Musewe insists on appeasing Mugabe in a new GNU as "the only way out"! by Wilbert Mukori

“Every conflict invariably ends up in a political settlement. A political settlement with ZANU (PF), painful as it may seem, could be our only way out,” started Vince Musewe in his latest article “Mugabe not about to quit”.

 

From the title and the opening remark one can see already why Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess and, worse still, why the prospect of ever getting out is zero. Our slide into the abyss started soon after independence in 1980 and year after year it has gather pace and the route has become more direct.

 

Yes Vince “every conflict invariably ends up in a political settlement” but it is not every political settlement gives you what you wanted. Sometimes the settlement lands you in a worse situation that one you were fighting to escape. Of course we are worse off today politically and economically than we were before independence; that is a historic fact.

 

Ever since independence we have sort to appease Mugabe and his cronies by allowing them to deny us our freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself. Like all tyrannical regimes, give them an inch and they will demand a foot, will be back to a yard, then a mile, etc.

 

"We fought for the right to self-determination, right to vote not one man vote for us all," admitted Mai Mujuru when she launched her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party on 1^st March 2016.

 

If Mai Mujuru and many of her supporters now with her in the new party thought that Mugabe would be contend with “voting for us all” they had their wake up call when the tyrant booted them out of the party in 2014. Those like Mnangagwa who remained in Zanu PF after the Mujuru faction was booted out too got a rude wakeup call; they thought there would be peace and quiet after the Mujuru faction was booted out only to find themselves being haunted out of the party by a new G40 faction.

 

So Vince is not asking us to do anything new in arguing us to seek “a political settlement with ZANU (PF)”, we have done little else for the last 36 years. He is however lying that it is “our way out”; appease tyrants has never work, it has got us deeper and deeper into this mess and it will do the same again this time!

 

Musewe’s political analysis has been flawed because he has stubbornly refused to accept fundamental facts and realities that disproved his thesis. Musewe has refused to accept the fact that if MDC had implementing the GPA democratic reforms during the GNU then Zimbabwe would have had free, fair and credible elections in 2013, for example. He has also refused to accept the fact that there was no other reason why MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years other than that they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

 

Musewe has individuals like Tsvangirai, Biti, Joice Mujuru, etc. as the core players in his team to rebuild Zimbabwe. A nonsensical position given these individuals have already proven beyond all reason doubt that they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

 

Having wasted the golden opportunity to implement the GPA reforms during the GNU we will have to work a lot harder to create other such opportunity. The worsening economic situation is creating one such opportunity; it is clear that the economic situation will not change without political reforms. We, the people, by our collective action or inaction are defining the political path Zanu PF have taken so far and will do in the future.

 

 

The worsening economic situation has triggered the usual resigned and fatalistic response from Zimbabweans. Mugabe’s spin doctors has reinterpreted this as “resilience” and an excuse for doing nothing about implementing political reforms necessary for meaningful economic reforms. The economic situation is set to get a lot worse until the limit of the people’s resilience is finally reached and they are finally forced to agitate for change.

 

Until the people’s resilience limit is reach, the nation is going to continue with its relentless match deeper and deeper into the abyss. It is possible 2018 will find us still in this mode and the nation will hold yet another meaningless election which one Zanu PF faction will rig and economic mess continues much as is the case now.

 

The worsening economic situation cannot go one forever and therefore it is just a matter of time before the people’s resilience limit is finally reached and Zanu PF is forced to accept political reform. Zanu PF will either accept the political settlement Musewe is proposing designed to appease the regime by offering it to retain all its dictatorial powers in return for agreeing to for a GNU. The alternative is for the people to demand the implementation of the 2008 GPA reforms.

 

We are in this political and economic mess because the Zimbabwe electorate have been naïve and gullible so naïve they have blundered from pillar to post not knowing what is in their own economic and political interest. People like Vince Musewe have exploited this public naivety to offer the same failed solution of appeasing Mugabe and Zanu PF as if it is new and “the only way out!”