THE Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC Alliance has set the ball rolling in its preparation for the 2018 elections with its 13 committees holding inaugural meetings to draw their action plans.
BY OBEY MANAYITI/PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
“Half of the committee have met and some are meeting today and tomorrow and others over the weekend and we hope by Thursday next week we will be able to receive their reports and plans of action of how they propose to implement their terms of reference,” MDC Alliance spokesperson Welshman Ncube said.
Some of the committees include the fundraising committee and research and policy committee both chaired by People’s Democratic Party leader Tendai Biti (pictured), liaison and civil society Committee (Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume), elective committee (Multi-Racial Christian Democrats (MCD) leader Mathius Guchutu), legal and electoral reform committee (MDC-T secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora).
Security and intelligence committee is chaired by ZimPF leader Agrippa Mutambara, the mobilising and organising committee (MDC-T vice-chairman Morgan Komichi) while communications is chaired by Ncube.
Ncube said they were also following with keen interest reports that Zanu PF was intimidating people in rural areas, so that they shy away from registering to vote freely.
The MDC leader urged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to remove the proof of residence requirement, where traditional leaders and Zanu PF local leadership take advantage to intimidate people.
Ncube said they were launching district and constituency voter mobilisation activities which for now have forced them to suspend provincial launches of the alliance.
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“What we are doing at district and constituency level is to launch mobilisation rallies basically for the voter registration exercise. We asked all the districts and provinces to organise events as part of the mobilisation exercise.
“A particular constituency will chose an event or exercise which is most effective as part of visibility to encourage voters to register. We will resume the provincial launches once we are done with the voter registration exercise,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Biti-chaired policy committee said it was crafting a common manifesto focusing mainly on reviving the economy.
The policy committee has Biti as chairman, Tapiwa Mashakada from MDC-T, Christopher Monera of the MDC, Will Muleya from MCD and Transform Zimbabwe’s Dale Dose.
“The committee is tasked with producing a sound policy document which will reflect the direction that an MDC Alliance government will take after the 2018 election. The policy document is expected to comprehensively deal with the land question which has been a contested subject for a long time,” the committee said in a statement.
The manifesto will also add flesh to the alliance’s economic solutions and vision of creating a $100 billion economy within 15 years.
“The blueprint is also expected to detail the alliance’s job creation agenda against a background of a highly-informalised economy which has been arrested in decades of de-industrialisation owing to Zanu PF’s poor economic policies and unfriendly laws,” it added.
