PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, is agitating for war by pouring vitriol and belittling Vice-President Joice Mujuru, according to MDC Renewal Team leader Tendai Biti.
“The hate speech by Grace will lead to one thing and one thing alone, war. If one plants a storm they will surely reap or harvest a tsunami. She has perfected the art of intolerance and politics of hate,” said Biti.
“She has poured vitriol against liberation war fighters and these will not take such things lightly. Grace has exposed what we have always suspected of Mugabe, that he hates himself for being African.”
“One cannot hate other people with the same intensity that his wife has shown without hating themselves,” Biti said to rapturous applause at a hall in the sprawling political hot-bed of Highfield in Harare.
Over the last two weeks, Grace has addressed rallies where she berated factionalism and what she said were attempts by senior Zanu PF officials to oust her 90-year-old husband from power.
Observers however, said the main target of Grace’s vitriolic attacks was Mujuru who leads a faction battling to succeed Mugabe.
Grace also humiliated other senior Zanu PF officials during her rallies such as Zanu PF’s secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa.
Shattered dreams
Biti said Grace’s attacks will have consequences.
“Mugabe has stolen the Zimbabwean dream, we had dreams at independence, dreams that could be achieved but these have been shattered and turned into a nightmare.
“Life has become even more painful. As the Renewal Team our policy department is in the process of crafting a new inclusive economic blueprint that we will try to present to Zanu PF as an alternative to their political ideology that they have tried to foist on the economy.”
“The blueprint will give our people hope and equal opportunity for survival,” said Biti who served as treasury chief under the inclusive government between 2009 and 2013.
The MDC-Renewal Team broke away from Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party following differences over strategy and tactics. They also accused Tsvangirai of undemocratic tendencies.
Tsvangirai bigger thief
“While Mugabe is a thief who stole our collective dream of a prosperous nation after independence, Tsvangirai is a bigger thief who nicked our dream of a new nation, our dream of re-birth in our lifetime,” he said.
“I must say though we make no (apology) for what we did (breaking away). In fact, looking at what Tsvangirai is doing now we feel vindicated and thank God for showing us that we were being led by the greatest fool of our generation.”
He described Tsvangirai as “the democratic struggle’s own version of Morrison Nyathi”, drawing parallels between the ex-premier and the infamous liberation war sell-out Nyathi.
Nyathi is accused of masterminding the massacre of thousands of liberation war fighters by Rhodesian soldiers during the struggle in the 1970s.
“He has sold out the struggle. I asked him to seek the people’s forgiveness following the poll loss last year and he refused. He could not get himself to swallow his pride and admit he had failed the nation.”