OPPOSITION Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai says his party's proposed Ukraine-style protest against President Mugabe is on course and he has urged party leaders to ensure a "resounding public expression of discontent".
He said the party was preparing to launch the much-awaited "cold season of discontent", dispelling his critics' doubts that the MDC would go ahead with protests as promised in March.
Tsvangirai told party chairmen at an evaluation meeting on the party's preparedness to roll out anti-regime protests that he was ready to lead people into the streets.
"We are on our own," Tsvangirai told delegates on Tuesday. "All indications show that we have to slog it out alone before we can expect any assistance from elsewhere. I am ready to lead the people into that decisive era."
Tsvangirai said public expression of discontent would help force Mugabe and Zanu PF to the negotiating table for a constitutional conference that would lead to a transitional government.
He challenged provincial chairmen to "ensure that the minimum numbers we expect to come out are ready".
"Strengthen the structures right to the last hamlet and growth point. Knit-up the weak ends and plug up possible fissures. Assure the local leaders that the nation is fully behind them in this endeavour. The MDC leadership is ready for a comprehensive roll-out effort," Tsvangirai promised.
The leader of the splintered MDC has been criticised recently for failing to set a date for the protests but has always defended the delays saying the party could not afford to fail.
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Sources say the MDC is auditing its corps of marshals for crowd control, educating them on the need for a non-violent protest to ensure the nationwide parades are not infiltrated by ruling party- sponsored thugs to disrupt proceedings.
"Beware of the Zanu PF militias in your communities as you select and train your marshals for our main programme. Their brief, as I said earlier, is to destabilise the MDC. They are keen to sabotage the people's project and to infiltrate the party, taking advantage of the October 12 split in the leadership," he warned.
An earlier threat to march on State House in 2003, dubbed the "Final Push", fizzled out, although sources in Zanu PF say the mere threat of protests had seriously unsettled the ruling party leadership.
Government has been edgy since March's MDC congress when Tsvangirai threatened to roll out mass protests to press home demands for solutions to the deteriorating economic and social situation in Zimbabwe over the last decade.
