ZimEye
By Herbert Mugwagwa
21 February 2012
President Robert Mugabe has threatened to reject or better said expel President Jacob Zuma as facilitator to the Zimbabwean crisis.
Mugabe on Monday said he would unquestionably hold elections this year, even though the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Movement for Democratic Change party have been pressing for reforms first. Concidentally Morgan Tsvangirai has also decided to call it quit and to straightaway jump into elections possibly this year-2012.
The peripettic turn by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on elections could have far-reaching consequences for Zimbabwe and change the course of history not only for the major political players like Mr Robert Mugabe, Mr M Tsvangirai himself and Mr Welshman Ncube in particular, but also for the other actors at senatorial, parliamentary and ward level in general, and indeed, for the whole of Zimbabwe.
No doubt after this watershed election some will never taste the juicy succulent fruit of power again having been thrown into political oblivion. The life of the Government of National Unity has been quite taxing and frustrating especially to the two reluctant bed fellows, Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai who kept impeding each other with a tug-of-war being the order of the day.
On the other hand, Prof Arthur Mutambara seems to enjoy the ride, the joy and the glory that accompanies the power that goes with his position and associating with the two icons, including sitting side by side with President Mugabe’s wife, Grace.
What every politician needs to understand is that you can underestimate Mr Robert Mugabe at your peril. He is extremely old now, in his late eighties, but is still that wily fox that out-manouvred the late Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, outwitted the late Dr Eddison Zvobgo, humbled Dr Joshua Nkomo, stopped Bishop Abel Muzorewa, retired Ian Smith, outclassed George Bush, embarrassed Tony Blair,used(perhaps abused) Thabo Mbeki to broker the GNU, and co-habited with Mr Tsvangirai in an abusive relationship in which the latter was the less mortal and generally the powerless of the two even though he had won an election.
That Mr Tsvangirai has agreed to go into plebiscite with him now could be a mistake unless nature or fate twists things in his favour given the harsh reality of the uneven political field. Mr Mugabe is right to call for elections now for the Government of National Unity which he leads has exceeded its mandated lifespan and, though it was good enough as a transitional arrangement, it is not good enough to catapult Zimbabwe into the world of greatness. Its pros are far outnumbered by its cons. Its greatest achievement to date is that it has brought bread(read sadza) on our tables and halted the death of many by starvation. In spite of having a good number of great leaders like Nelson Chamisa(Technology portfolio), Tendai Biti(arguably best Finance Minister in Africa and (Zimbabwe since independence) and the hardworking, clear-minded Education Minister David Coltart, it has failed to deliver big time because of unnecessary bickering and politicking.
Judging by its performance, the GNU is a monumental failure in the sense that though it brought on board some of the best brains and top notch performers the nation has, it failed to accomplish that which it had set out to achieve in the first place. For one, it had set out to write a new constitution for the country, but unfortunately, instead of the task being placed in the hands of detached, fair and impartial persons, the task was placed in the hands of interested political players who were more interested in cheap political bickerings, settling old scores, scoring political goals and generally fattening their pockets with money from the UNDP than writing a constitution for the country.
However, that money will definitely come in handy in the electoral campaign. Thus, ZANU(PF) became stern and cut the Gordian knot:elections now under the new constitution or the old and hence forced COPAC to come out with a hurried constitution with glaring weaknesses here and there. Thus, it shows that ZANU(PF) is still calling the shots but the uncomfortable power sharing has helped MDC to acquire on -the-job governance training, an apprenticeship that might come in handy tomorrow.
The media reforms have not been made to everyone’s expectation leaving us with a public media that still spawns and puffs out hate speech and is generally disrespectful of the Prime Minister but hides behind the freedom of speech mantra. Licences for broadcasting were recently dished out by Mr Tafataona Mahoso to those sympathetic to the old guard sending others away empty-handed. POSA and AIPPA are still intact. The security sector reformation must be approached with caution because whatever our inherent weaknesses we have security organs that are the best and envy of many in the world who jump at the slightest opportunity to understudy us and train with us. What is perhaps training to reorientate personnel to put Zimbabwe first and not individuals. It will be political naivety to carry out changes recommended by foreigners. But whatever happens to our political landscape, we hope and pray for the best leadership to run Zimbabwe and like the Swazi commander at the advent of their independence we can only say, ‘We don’t know the future but we know Him who has got the future in his hands.’ I wish Zimbabwe well.