Let’s rebuild and unite – Mnangagwa
Zimbabweans should unite to rebuild the economy and put behind them the election period when six people were killed after the army stepped in to quell post-election protests, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Monday.
In his first national address since being declared winner in a disputed presidential vote, Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe had shown the world it could hold a free and peaceful vote but blamed the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for violence that followed.
“It is now time to put the election period behind us and embrace the future,” Mnangagwa said during Heroes Day commemorations in Harare.
“We should never be deterred by temporary setbacks or regrettable events which we encounter in our cause to build an open, free and democratic, prosperous Zimbabwe.”
The July 30 election, the first since Robert Mugabe was forced to resign after a coup in November, was cast as a watershed vote that could pull a pariah state back into the international fold and spark an economic revival.
But the violence that erupted after Mnangagwa’s Zanu-PF party was declared the winner of the national elections and the heavy-handed army response was another reminder that Zimbabwean society remains deeply divided even after Mugabe’s rule of almost four decades.
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, Mnangagwa’s main rival, who has challenged the election result at the Constitutional Court, said in a Heroes Day message that Zimbabwe was a broken nation in need of healing and reconciliation.
The vote, he said, had been held in a scandalous way.
“We must resolutely do everything in our power under our constitution to say ‘No’ to fraud and repression in either our electoral politics or our justice system,” Chamisa said.
Zanu-PF is expected to file its opposing papers on Wednesday, as Monday and Tuesday are holidays. –
‘We must resolutely do everything in our power to say “No” to repression’ Nelson Chamisa
MDC LEADER