MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora has said his party is brewing a shocker for the nation ahead of the crucial harmonised elections pencilled for next year.
This is despite his party having fared dismally and failing to secure a single seat in the March 2022 by-elections after triggering them through massive recalls.
Speaking Thursday during This Morning on Asakhe, a programme hosted by CITE on Twitter Space, Mwonzora said they were not moved by their poor performance in the by-elections adding his party was getting stronger each day ahead of next year’s plebiscite.
“For us, the by-elections are a bygone; we did not do well but we are not perturbed by that,” said Mwonzora.
“As I said in one of my tweets, quoting Nelson Mandela, a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying. We are not worried that we failed because this world is full of successful people who once failed. If you go to Abraham Lincoln in the United States, if you go to Robert Mugabe, if you go to Emmerson Mnangagwa, to Nelson Mandela, all these leaders at one point in time, failed in their lives. Mnangagwa was beaten by Blessing Chebundo in a parliamentary election at one point in time. And so these failures, these stumbles that we come across are a source of motivation to us right now.”
The MDC-T leader said he was very happy that the party is now doing what is correct.
“You have seen little crowds of people who are leaders at the local level and this is very encouraging,” he said.
“We are rebuilding our organisation and come 2023 we will be an extremely potent force and we are brewing a shocker for the nation. There is absolutely no question about it.”
He went on to advise other opposition parties not to rely much on their past victories.
“I want to quote Garry Kasparov, the Russian, Soviet Union champion, who says that you should not glory in your past victory,” he said.
“You think that what was there on the 26th of March 2022 is the same on the 11th of September 2022, things have changed. Society has changed, things are moving and so on. So we should not remain fossilised in the past. We have failed before we have risen in the MDC.”
He said the MDC had a history of falling and rising in elections since its entry in 2000.
“In 2000 it scored very well, almost getting a majority in Parliament,” said Mwonzora. “In 2005 it went down, lost its parliamentary advantage, and I think lost about 11 seats. Then in 2008, the MDC went up, winning the presidency, winning Parliament, and all the Councils. In 2013 we went down. In 2018 when we were together we did very well and our presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa did very well in the presidential election. Of course, he thinks that it is only his. His achievement is not on the team, but that is his opinion but did objectively well in 2018.”
Mwonzora added: “In the by-election, we did badly. We are now on the upward swing. This is the trend of the MDC. Those historians out there who care to study the MDC must find that there is a trend. So we are happy that we are on our way up and we will provide a shot come 2023.”
