“In 2009, the late former president Robert Mugabe was forced into forming a GNU with the MDC's late and much loved founding father, Morgan Tsvangirai, after the hotly disputed 2008 polls,” reported Daily News.
“The short-lived GNU was credited with stabilising the country's economy which had imploded in the run-up to those elections.”
This is the kind of foolish narrative that one has often heard from the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders and their apologists. The primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was not, I repeat, was NOT to “stabilise the country’s economy which had imploded in the run-up to the 2008 elections!”
The international community including SADC and AU refused to accept Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections as free and fair and to recognise Zanu PF’s claim as the legitimate government given the blatant cheating and wanton violence by Zanu PF. In the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by Robert Mugabe on behalf Zanu PF, by Morgan Tsvangirai on behalf of MDC-T and Arthur Mutambara on behalf of the smaller MDC faction and by President Thabo Mbeki of SA on behalf of SADC as the guarantor; it was agreed the three Zimbabwean parties would form a Government of National Unity (GNU).
The primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the GPA and to draft a new democratic constitution for Zimbabwe and to oversee the holding of fresh free, fair and credible elections. The primary purpose of the GNU was not make sure the next elections will NOT be a repeat of the the 2008 elections.
Indeed, the Daily News reporter agree with the above analysis because he/she agrees the 2008 elections were not free and fair.
“In those polls (2008), Tsvangirai beat Mugabe hands down. However, the results were withheld for six long weeks by stunned authorities - amid widespread allegations of ballot tampering and fraud, which were later revealed by former bigwigs of the ruling Zanu-PF,” continued the Daily News report.
“In the ensuing sham presidential run-off, which authorities claimed was needed to determine the winner, Zanu-PF apparatchiks engaged in an orgy of violence in which hundreds of Tsvangirai's supporters were killed - forcing the former prime minister to withdraw from the discredited race altogether.
“Mugabe went on to stand in an embarrassing and widely condemned one-man race in which he declared himself the winner.”
Sadly for Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reforms in five years of the GNU. Not even one reform!
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office, ministerial limos, very generous salaries, a US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough, the MDC leaders forgot about the reforms. They did not want to up set Mugabe after all the generosity he had shown them.
“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders are enjoying the gravy train good-life, they will not rock the boat!) Zanu PF cronies boasted when asked why MDC were not implementing the reforms.
SADC leaders tried to have the up coming July 2013 Zimbabwe elections postponed until the democratic reforms could be implemented - further proof the GNU was about implementing reforms and not “stabilising the economy”!
“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,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist 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.
“And 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’.”
Tsvangirai et all ignored the SADC leaders’ advice just as they had ignored the advice to implement the reforms through out the five years of the GNU.
Morgan Tsvangirai, his MDC friends and their apologists have peddled the false narrative that the primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to stabilise the Zimbabwe economy because they did not want to admit they had sold out and failed to implement even one democratic reform.
If MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms the 2013 and all elections since would have been free, fair and credible. If Zimbabwe did not have a competent government then at least it would have one that is democratically accountable to the people - a good start. Instead the country is still stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical de facto one-party dictatorship and the vote rigging Zanu PF regime.
The Daily News report’s primary purpose was to promote an new Zanu PF and MDC GNU; “many Zimbabweans have welcomed the push by the MDC to hold talks with Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF, with a view to forming a new GNU, in a bid to end the country's myriad challenges.”
If the “myriad of challenges” the new GNU is to address are economic then the proposed Zanu PF and MDC GNU is will fit the bill. If the “myriad of challenges” include implementing democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections then another Zanu PF and MDC GNU is a waste of time. If the two parties failed to implement even one meaningful reform; which, I repeat, was the primary purpose of the 2008 GNU; it is naive to believe they will do so now.
Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office. The party must step down to create the political space for the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the reforms and clear the path for the holding of the country’s first free, fair and credible elections.
Zanu PF has rigged elections ever since the 1980 elections. The party rigged the July 2018 elections, the regime is illegitimate and must step down. It is an outrage that Zanu PF has held this nation to ransom for 40 years now and it is insane to allow this to continue for one more day, especially now with the country’s very stability and survival on the line!
It is true that "Morgan Tsvangirai, his MDC friends and their apologists have peddled the false narrative that the primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to stabilise the Zimbabwe economy because they did not want to admit they had sold out and failed to implement even one democratic reform."
ReplyDeleteThe truth is SADC leaders knew the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the reforms and stop repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence. Throughout the GNU the SADC leaders had nagged MDC leaders to implement the reforms. "Follow the GPA roadmap" they told Tsvangirai and company again and again.
When MDC leaders ignored SADC leaders' last minute attempt to have the elections postponed until electoral reforms were implemented as reported by Dr Ibbo Mandaza; it was the last straw. SADC leaders were disgusted by Tsvangirai and company. "MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves in the GNU, they forgot why they were there!" remakes on SADC diplomate in sheer disgust!
What I cannot understand is why a supposedly respectable News Paper like Daily News would still be peddling the same the GNU was for stabilising the economy nonsense, even now with all the benefit of hindsight! This is like the A Level Geography teacher still wittering about the earth being flat!
The sheer incompetence of our opposition leaders, media practitioners and the Zimbabwe public who ever today have no clue what the 2008 GNU was is shocking. No wonder the country is in a real mess and, worst of all, with such village idiots for citizens, has no chance of ever getting out!
@ News Day
ReplyDelete“FROM the look of things, it is not too late for Zimbabwe to fix the challenges she is facing.
It would seem solutions proffered do not favour the Zanu-PF government, but one way or the other, it has to be a painful journey if we are to prosper again.
The Judiciary should be given its independence. Looters should be locked up. The catch and release game should come to an end.
Parliament should give the opposition breathing space.
Out electoral bodies should work without interference.
The solution is inclusive institutions that work by extension that means a future without oppressive individuals.”
If the purpose of this report was to give a list of the democratic reforms the nation needed then the writer scores 100%!
True enough, implementing any of these reforms would seriously undermine Zanu PF’s goal of retaining absolute power at all cost. And so as long as Zanu PF remain in power none of these reforms will ever see the light of day. The suggestion by the author that Zanu PF can ever be trusted to implement the reforms is therefore wishful thinking.
Given the seriousness of the economic and political situation in Zimbabwe; 34% of the population are living in extreme poverty, basic services like education and health care have completely collapsed, etc.; one is expecting solutions to end the crisis and not cloud cuckoo land wishful thinking.
@ Garikai Gutuza
ReplyDelete“GNU never stabilised the economy it was multi currency system that came at a time when the South African Rand was strong against the US dollar Things will be better in Zim only if the SA rand gains because that's where everything come from even if you do the gnu today nothing is going to work.”
The two economic policy changes that had the greatest impact on Zimbabwe’s economic recovery of 12% growth in 2009 from a -6% the year before were the scrapping of the Z$ and the lifting of price controls.
The Z$ was scrapped in November 2008, three months before the GNU was sworn into office in February 2009, and literally overnight Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation fall from 500 billion percent to zero. All economic activity that had all but stopped because people had lost confidence in the value of the Z$ could finally take place.
It was the newly formed GNU that lifted the price controls, freeing economic activity even further!
Yes Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends saw the economic recovery as their achievement and decided to sit back and forget the more difficult task of implementing the democratic reforms. The suggestion that they did not implement the reforms because they were busy fixing the economy is a blatant lie and feeble excuse because they had all the time, five years, to implement the reforms.
The real tragedy here is that there are many Zimbabweans out there who still have no clue what the 2008 GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold-out big time, even now with all the benefit of hindsight! This is like a A level student who is failing to grasp grade one stuff!
Like it or not these are adult whom we have no choice but to grand them the right to vote and all the other freedoms and rights even when it is clear they have the mentality of a child! Sadly, as long as we have a naive and gullible electorate we will never ever have a healthy and functioning democracy.
Democracy and good governance comes with a price tag - a knowledgable and diligent electorate. A naive and gullible electorate is as worthless as a truck load of trillion Z$ notes in 2008! The tragedy is we cannot scrap the naive and gullible electorate as easily as we scrapped the Z$ in 2008!
@ Sunday Mail
ReplyDelete“Rolling protests followed and quickly snowballed. Subsequently, the United States-based Organisation of American States (OAS) a regional body bringing together the 35 supposedly independent states of the Americas purportedly audited the vote and issued a preliminary report on November 10 claiming it had discovered "incontrovertible evidence of an electoral process marred by grave irregularities".
On the same day, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, tweeted: "Fully support the findings of the @OAS_official report recommending new elections in #Bolivia to ensure a truly democratic process representative of the people's will. The credibility of the electoral system must be restored."
It supplied the much-needed fodder for the opposition.
In fact, the Washington DC-headquartered organisation effectively put its finger on the scale and tipped it against Morales, who was described as a "wannabe dictator".
All the while, the left-leaning Aymaran Indian politician, who first came to power in 2006 as Bolivia's first indigenous President, was coming under withering attacks from the US administration, its vested and abiding press and other regional countries that were pressing for a fresh election.
The white man says give a dog a bad name and hang him, while our forefathers told us that when a hyena wants to eat its cubs, it first accuses them of smelling like goats.”
The attempt to put President Trump’s undemocratic behaviour on par with Zanu PF’s dictatorial ethos is perverse, to say the least.
Whilst President Trump has shouted “Stop counting the vote! The Democrats are stealing the elections!” Those responsible for the election have ignored him because he never produced any evidence of fraud and the vote counting continued.
In 2008 when it was clear Zanu PF was losing the elections, the party did not shout “stop counting the vote!” They stopped the counting of the votes and it took six weeks to count 5 million votes! It took six weeks to cook the result to ensure Tsvangirai did not have 50% of the votes and thus force a run-off.
Zanu PF thugs saw to it that the voters were dually punished for rejecting the party in the March 2008 vote; over 500 were murdered in cold blood, hundreds of thousands were beaten and/or raped and millions were harassed and cowed into submission. The run-off result was never in doubt, a warping 84% victory for Mugabe.