Tsvangirai vows to confront Mugabe

Tsvangirai vows to confront Mugabe

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By MacDonald Dzirutwe

ZIMBABWE'S opposition leader on Sunday defied President Robert Mugabe's threat to crush mass protests, saying he would confront the challenge "head on" by taking his fight into the ruling party's rural strongholds.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of a faction of the feuding Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has called for peaceful mass action to drive Mugabe from power but his call has provoked threats from the veteran Zimbabwe leader who said his opponents were "playing with fire".

Addressing more than 5,000 supporters in Harare on Sunday, Tsvangirai was defiant.

"Mugabe intimidates people but we are saying we are going head on with the regime ... there is a dark cloud on the horizon and it will soon rain," Tsvangirai said.

"From here we are going into the rural areas to sell them our programme so that the struggle will be fought in the streets and every village until victory," he said.

Tsvangirai has held rallies in Zimbabwe's main cities and towns rallying people to prepare for anti-Mugabe protests. Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist, would not say when the protests would start or give any details.

Political and economic analysts say rising prices of basic foodstuffs, public transport and housing is stoking anger in an urban population already struggling with breaking sewerage systems, water and electricity cuts, uncollected garbage and roads riddled with potholes.

But they say the MDC still needs to shore up support for a unified stand against Mugabe's forces, with the military, police and security agencies still seen firmly behind the man who has ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1980.

On Sunday Tsvangirai mocked the security forces saying they were being called to defend Mugabe when they were also affected by an economic crisis dramatised by the world's highest inflation rate, growing joblessness and shortages of foreign exchange, fuel and food.

Previous MDC protests have been met with tough tactics by Mugabe's security forces, the last being in June 2002 dubbed "final push" to drive Mugabe from power. It failed and led to Tsvangirai's arrest on treason charges.

Tsvangirai, who has led the MDC since its formation in 1999, has been constantly outmanoeuvred by Mugabe but analysts say he has emerged from his party's recent split intent on taking the battle to the veteran 82-year-old leader.

The MDC is also deeply divided after some of Tsvangirai's most senior colleagues broke ranks and swung behind another faction led by former NASA scientist, Professor Arthur Mutambara - Reuters
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