It took many Zimbabweans at least twenty years to realise Mugabe was leading the nation into disaster. We have all the evidence that Mugabe was no champion of justice and human rights with the first few years of our independence. We did not want to believe the evidence and closed our eyes to the realities.
It took another ten years to force us to open our eyes and by then the dictator was well entrenched in power. It has taken over ten years now to try to dislodge him but without success.
Many Zimbabweans today want to believe Tsvangirai is bringing about the democratic reforms and the economic prosperity the nation has been waiting for. The reality is that Tsvangirai will bring no such things. The West, for example, has repeatedly said they will not give Zimbabwe any financial assistance. Without the West’s financial backing there will be no meaningful economic recovery. The Western leaders are not convinced the GNU is anything other than Mugabe’s dictatorial rule by another name. They told Tsvangirai so to his face last month.
Tsvangirai stuck to his guns; insisting Zimbabwe was on an “irreversible” path to democratic change. Ironically Tsvangirai has himself complained to SADC about Mugabe’s failure to honour the GPA but when he met the Western leaders he insisted everything was fine between himself and Mugabe. It is one thing to delude oneself; the West was not going to be sucked into this delusion.
Zimbabweans desperate for change, so desperate it seem that they would once again close their eyes to reality and believe Tsvangirai is bring the change. Tsvangirai has a captive audience who would rather be deluded than hear the difficult reality. The later means they will have to deal with the difficult question of what to do to end the dictatorship. On the other hand by believing Tsvangirai’s lies and delusion means they themselves will not have to lift a finger. These people are like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand to hide from the grass fire.
Some people get really angry with those who say the GNU is not working; that burying his head in the sand will not protect the ostrich from the fire.
We should have end Mugabe’s reign of terror years ago. That was a difficult challenge; the years of burying our collective heads in the sand did not make Mugabe go away nor the task any easier.
Some people have accepted this GNU and will not want to consider whether or not it is working on the grounds that there is no other alternative. Tsvangirai and MDC have them self made the same argument. For years Mugabe presented the nation with no alternative to his rule and for nearly three decades we accepted that. This time Mugabe is using Tsvangirai to make the same claim. Nonsense there is an alternative.
We know what we want; to live in a free and prosperous society in which the rights of the individual are respected. We knew Mugabe was taking us the wrong way just as we know now that this GNU is taking us the same direction Mugabe did. Mugabe has created a political situation in which he frog-marched us down his chosen route. That is not to say were we did not know the alternative route. What we have lacked is the political will to stand up and strike out in our chosen direction. We do not have to see this GNU through another month let alone the planned two years (five years if Mugabe has his way, and he always does) to realise it is taking us nowhere. Some people never seem to learn but history is a tough task-master; those who will not learn from the past will be forced to make the same mistake and pay the price over and over again until they learn!
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