Is Musewe with his weekly HOPE playing Speedy Gonzales or Slowpoke Rodriguez. By Wilbert Mukori

“ZANU (PF) has failed to unlock the potential of our country. The key reason for this is the lack of an inclusive national socio economic vision, chronic leadership failure, patronage, greed, corruption, lack of accountability, and their inability to manage and implement consistent economic policies and developmental projects,” wrote Vince Musewe in his latest article.

 

No thinking Zimbabwean would ever dispute that; God knows we have gone over this a million times a day this last year alone!  The billion dollar question is; what the hell are we going to do about it?

 

“We all know that where there is no vision, any nation will fail and Zimbabwe is classic example of this. We will change that,” continued Vince.

 

“PDP's economic blue print HOPE (Holistic Program for Economic Transformation) acknowledges these facts and has identified 13 economic drivers that are key to creating a vibrant and viable economy which is inclusive and allows all Zimbabweans, regardless of race, gender or political affiliation, to pursue their ambition unhindered by the government. Economic freedom is therefore key.” He continued along the same vein and promised the readers detailed analysis of the 13 economic drivers will follow in the next 13 weeks!

 

Wait a minute! Vince has himself admitted above that Zimbabwe has failed to realize its real economic potential because of “the lack of an inclusive national socio economic vision, chronic leadership failure, patronage, greed, etc., etc. and, (most important of all in my view) lack of (democratic) accountability”.

 

Nowhere has Vince said Zimbabwe’s chronic economic failures were due to the opposition parties failing to come up with viable economic blue prints. Indeed ever since MDC was launched in 1999, they have come up with one economic blue print after another without failure. None of their programmes have ever seen the light of day, so their true value what never put to the taste; because Zanu PF has never relinquished political power to MDC or anyone else, hence the reason why lack of democratic accountability is the most important issue here.

 

So why is PDP wasting the nation’s time with 13 weeks of detailed analysis of its economic blue print when, without political reforms and thus democratic accountability, the blue print will never see the light of day just as happened to all the other opposition programmes for the last 36 years?

 

Vince Musewe is comparable to the mouse who suggested tying a bell on cat so that all the mice will be warned of the cat. Great idea, agreed the other. The idea fell flat on its face, when no one volunteered to tie the bell. It was just inconceivable for one creep up to the cat without waking it when one is carrying a bell designed to ring even louder the more stealth step one makes!

 

We really should not be wasting time, 36 years after independence, talking about Vince’s bell solution because we already know the solution.

 

Mugabe and Zanu PF have continued in their corrupt ways implementing economic policies that defy common sense because they are not accountable to the people. The solution is clear enough; change the country’s political system so that Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies are democratically accountable to the people. SADC in 2008 produced a list of democratic reforms the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai were tasked to implement.

 

SADC’s list of GPA democratic reforms did not ask MDC to produce an economic blue print because they knew the nation could deal with this in good time but only after the political transformation has taken place.

 

MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years of the GNU, as we know. We are back to where we were in 2008; if we want economic transformation we must first implemented the 2008 GPA democratic reforms! Instead of concentrating on implementing the reforms we are being distracted by Vince Musewe who still wants the nation to concentrate of economic blue prints.

 

So we have explained to Speedy Gonzales that if the bell is to save its purpose of warning the mice of the cat, then the bell must be so sensitive it must ring even at the twitch of a muscle. It would be impossible for any mouse to creep on the cat and install such a bell. It is therefore tedious to have to listen to Speedy Gonzales wittering on about the colour of the bell, its ringing tone, the double reef knot to tie the string, etc.

 

Is Vince Musewe’s wittering on and on about this HOPE economic blue print a calculated political distraction?

 

A friend of mine was telling me the other day of how Mugabe has undermined all Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions and very façade of life by deploying his spies and double agents everywhere. Didymus Mutasa, when he was the Minister in the President’s Office to whom the CIO reported, confirmed how extensive and intrusive Mugabe’s CIO network is. “We know everything about everyone!” boasted Mutasa!

 

I have not made up my mind whether Vince Musewe is a Zanu PF double agent planted to ensure the opposition do nothing about implementing the important GPA reforms, just as the regime’s double agents successfully stopped any reforms being implemented during the GNU. During the GNU MDC wasted five years messing around drafting the weak and feeble new constitution and kicked the reforms into the tall grass. This time the opposition is wasting its time producing a perfect economic blue print and implementing wishy-washy electoral law reforms.

 

On the other hand, it is possible that Vince Musewe has genuinely failed to understand that there is nothing that ever be accomplished on the economic front until there is real democratic reform on the political front. Or is Speedy Gonzales none other than his exact opposite, Slowpoke Rodriguez!

 

 

 

Is Vince Musewe with his weekly HOPE updates, playing Speedy Gonzales or Slowpoke Rodriguez!