our country depends on the determination of its citizens to defend voice, agency and fundamental rights .