"Mugabe is chancellor of dictators," says Biti - during GNU called him "fountain of wisdom"

“We have a serious problem in Africa of being ruled by dictators. There is a dictator called Mabutu Sese Seko who ruled DRC for many years,” said Tendai Biti.

“Right now, there is another dictator in the DRC called Joseph Kabila. Why does God not have mercy of these people?

“Then there is vice chancellor of dictators, headmaster of dictators, and pastor of dictators as well as archbishop of dictators. This old man is called Robert Mugabe who have reduced our country from being the jewel of Africa to tatters.”

There is no denying that President Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant who has reduced Zimbabwe’s once promising economy to ruins and murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain his de facto one-party dictatorship. Will answer the rhetorical question why God does no save the people from the torment of dictators with a question: It is the people themselves who elect to be ruled by dictators, what do you want God to do? Mr Tendai Biti, of all people should know that!

Whenever tyrants like Mugabe have closed the door to freedom, liberty and justice to the people, the Lord God in His divan mercy has always opened the window. It is for the people themselves to use the window to escape.

It is a historic fact that Zimbabwe has had countless opportunities to end the Mugabe dictatorship in the last 37 years but has wasted them all.

“What kind of power was it if everybody knew that it would never be used?” wrote Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s greatest intellectual. “Better to say that it was not there, that it was no more than the power in the anus of the proud dog who tried to put out a furnace with his puny fart.”

After the unparalleled barbarism of blatant vote rigging and wanton violence of Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections, SADC stepped in and proposed the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to end the undemocratic control Zanu PF has over ZEC, Police, Judiciary and all the other state institutions. SADC also proposed the writing of a new democratic constitution which would cast the reforms in stone. It was for Tendai Biti and his MDC friends to carry out these tasks.

At the end of the five years of the GNU not even one reform was implemented and, with no reform in place, the new constitution has ended up consolidating the dictatorship and not democratic rule. Instead of reforming the Police and Army, for example, Tsvangirai send out his security adviser, Giles Mutsekwa, to bribe the top brass in the security services if they would switch their political allegiance from Mugabe to Tsvangirai. The sum total of Tsvangirai’s media reform was that the country’s public media must stop calling him a puppet – which the dutifully did for a few weeks!

It is all very well for Tendai Biti to call Mugabe “chancellor of dictator” now when he was a cabinet member in the GNU in which MDC had the majority in parliament and the solid backing of SADC to implement the democratic reforms he called Mugabe “unflappable father of the nation, fountain of wisdom”. It is any wonder that not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU.

The Zanu PF dictatorship is the burning inferno whose corrupt and tyrannical rule has robbed the people of their livelihood, freedoms, human rights and their very humanity! The raft of democratic reforms are all the fire extinguishers, the carbon dioxide, water, dry power, etc. MDC leaders needed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. But instead of implementing the reforms MDC leaders wasted the five years of the GNU trying to bribe the thugs and flattering the tyrant! The boastful dog trying to extinguish the forest inferno with its puny fart!

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were warned not to contest the 2013 elections with none of the democratic reforms proposed by SADC in place. They paid no heed to the warnings. President Mugabe and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the vote.

Tendai Biti and many others in the opposition camp have acknowledged the July 2013 were rigged and vowed not to contest future elections until reforms are implemented. They have once again failed to get even one reform implemented and they have, once again, turned to their tried and failed fire extinguisher – dog fart!

“We highly appreciate that initiative (of building the grand coalition) because we must put Zimbabwe first,” Biti told his party supporters.

“As I speak to you, there are major agreements which we have reached. There is a constitution which we have already agreed. When the time comes, you are all going to be invited at the official launch of this project.”

There is no doubt that the task of implementing the reforms was a lot easier during the GNU that it was going to be after but that is as one would expect. Hit the iron whilst it is still hot and save many bone shuttering hammer blows!

The grand coalition, even if it is finally formed, will not stop the blatant vote rigging, we still need to implement the reforms if we are ever to have free and fair elections. If Zanu PF successful rigs the 2018 elections we can be certain the task of implementing the reforms will be even tougher then than it is today.

How ironic that people like Tendai Biti should be claiming to “put Zimbabwe first” when they have made a political career of selling out public interest to promote their selfish personal greed. If Tendai Biti was putting Zimbabwe first then he would not contest yet another flawed elections for the sake of a few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering.

“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.”

Of all people Tendai Biti knows that the coalition, voter registration and all the other activities the opposition has pursued since 2013 are all inconsequential in stopping the vote rigging as the flattering Mugabe and bribing of Army generals was during the GNU. Zimbabwe is up to her eyes in this political and economic mess Mugabe has landed us into because corrupt and incompetent opposition leaders like Tendai Biti have failed to make the most of the many opportunities the nation had to end the dictatorship.

We live in a day and age when other nations have sent a man to the moon and have split the atom into its meniscal component parts and our best lawyers and intellectuals still do not know what constituting free, fair and credible elections. Even after Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections because they would not implement the agreed reforms, they still insist in applying their dog’s fart solutions and contest yet another flawed election.  And they insist, they are putting Zimbabwe first and we should all bow down to them in reverence humility and appreciation of their selfless sacrifice!