MDC-T interim president Thokozani Khupe, through her spokesperson Khaliphani Phugeni, has distanced her party from the anti-corruption nationwide protests pencilled for July 31st.
Phugeni told the Daily News on Sunday that demonstrating in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic would be stupid as this will put lives at risk for the sake of making a political statement. Said Phugeni:
The fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) is a collective responsibility and we cannot reverse the gains we have made so far as a nation in combating its spread for political expediency.
What is there to demonstrate? Against who? We are not going to be part of that because for us as a party, people’s lives are more important than scoring cheap political goals.
It will be stupid for any political party to do that.
The calls for anti-corruption protests are being led Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) leader, Jacob Ngarivhume, with the MDC Alliance and Godfrey Tsenengamu’s Front for Economic Emancipation in Zimbabwe (FEEZ) pressure group having endorsed the protests.
After sceptics suggested that Ngarivhume was being used by a ZANU PF faction in calling for protests, the TZ leader finally gave in to demands for him to call for the party to go. He tweeted on Saturday:
So I now stand with the silent majority who are calling out – #ZanuPFmustgo not as a political position but a critical step to save lives.