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<h1 class="entry-title">Chamisa pledges to address Matabeleland grievances</h1>
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By <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/author/newsday/" title="">newsday </a>
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- <span>March 12, 2018</span> </div>
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<a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/nelson-chamisa-8-1.png" rel="bookmark">
<img src="https://www.newsday.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/nelson-chamisa-8-1.png" class="gmail-lazy gmail-attachment-bd-normal gmail-size-bd-normal gmail-wp-post-image gmail-lazy-loaded" alt="" width="495" height="330"><span class="gmail-post_thumbnail_caption">MDC-T vice-president Nelson Chamisa</span> </a>
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</div><p>MDC Alliance presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa has
pledged to address several thorny issues that have remained unresolved
in Matabeleland provinces since independence in 1980.<span id="gmail-more-3096224743987330"></span></p>
<p><strong>BY NQOBANI NDLOVU</strong></p><div class="gmail-code-block gmail-code-block-2" style="margin:8px 8px 8px 0px;float:left">
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<p>Addressing a rally in Dete on Saturday, Chamisa cited
underdevelopment, devolution, Gukurahundi and deployment of non-Ndebele
government officials in the province, as some of the issues that
required urgent attention.</p>
<p>“It’s pointless to try to wash away Gukurahundi. The most logical
thing is to acknowledge that the massacres left deep scars in survivors’
hearts and there is need to heal those psychological wounds through
properly-structured healing processes,” he said.</p>
<p>“My government also promises to come up with a language policy that
ensures that non-Ndebele-speaking people are not deployed in such areas
as Matabeleland as that stifles development.”</p>
<p>Chamisa said his “government in waiting” was ready to roll out
several developmental programmes to transform the province and put it on
the same level with the rest of the country.</p><div class="gmail-code-block gmail-code-block-3" style="margin:8px 0px 8px 8px;float:right">
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<p>Speaking at the same rally, MDC Alliance spokesperson, Welshman Ncube
dismissed the newly-formed opposition National Patriotic Front (NPF),
as a nonentity, arguing no sane Zimbabwean would vote a political party
linked to former President Robert Mugabe.</p>
<p>This came amid reports that Mugabe was the brains behind the Ambrose Mutinhiri-led NPF. </p>
<p>The NPF reportedly boasts of disgruntled Zanu PF members, particularly those belonging to the G40 faction.</p>
<p>In an interview on the sidelines of an MDC Alliance rally in Dete,
Matabeleland North on Saturday, Ncube, who is also MDC leader, ruled out
Mugabe’s NPF causing a major shock in the elections, saying Mugabe’s
alleged involvement is enough to anger them to vote against the new
political party.</p>
<p>Ncube said Mugabe caused so much misery during his 37-year rule and
no sane Zimbabwean “would want to re-live that suffering in their
lifetime”.</p>
<p>“The first premise is that this is a free country. In a democracy,
everyone is at liberty to form and organise their own political party if
they feel that the existing political parties don’t serve their
interests or ideological inclinations.</p>
<p>“It’s a right guaranteed by the Constitution. If those who were in
Zanu PF feel that they are unable to feel at home by joining any of the
other existing parties and they want to create their own party as it
where, let them be,” he said.</p>
<p>“We think it is wrong, for instance, for (President Emmerson)
Mnangagwa to begin to speak as if Robert Mugabe and G40 have no right to
organise themselves, as if action must be taken against them. It is
fundamentally wrong to let the people judge them. The people of this
country know what damage was done, what suffering Mugabe brought to this
country, and I believe that they would meet the full wrath of the
people at an election,” Ncube said.</p>
<p>The Mugabe-linked NPF joins several other opposition parties that have been formed, of late, to challenge Mnagwagwa’s Zanu PF. </p>
<p>Mnangagwa has said elections will be held in a few months’ time,
although legally, they are only due at the tail-end of July to August
21.</p><div class="gmail-code-block gmail-code-block-4" style="margin:8px auto;text-align:center;clear:both">
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<p>“So, while we are surprised that they don’t realise that they did so
much harm to this country, and think they can actually go back to the
people and ask for their votes, that is quite surprising but it is their
right, let them be, we are totally unconcerned about them,” Ncube said.</p>
<p>Zanu PF has reacted to Mugabe’s alleged re-entry into politics, with
the youth league describing the 94-year-old former President, as the
ruling party’s enemy.</p>
<br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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