(Last Updated on September 24, 2015 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – The details of the secret talks between Zanu PF and MDC-T are coming. VP Mnangagwa will take from Mugabe in August 2016 and Tsvangirai will be enticed to join the new GNU mark 2 with an offer VP post plus a number of ministerial positions for his mates.
“The grand aim is to destroy Joice Mujuru’s threats of forming an alliance with Tsvangirai in 2018, while using the MDC-T to canvass for economic recovery and foreign investment from it’s Western allies,” reported The Telescope quoting a Zanu-PF legislator from Mashonaland West.
MDC failed “to canvass for economic recovery and foreign investment from it’s Western allies” during the 2008 to 2013 GNU so what makes Zanu PF believe Tsvangirai will do so this time.
In June 2009, just a few months after taking oath of as Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai set out on a grand tour of the major Western Capitals to canvass for the lifting of the targeted sanctions against Mugabe and those in his inner circle and for economic assistance. The sanctions stayed and Tsvangirai came back without a single dollar in his begging bowl because none of the Western leaders were convinced Mugabe had embraced democratic values as Tsvangirai insisted.
By failing to get even one single democratic reform implemented during the five years of the GNU Tsvangirai and his MDC friends lost all political credibility with most of the international community included SADC leaders. Indeed the latter complained that MDC leaders “were enjoying themselves and forgot why they were in the GNU” is sheer frustration at the MDC’s incompetence.
The proposed new GNU may achieve its object of stopping a Mujuru – Tsvangirai coalition but nothing more. The Western governments will certainly not be fooled into believe Zanu PF has abandoned its corrupt and tyrannical ways.
As for the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, we must reject this new political marriage of convenience because the two partners will never implement ALL the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. Tsvangirai has already come up with the watered down list of reforms which MDC is demanding must be implemented.
If we want free, fair and credible elections; we would be foolish to demand anything less since they are the pre-requisite for healthy and functional democratic system of government; then we need ALL the 2008 GPA democratic reforms and not some watered down reforms implemented fully. One will have to be very naïve and gullible to believe Tsvangirai and Mnangagwa will ever fully implement ALL the 2008 GPA reforms. Not even if they were given a thousand years to do it!
We have waited for 35 years already for our first free, fair and credible elections; we should not accept waiting another day more! If there is one thing we must get right once and once for all at lost last it is to restore the basic and fundamental right of every Zimbabwean to a meaningful free and democratic vote not only for this generation but for all time!
If Mnangagwa thinks Zimbabweans will the enthralled to hear that Mugabe is finally retiring and fall behind this GNU Mark 2 then he will have to think again. Yes Mugabe was the figure head of the Zanu PF dictatorship but we are smart enough to know that this Zanu PF dictatorship will grow a new head and thrive. We want the GPA reforms fully implemented and completely dismantle the dictatorship and we will fools to entrust him to carry out this important and critical task.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF friends must step down and allow an independent body to implement all the GPA reforms and then supervise the holding of free, fair and credible elections. Only a new government emerging from these elections will have the mandate of the people of Zimbabwe and the confidence and support of the whole international community to address the country’s teething political and economic problem.
The economic hardships brought on Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown are real and getting worse all the time. The economic situation is socially and politically unsustainable and Zanu PF must accept the reforms now and not waste time in this modern day version of the Ian Smith – Abel Muzorewa internal settlement!