"Tsvangirai is personally handling coalition talks," says Gutu - and who is implementing reform? By N Garikai

There is no doubt that the GNU offered the people of Zimbabwe the best chance ever to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had five years in which to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. They failed to get even one reform implemented.

Zanu PF went on to rig the July 2013 elections contrary to Tsvangirai’s repeated assurance the elections would be free, fair and credible. The people of Zimbabwe should have learned the important lesson that MDC are corrupt and incompetent and never again to trust them. The people should have deserted the party in droves. Sadly there are still some Zimbabweans who still trust MDC leaders and follow them blindly, no questions asked.

“As a social democratic political party enjoying massive grassroots support,” boasted MDC-T spokesman, Obert Gutu, “the MDC has always put people first in all its dealings and policy making deliberations. ….. MDC is acutely mindful of the need to always take into consideration the interests of the majority of the toiling masses of Zimbabwe whenever an electoral coalition pact is to be entered into.”

If MDC was mindful of the people’s needs then why did the party fail to implement even one democratic reform which would have finally delivered free, fair and credible elections. Even now with the benefit of hindsight that MDC sold-out during the GNU, MDC leaders still talk as if they did nothing wrong.

“President Morgan Tsvangirai is personally handling the issue of coalition discussions and deliberations with similar minded opposition political parties,” Gutu tells us.

“Our leader is a tried and tested fighter for democratic governance in Zimbabwe and we have absolutely no doubt in our minds that he is perfectly able and indeed, capable, of making the necessary consultations that will ultimately lead to the creation of an electoral coalition pact that will send Zanu PF to the cleaners in the do - or - die harmonised elections to be held in 2018.”

This is typical MDC-T flip-flopping and endless dithering. MDC-T was invited to coalition talks in SA last week which the party did not attend. Tsvangirai’s feeble excuse for not attending was that he did not see the need of forming a coalition with all those who left MDC in the first place.

Douglas Mwonzora, MDC-T Secretary General, has too dismissed coalition talks as a waste of time because the opposition parties were bringing no added value (in terms of supporters) to the coalition.

MDC-T certainly had the mass support in the 2013 elections and would have won those elections convincingly if Zanu PF had not rigged the vote. Tsvangirai was warned not to take part in those elections without implementing the reforms first but he would not listen.

The same warning is still valid today; no opposition party should take part in the next elections without implementing the reforms first.

Whether the winner of the next elections is the true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people of Zimbabwe will depend on whether the elections are free, fair and credible. This is why the opposition should be concentrating on implementing the reforms and not waste time building coalitions.

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because we, the electorate, did not take the business of electing competent leaders with the seriousness the matter demands. If we had, then we would have never elected the corrupt and murderous tyrant, President Mugabe, and his gang of thugs. We then went on to elect the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders, on the ticket they would bring democratic change and end the Zanu PF dictatorship. We are still groaning under the yoke of the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship.

By continuing to support failed leaders like Tsvangirai the people of Zimbabwe are telling the world that we are still not yet ready to take the business of electing competent leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands. Until we finally elect competent leaders instead of these corrupt and incompetent ones; we even recycle failed ones over and over again, some cannot even stay awake for long; the country will never ever get out of this mess!