Mugabe loyalists are calling for Mugabe to appoint acting ministers to replace MDC ministers who are boycotting cabinet meetings following MDC decision to “disengage” with Mugabe.
Typical of Zanu PF, they are always looking for someone else to blame for their own failures. Mugabe and his cronies have seized for themselves the country's commercial farms and agricultural production has fallen from the height where the nation produced enough food for the nation with surplus for export to the sorry situation today where 80% of our people are dependent on food aid.
The continued farm invasions by Mugabe loyalists have done more harm to Zimbabwe's agricultural recovery prospects than MDC ministers' boycott of Cabinet Meetings could do in a hundred years! Zimbabwe’s economy is in total melt down right now and yet the country has always had a bloated government and this GNU is three times as big as it needed to be!
No Mugabe loyalists see the MDC boycott as an opportunity for their party to seize back all the ministries Zanu PF had lost to MDC. The statements are to test the public reaction. Make no mistake, Mugabe has his list of new ministers ready and it will not take months to have them sworn in either!
Not that MDC ministers have made any difference since their joining Mugabe to form the GNU. Mugabe has not allowed any of them to be effective in their various portfolios; it has been nine months of sheer frustration. Indeed the present boycott is the frustration boiling over.
Everyone warned Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues that the GPA gave Mugabe too much power and therefore the proposed power sharing would not work. But, of course, Tsvangirai turned a deaf ear to all.
After nine months of being send from pillar to post by Mugabe over trivial matters, the so called outstanding issues, Tsvangirai finally got the message. But instead of having a clean break and walkout of the GNU, thus trigger fresh elections; Tsvangirai settled for the half-way house, remain in the GNU but boycott Cabinet meetings.
Of course Mugabe does not want fresh elections – he would be foolish to repeat the sham elections of 27 June 2008 so soon. Appointing acting Zanu PF ministers would suit him just fine; he will have a Zanu PF government without having had to face the electorate! Even if MDC should finally walkout, Mugabe will certainly be better off facing the electorate with his party in total control of every lever of power.
Tsvangirai’s dithering has again given Mugabe the advantage.
Zimbabwe has no hope of getting out of this mess as long as Mugabe remains in power and Tsvangirai will never ever get Mugabe out of power because Mugabe is too canning for someone as naïve and slow as Tsvangirai!
1 comment:
Zimbabweans, we, have to get rid of Mugabe ourselves; something we have failed to do.
I do not believe our problem is that we are divided by tribe. Our problem is that we very readily leave our so “political leaders” to solve our national problems. It is a culture that dictators like Mugabe have encouraged and those who would not accept were force fed. We now have a political culture were it is taken for granted that politicians “know best”.
So individual like Tsvangirai came along and it does not matter how mediocre they have proved to be they still believe they “know best” and we, the people, bend over backwards not to be critical.
It took two decades before many Zimbabweans would acknowledge that Mugabe is a ruthless dictator by then it was far too late to stop him. He had corrupted every democratic institution and had a well oil terror machine. Still the country could have ended Mugabe’s reign of terror and destruction as far back as 2000 if only there was a competent opposition. Even with exactly the same individuals leading MDC, the party would have done a lot better if we the people had had the courage and foresight to point to praise the leadership when they did some right and criticised when they erred.
It is ten years now since MDC was formed and the party has made some breathtaking blunders in that time particularly Tsvangirai himself. Indeed Tsvangirai has been such a total failure the situation demands that he resign. The truth is many Zimbabweans accept Tsvangirai and MDC have failed but they would not say it, they are biting their tongues!
We all say we want democracy but we really do not know what we want. Because one of the key requirements for a functioning democracy is that the people hold their leaders accountable to them – the people. We would rather have a swollen tongue than ask the difficult and awkward questions of our political leaders!
Post a Comment