Biti is wasting time telling "fossil" Mugabe to retire - hold free elections and he will retire. By W Mukori

“Grace Mugabe and the factions in Zanu-PF are cruel. They are setting Zimbabwe for a catastrophic implosion as the succession issue remains unresolved in that party. Zanu-PF and its factions are leading us to a war, a war which will be the result of selfishness of persons in Zanu-PF,” said Tendai Biti.

Few people would dispute Biti’s assessment here; the lack of a democratic and orderly change of guard in Zanu PF is dragging the whole nation deeper and deeper into the economic chaos and political paralysis because of the continued corrupt and tyrannical rule by Mugabe. However, no one with any common sense will be surprise that Mugabe himself is hanging on power like a binnacle to a rock and of all the political shenanigans going on within the party itself. Mugabe is a megalomania tyrant whose greed for absolute power and wealth has been grown exponentially and knows no limit. He is now totally addicted to power giving it up is simply unthinkable.

Whilst it is true that the G40 factions are determined to keep Mugabe in power for as long as they can but only because they know they are not yet strong enough to fight off the challenge for power from the Mnangagwa faction. Still it must be said the G40 are not holding Mugabe to ransom, as Tendai Biti would have us believe.

“The man (Mugabe) is a fossil,” said Biti. “The pictures we saw from his birthday party in Matopo were not pleasing to say the least,” he said, adding that Mugabe was visibly suffering from old age.

Mugabe is definitely suffering from health problems and old age but his desire to remain president is as keen as mustard!

People should not be surprised to see Zanu PF imploding; this is a party of ruthless thugs with one thing in common insatiable hunger for power and the influence and wealth it brings. Mugabe has managed to keep some semblance of unity in the party all these years because he inherited a very wealthy nation rich in natural resources both terms of mineral and human resources and a very vibrant economy from the outgoing white colonial regime. He has used the wealth to buy the unity and loyalty of his greedy but wasteful cronies. In the late 1990s when it was evident the economy was on its knees and there was no loot left to throw to his ravenous Zanu PF hyenas, he turned to the only asset the country had left – land.

Mugabe dished out the white-owned farms to his cronies knowing fully well this would disrupt the country’s agricultural sector, the backbone of the country’s economy; he knew his cronies would waste the farms just as they had wasted everything else. The agricultural sector collapse; Zimbabwe lost its bread basket of the region accolades overnight to one dependent on imported food aid, and dragged the whole national economy with it.

With the country in total economic meltdown, Mugabe had nothing to feed the ever hungry Zanu PF hyenas. The dog-eat-dog infighting tearing Zanu PF apart is a manifestation of the fighting by the party members over the ever-shrinking economic wealth. The members know that holding on to political power has never been more important than it is now; in these lean times, only those in the very inner circle of power will feed!

Tendai Biti’s assumes that if Zanu PF settled its succession problem and Mugabe step down to allowed someone else from the G40 or Mnangagwa faction to takeover the country will be saved from a “catastrophic implosion” is dangerous wishful thinking. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest Grace Mugabe or Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime would be any better from the present corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe regime.

The one thing that will save Zimbabwe from the catastrophic disaster ahead is a complete change of the political system. We need to end this self-saving, wasteful, corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF autocracy and replace it with democratic system of government in which the rulers are accountable to the ruled.

How ironic and hypocritical that Tendai Biti should be the one wagging his forefinger at the Zanu PF hyenas for being cruel and keeping Mugabe in power when he should have retired ages ago!

“Biti charged that Mugabe’s wife and her eke in Zanu-PF sought to protect their interests at the expense of “an aligning old and aged man”. He said they should be held accountable for the “ill-treatment of the elderly”, reported The Zimbabwean.

Mugabe would have been into retirement after the July 2013 elections, at the very latest, if the hypocrite, Tendai Biti, and his MDC friends had implemented the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. SADC leaders and many others warned Tsvangirai & co. they should not contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place but MDC paid no heed. Mugabe would not be in State House today if the July 2013 elections were free, fair and credible because he could never win such an election.

Tendai Biti and the rest of the MDC politician contested the 2013 elections knowing the whole process was flawed for the simple and selfish reason of hoping to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gave away as bait. Senator David Coltart, Tendai Biti’s MDC cabinet colleague in the GNU, admitted as much in his book.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart. 

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

The logic of boycotting the elections until meaningful democratic reforms are implemented was valid in the 2013 election but is even more urgent and relevant in next year’s elections because not even one reform has been implemented since 2013. So, why is Tendai Biti and all the other MDC leaders again contesting in an election process they know is flawed and against their own party “No reform, no election!” resolution!

“The man is old, aged. The man is ancient. There is no treatment for old age. No-one has found a cure for old age. We all come, we all go,” said Tendai Biti.

Yes of course, we all come and we all go! Well Mugabe came and until he finally goes, he is going to remain president thanks to you, Biti, and your fellow MDC leaders’ breath-taking incompetence. It is your repeated failure to implement even one reform that has given him the carte blanche powers to rig elections.

If you are serious about ending the Zanu PF tyrannical rule; stop wittering nonsense and withdraw from contesting next year’s elections. This will force the implementation of reforms and enable the country to finally hold it’s first free, fair and credible elections!

It is not in Tendai Biti’s power to say when Mugabe’s go and meet his Creator but it is in Biti and the other opposition politicians’ power to say whether Mugabe remains in State House until death do us part! All Tendai Biti & co. had to do during the GNU was implement the reforms and all they must do now is all opposition parties to withdraw from contesting next year flawed elections until reforms are implemented!