The Sunday News
Sunday News Reporter
THE Democratic Opposition Party (DOP) leader Mr Harry Peter Wilson says he will continue singing from the same hymn book with the country’s President Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa on the need to expend energies towards economic revival rather than divisive politics adding that the attack on Zec was unjustified.
He said the continued onslaught on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and its personnel were unjustified and demonstrates how desperate other parties were to seize power through hook or crook.
Mr Wilson said his party’s manifesto paid so much attention to economic resuscitation and improved life standards of Zimbabweans as well as closing the tribal and ethnicity boundaries that he said were a colonial legacy that found expression in the Zimbabwe after independence.
“We are going to work hard towards the revival of the economy. We want genuine job creations where people’s standards of living will be raised. The current Zimbabwe is not what we want. We want an improved infrastructure right from roads, health, education and other developments. We also want service provision to be top notch; the queues will be a thing of the past.
“Our people have been suffering for too long. Most families have been living in poverty and squalid conditions without the necessary service provision. Expert health provision became a preserve of the moneyed clique while the majority was suffering. We will end all that,” he said.
Mr Wilson said they would abolish tribal names denoting regions such as Matabeleland and Mashonaland and rename them Bulawayo and Harare regions.
“We intend to abolish Matebeleland and Mashonaland and rename them as Bulawayo and Harare region to abolish tribal connotations associated with these names that were a result of divisive colonial politics that our independence government never bothered to correct. We will give everyone in Zimbabwe a fresh start by way of calling for a referendum after election to address this abolishment of tribalism and implement devolution of power,” he said.
He said he stood a chance in the elections saying he was the deciding factor as both Zanu PF and MDC have dented histories of failure although the new dispensation pioneered and steered by President Mnangagwa was trying to correct the wrongs wrought by the Mugabe era.
“The other opposition parties such as MDC we see a fairy tale of Alice in wonderland as the BBC interviewer pictured an overexcited childish politician who has dreams of unrealistic expectations of e.g. bullet trains airports all over Zimbabwe and a fairy tale leadership. So I know the voters are voting for me. I represent real change and a new dispensation that will change the culture of politicians who come around every five years and disappear.
“I am happy that we are going to have free and fair elections where the environment will not be tense and emotionally charged. We are prepared to claim our victory and after we have won we will invite every Zimbabwean to the biggest celebration where we will have all band groups from America, Europe and Africa as well as all popular local artistes. After that we will hit the ground running and start our programmes all aimed at creating employment,” said Mr Wilson.
