“Chamisa: We went into GNU with no plan,
sat and ate!” screamed the headlines in New Zimbabwe.
Every SADC leader involved in the Zimbabwe
political crisis during the 2008 to 2013 GNU was amused and irritated in equal
measure to read the article.
“We got in the inclusive government and
just sat there, spent five years in there. We came out without doing anything,”
said Nelson Chamisa.
“We will not do that, dialogue must have
timelines that are very clear, the international community must tick us, mark
us on the boxes.”
SADC leaders would be amused that MDC
leaders are finally admitting that they wasted the golden opportunity to
implement the reforms during the GNU. Credit where credit is due, SADC leaders
did try their best to remind Tsvangirai and company to implement the reforms
and they were ignored.
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the
trappings of high office; the ministerial limo, generous salary and unlimited
overseas travel, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. With their
snouts in the feeding trough, MDC leaders “sat and ate” and forgot about the
reforms for five years of the GNU. FIVE YEARS of doing nothing!
SADC leaders made one more desperate
attempt to postpone the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented, according
to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who attended the regional grouping’s Maputo summit in June
2013.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013,
before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections
postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” he explained to Violet Gonda.
“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe
pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the
postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.
“After that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by
the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And
they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they
were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the
elections are done’.”
Once again MDC leaders ignored the
warning and participated in the elections. As expected, Zanu PF went on to
blatantly rig the elections.
“MDC leaders were busy enjoying
themselves in the GNU and forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC leader
in sheer exasperation at just how breathtakingly incompetent and corrupt MDC
leaders had proven to be during the five years of the GNU.
The SADC leaders would have been
irritated by the stupid remark that there was no plan at the start of the GNU.
That is just nonsense, there was a plan. SADC leaders, especially SA President
Thabo Mbeki and his staff, were heavily involved in the drafting of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA). The GPA formed the legal basis of the GNU. The
primary task of the GNU was to implement the of raft democratic reforms
designed to stop a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence that
marred the 2008 elections. Robert
Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara signed the agreement on behalf
of Zanu PF and the two MDC factions respective; as the internal political
parties to implement the reforms. President Mbeki signed on behalf of SADC as
the guarantor of the agreement.
Of course, SADC leaders wanted to see an
end to the political chaos and economic meltdown in Zimbabwe; it was holding
back the region’s development and causing instability in the whole region. As
stated above, SADC leaders did their best to remind MDC leaders to implement
the agreed reforms but were ignore. Of course, they were disappointed that a
golden chance to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis was wasted and irritated that the
upstarts who wasted the chance have chutzpah to blame SADC leaders for not
having a plan.
Even if there was no GPA, as the victims
of the cheating and violence, one expected MDC leaders to go into the GNU
determined to change the law to ensure the cheating and violence will never
happen ever again.
Nelson Chamisa has just launched the MDC’s
policy blue-print titled Return to Economic Recovery, Legitimacy, Openness and
Democracy (RELOAD) calling for a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU. The plan calls for
the implementation of the democratic reforms. He vowed there would be no repeat
of the “sat and ate” failures of the last GNU, now that the MDC has a plan!
As we have seen above it, the “sat and
ate” failures of the last GNU were because MDC leaders are breathtakingly
corrupt and incompetent. Having the GPA and SADC leaders to remind them at
every turn to implement reforms did not make the slightest difference. There is
no one more blind that one who close their eyes and mind and the promise of the
gravy train lifestyle have left many staring with glassy eyes and a black-box
sealed mind.
There is nothing in MDC’s RELOAD plan to address
much less end the MDC leaders’ incompetence and insatiable greed. This is a
plan to get some MDC leaders back on the gravy train so they can sit and eat.
They will not implement any meaningful democratic reforms and, come 2023, Zanu
PF will blatantly rig those elections.
Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess
with unemployment a dizzying 90%, ¾ of the population now living in abject
poverty, health care that all but collapsed, etc. and all because the country
has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship
that rigged elections to stay in power. We need to end the curse of rigged
elections and pariah state if we are ever to get out of this mess.
Zanu PF cannot be trusted to reform itself
out of office and hence the reason the party must step down so we can appoint
an interim administration to implement the reforms. MDC’s RELOAD plan is just an excuse to keep
Zanu PF in power in return for Chamisa and other MDC’s getting seats on the
gravy train.
No SADC leaders much less the more savvy
UN would ever agree to another Zanu PF and MDC led GNU because they know the
two parties will never implement any meaningful reforms and they, SADC, would
be blamed yet again for two “sitting, eating and doing nothing”. SADC leaders
proposed the last GNU to give Mugabe and Zanu PF a soft landing, it would be
insane for SADC to make that foolish mistake again!
SADC produced the Global Political Agreement at the on set of the 2008 to 2013 GNU in which the primary task was for the GNU to implement the raft of democratic reforms and it was none other than MDC leaders who sold-out. It is rich therefore the sell-outs to now blame SADC leaders and claim there was no plan!
ReplyDeleteAnother coup will only drag the nation even deeper into the abyss! These Zanu PF thugs should know by now that they have no answers to the country's teething economic problems and must now accept that they have failed.
ReplyDelete@ Eddie Cross
ReplyDelete“IT is extremely frustrating to sit on the sidelines of this game we are all playing called “getting Zimbabwe back on track”, you wrote.
“We are doing so many of the right things, our team is looking much better than previous teams and slowly we are earning recognition that we may even win a game or two! However, I identify seven areas where we need immediate action or we will be kicked out of the contest.”
What is extremely frustrating is that the nation is stuck in this vicious cycle trying to achieve economic recovery regardless of the criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources under this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. As Long as Zimbabwe remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country will never achieve meaningful economic recovery.
Why are we still trying to make a silk pulse from a sower ear?
There are those who are trying to dismantle the dictatorship so the nation can finally deal with economic problems. It is frustrating that there are being held back by those trying to make the dictatorship work even after 39 years of failing!
The people of Zimbabwe are caught between "the rock and the deep blue sea", as Homer would put it. Whilst the people see the need to demand change given the country's worsening economic meltdown. To do so and then get this transition authority (TA) of a Zanu PF and MDC marriage of convenience is a waste of time as it will change nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe last GNU failed to implement even one reform in five years hence the reason why Zanu PF was able to rig the 2013 and then 2018 elections. The proposed TA, MDC wants the people to go on the street to demand is a watered down version of the GNU and will not get even one reform implemented. Not one!
Chamisa has admitted MDC were in the GNU to sit and eat and accomplished nothing. He wants the TA so he can sit, eat and accomplish nothing again!
I find it impossible to believe that Professor Mthuli Ncube was not aware that corruption was a big problem in Zimbabwe even before his appointment, he took up the job regardless. He has been minister for now 10 months and still corruption is rampant and he has clearly done nothing about it. How he can ever justify taxing the unemployed with his 2% electronic transaction tax whilst doing nothing about those earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a month tax free from looting beggars belief.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Mthuli Ncube knew of corruption, of Zanu PF vote rigging, the regime's shoot to kill policy, etc., etc. He did not care that Zimbabwe is stuck in this mess because Zanu PF rigs elections and, by turning a blind eye to the regime’s excesses, he is helping the regime to stay in power and extending the nation’s suffering.
“I thought this was a good chance for me to contribute,” said Minister Ncube.
You can flatter yourself all you want the reality on the ground tell its own story – Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has got worse and not better. You took the job as Minister of Finance to feed your bloated ego!
The tragedy of Zimbabwe is we have more than our fair share of sell-outs and they come in all profession, shape and sizes!
In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Mail Deputy Editor, Lovemore Ranga Mataire, Chinamasa insists that time was ripe for the introduction of a local currency.
ReplyDeleteHe can witter all he wants the truth is scrapping the foreign currency at the time when the local currency was under increasing inflationary pressure, proof the economic fundamentals were not right, will only take the country back to the days of hyperinflation and shortages. This is voodoo economics!
The real tragedy in is the country has been sinking deeper and deeper into this hell because of the voodoo economics as the immediate apparent cause but with the root cause being our failure to remove the corrupt and incompetent regime behind the voodoo!
@Vigil
ReplyDelete“He was asked by the BBC why Zimbabwe was listed 127th out 180 countries in the world press freedom index and why Reporters Without Borders say harassment and intimidation of journalists by the security apparatus is standard practice. Moyo blathered blithely that the new dispensation was 'unlocking freedoms' and said media houses had been allowed to set up and freely express themselves. No word about opening up television and radio to independent broadcasters or about the Zanu-PF-controlled state press or about the closing of the internet and social media in the government clampdown on protestors in January.”
It is very disappointing that after risking life and limb fighting the white colonial regime for our freedoms and human rights we are still fighting for the same freedoms and human rights 40 years after independence!
After more than a decade of pretending MDC did not put one foot wrong, worse still of blaming everyone else including SADC leaders, as to why the GNU failed in its primary objective of implementing the democratic reforms and stopping Zanu PF rigging elections; the party is finally admitted they "sat, ate and did nothing else!"
ReplyDeleteInstead of Zanu PF watching helplessly as the dictatorship was being dismantled party thugs were relief to see MDC leaders wolfing down the trapping of power Mugabe laid down for them and doing nothing else. It would have been a challenge to keep a few MDC leaders distracted for a week but to keep the whole party distracted for five years was simply unbelievable. Even Mugabe himself must have been pleasantly surprised MDC leaders could be that naive, incompetent and corrupt.
Speaker of parliament, Zanu PF MP Jacob Mudenda, be cried the "serenity" of the GNU and publicly called for Mnangagwa and Chamisa find each other and form the new GNU. He knows that another GNU with MDC will change nothing.
Tendai Biti, one of the MDC VP and MP, has been foaming round the mouth, he too wants the new GNU. He was Minister of Finance in the GNU and is desperate to have his old job back. He is the one who was so impressed by Mugabe he was praising the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant as "unflappable father of the nation and fountain of wisdom!"
MDC supporters and the Zimbabwe populous at large, most notable of all were civic society and private media, cheered and applauded MDC leaders for five years of the GNU oblivious of the fact the latter had taken their eyes off the ball. There are still many people out there who still do not believe MDC leaders sold out, even now with the benefit of hindsight and MDC leaders admitting it themselves.
Nations get the government they deserve and we certainly deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its corrupt and incompetent MDC opposition. If we cannot open our eyes and see the reality that MDC and Zanu PF will never ever implement the reforms then we clearly do not deserve to get out of the hell-on-earth we are in.