"This is best time for Mnangagwa, Mwonzora and Chamisa to meet" - for umpteenth time, to what end and purpose W Mukori

 There is no denying that Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess. Anyone with half a working brain would tell you Zimbabwe’s problems are, above all else, man-made problems and all emanating from bad governance. 

The very fact that the economic and political mess is a man-made problem offers one hope; a man-made problem has a man-made solution. What is the solution?

Well, that is the trillion dollar question.

However, what I do know with certainty is that Zanu PF and MDC leaders are not the solution to our problem. I know that because they are the ones who landed us into this mess and after 40 years of dragging us deeper and deeper into the abyss it is naive to still belief they can get us out of the mess. 

If Zanu PF and MDC leaders are so clever as to lead us out of the mess, then why did they, Zanu PF, drag us into the mess in the first place. And, in the case of MDC, have they failed to do so these last 20 years, 5 of which they were in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. 

Of course, it is insane to repeat the same thing over and over again, for 40  and 20 years and counting, and expect a different result. And yet there are some “experts” egging to repeat the same foolishness once again!

“This is best time for Mnangagwa, Mwonzora and Chamisa to sit down together,” argued Daily News and rolled out their so-called experts. 

"These three are the key political players in that Chamisa is very popular and that Mnangagwa prefers to see Mwonzora as the official opposition leader,” argued University of Zimbabwe political analyst, Eldred Masunungure.

"If the mood of talking to each other like all the sides want to portray is there, that would be the most progressive way to push forward a national agenda that is not partisan.”

The last political dialogue between these political leaders ended with the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU) whose principle task was to implement the democratic reforms. They failed to implement even one reform in five years! 

If is one thing to keep wittering on and on about having the same politicians in yet another GNU but what is there to suggest they will do any better!

"The dialogue has to concern not just political issues, but economic ones as well. It will take a very long time for Zimbabwe to recover sufficient economic stability to act as a platform for multi-sector growth,” advised Stephen Chan, Professor of World Politics at the London School of Oriental and African Studies.

At least the 2008 to 2013 GNU had a clear objective; “to implement the democratic reforms necessary to ensure the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections are not repeated ever again”! Since Mnangagwa insists the July 2018 elections were “free, fair and credible”, it was doubtful if anyone was ever going to get the new GNU to implementing any meaningful political reforms. And Professor Chan, in his infantile wisdom is giving the GNU an excuse for shelving political reforms - focus on the economy.

So Professor Chan, is the new GNU going to follow Zanu PF economic policies, as articulated in the party’s Vision 2030 or is it the MDC’s RELOAD or whatever? If it is Vision 2030, why has Zanu PF failed to implement its policies since it has 2/3 parliamentary majority already and does not need the opposition? 

Even if RELOAD were the right economic policies and the country was to enjoy similar economic recovery as in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, the economic had a 12% growth rate in 2009 from a - ve 6% the previous year; at the end of the GNU Zanu PF got back into power because no meaningful political reforms were implemented. History will repeat itself again! 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic mess and political paralysis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The nation has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime for 40 years and counting because the party rigged elections to stay in power. Not many people understand that reality and even few dare to acknowledge it in their proposed solution.

The 2008 to 2013 GNU’s greatest promise as a solution to end the Zimbabwe economic and political crisis was the acceptance by SADC leaders that the 2008 elections were not free, fair and credible. The GNU was tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free, fair and credible. 

Sadly, none of the political leaders in both Zanu PF and the two MDC factions in the GNU had the vision nor political will and courage to implement the reforms. And ever since the GNU, MDC leaders have given up the hope of getting the reforms implemented and have participated in flawed and illegal elections knowing fully well that by doing so they would give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF regime. 

Zanu PF has allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats, a bribe MDC leaders have found irresistible. 

By blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs - same as it was under Mugabe. His “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra was died in the water because investors are a shrewd and savvy lot, they do not do business in a pariah state.

The two University intellectuals’ rolled out by the Daily News proposed solution is doomed to fail because it is premised on cheap deception. The proposed new GNU of Zanu PF and MDC is nothing but the vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship with MDC leaders added in as window dressing mannequin. The shrewd and savvy investors will never be fooled by that, they will know the GNU is the same Zanu PF pariah state by another name.

Zanu PF and MDC leaders will never implement the democratic reforms to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Never! They had the best opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they wasted it. 

Just because Zanu PF and MDC leaders failed to implement the democratic reforms does not mean the reforms are no longer necessary. They are our only ticket out of this economic and political hell-on-earth we have been stuck in for four decades now!    

Just because Zanu PF and MDC leaders have proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent and will never ever implement the democratic reforms does not mean no one else can do it. Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans who understand what the reforms are about and have the knowledge and vision to have the reforms implemented. 

What has stopped the country appointing the body of visionary leaders to implement the reforms is the ordinary people themselves; they have been very slow in understand that MDC leaders, much less Zanu PF, will never implement the democratic reforms. Even after the MDC leaders failed to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, the people have continues to follow the party blindly like sheep to the slaughter. 

The people have not searched for the competent leaders to implement the reforms because they believe, even now with all the benefit of hindsight, that MDC leaders will deliver democratic change. And having people like Masunungure and Chan bombarding them with all this nonsense of a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU as a solution has only helped to confuse povo and not enlighten them! 

Of course, it is infuriating that the goal for free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe has been made that much harder to attain by not just the Zanu PF tyrants but by the opposition MDC sell-outs and many others masquerading as intellectuals, independent media, etc.