Tendai
Biti and his renewal team have started a charm offensive to win the support of
African leaders as the serious opposition in Zimbabwe. They met a group of
African diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe including those from South Africa, Nigeria
and Botswana.
“We
explained to them the way forward and also the (Zimbabwe parliament) Speaker's
ruling (to let the courts decide who now represented MDC-T before recalling the
9 MPs in Biti’s renewal faction). The ambassadors are worried about the situation
in the MDC as they fear that this could weaken opposition politics and kill our
democracy,” Jacob Mafume, the renewal team spokesman, said.
“We
briefed the diplomats on the national crisis, national democratic convention.
We explained to them why the party is currently in this state and what we are
doing to strengthen our struggle for a democratic Zimbabwe.”
None of
those African diplomats were impressed, of that we can be sure, because they,
of all people, KNOW just how incompetent the MDC has been when it comes our “struggle
for a democratic Zimbabwe”. The party had chance after chance to deliver real
democratic change but again and again failed to do so.
The GPA
signed in 2008 stated a raft of democratic reforms necessary to end the country’s
corrupt and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship and usher in a democratic Zimbabwe.
The MDC had the majority in parliament, majority in cabinet and had the solid
backing of the same African diplomats the renewal team met to make sure the reforms
were implemented.
The
reforms should have been implemented in a year and a half according to the time-table
agreed in the GPA. In the end the GNU lasted for five years and yet not even
one reform was implemented. Not one!
No
doubt some of the African diplomats Biti met at this meeting had themselves
warned Biti himself a year ago of the folly of MDC taking part in the elections
with none of reforms implemented. Their good advice fell on deaf ears as MDC completely
ignored all the warnings and allowed the elections to go ahead.
Someone
commented the other day that MDC never seem to have a plan B. Plan B! They
never have a plan A, they just blunder along like a herd of wildebeest. Indeed
even a herd of wildebeest seem to have some semblance of where they are going;
the MDC herd loves going round in circles, kiya kiya is their plan.
Of all
the MDC leaders, Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma, as MDC’s chief negotiators in
the GPA, should have understood the critical importance of the democratic
reforms and why it was therefore political suicide to go ahead with the elections
with not even one reform implemented. It is rich that after the event they
should be the ones pinning all blame for the party’s very stupid blunders on
Tsvangirai and others.
If we
assume that Biti and Mangoma had warned Tsvangirai and the rest of the group of
the folly of not implementing the reforms and they were ignored; why did they
not resign or call for leadership renewal in protest then, before the elections?
The
renewal team stayed with the rest of the herd throughout the GNU years and did
nothing about getting the reforms implemented because they were busy “enjoying
the trappings of power and forgot why they were in the GNU”, as SADC leaders have
rightly said. SADC heads were expressing the frustration felt by all those who
had invested time and money to see Zimbabwe become a democracy but only to see Mugabe
blatantly rig the vote as expected.
The MDC
herd were on the gravy train and would not be asked to carry out such mundane
tasks as implementing democratic reforms! “The struggle for a democratic Zimbabwe”
has only become important again to them because Mugabe kicked them off the
gravy train.
Since
the electoral “defeat” Tsvangirai has had a number of rallies promising to lead
the nation to the Promised Land. Yet for the last 15 years he has led the nation
round and round in a circle like wildebeest herd that has lost it sense of direction
and is milling round Mount Kilimanjaro.
Tsvangirai’s
blundering incompetence shows he does not know where the Promised Land is, he cannot
read the compass and does not even have the common sense to realise he is going
round and round in a circle!
However
Tendai Biti and his renew team cannot hide their own serious shortcomings
behind Tsvangirai’s glaring incompetency. They were distracted by the trappings
of power and forgot about the reforms and the struggle for democracy. They have
not even admitted their weaknesses but expect us to assume they will never be
so easily distracted ever again! Indeed they are once again just how easily and
readily distracted already.
The grand
coalition the renewal team is proposing is to be led by a mishmash of leaders
from the other opposition parties, church groups and civic society and leaders
from the Biti faction; all of whom have proven to be incompetent in the past in
their own right such as Simba Makoni or cheered the blundering MDC all the way these
last 15 years.
If
Zimbabwe’s struggle for democratic change is to stop being a pointless exercise
of milling around in a vicious circle then the nation must have men and women
who can figure out where the Promised Land is, can work out a plan A , B and C
on how to get there and who can read the compass. What Biti is offering is a
reshuffled team of the same failed and incompetent leaders whose only care is
to get a seat on the gravy train.
Anyone
who considers the likes of Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Elton Mangoma, Welshman
Ncube, Simba Makoni, etc. to be national leader material only proves how little
they have understood such key issues as democratic reforms in Zimbabwe’s struggle
for democratic change. That is something the African diplomats have understood,
particularly those from Botswana. They were not fooled by Tendai Biti’s recycling
the same old rubbish with a renewal label.
6 comments:
@ Alba
Why show the African diplomats shed a tear for Biti? They warned him not to take part in the July 2013 elections without implementing the reforms first and Biti ignored them. What else could they have done?
Biti is doing exactly what Tsvangirai was doing during the GNU, going to SADC and AU for advice and they gave him the advice only for him to ignore it!
If Biti thinks any diplomats will be fooled into taking him and his recycled but equally incompetent friends as the serious candidates to deliver dem-ocratic change then he is dreaming.
Biti was wise not to try to sell this renewal agenda to any other diplomats, especially those from the Western countries, they would have told him to F*** off! They were disgusted by the sheer stupidity MDC leaders showed throughout the GNU years.
@ Joemuda
MDC's undoing was the party's failure to implement the democratic re-forms and the compounded the problem by paying no heed to the warn-ing not to go ahead with the elections when no reforms had been implemented.
Your theory of MDC being associated with the West is a figment of your imagination. In anything Tsvangiraii was trotting to SADC at the drop of a hat throughout the GNU. The West advised him the GPA was too one-sided and he ignored them!
Zimbabweans in SA petition parliament for diaspora vote.
As far as the last elections goes, Mugabe would still have won the elections given the blatant way he was able to rig the vote.
Asking for everyone to have a vote when even those who had the vote were cheated misses the real bigger point here.
The Dutch Ambassador says her government will NOT be contributing a single pen-ny to the ZimAsset begging bowl.
“I have to say that I feel Zimbabwe is at a stage where the most important thing is to work with private investors not ask for aid from individual countries… it really should not be about aid” Sneller said after a courtesy call at Information minister Jonathan Moyo’s office.
“If government follows what is being reinstated… to improve the business climate, investment will come,” the envoy said.
She said Zimbabwe is a risky destination to invest at the moment.
The Australian Ambassador compared investing in Zimbabwe to swimming in a crocodile infested Zambezi River. The truth is Mugabe and his cronies are the crocodiles and as long as they remain in power no investor is safe in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and his cronies have to be removed from power.
It is pointless the regime telling investors they will not seize their investments; they will not do so next month or next year but beyond no one can trust the regime not to change its mind.
Whilst Mugabe and his cronies remain in power no one will feel safe to invest in Zimbabwe; it is akin to the crocs assuring swimmer they are safe because all Zambezi River crocodiles are now vegetarians.
Zimbabwe government has finally concluded the $750 million deal with Indian com-pany which should see Zisco producing steel in two years’ time. The deal was de-layed by four years.
The regime is stone broke so it sold mineral rights as its contribution to the deal.
I am pleased to hear this deal has finally been signed and the workers at ZISCO can now look forward to order after all the years of chaos. I hate to even think how many billions of dollars the nation has wasted over the years on this one parastatal alone!
Zisco is not the only parastatal that has been a total mess; there is NRZ, ZESA, CSC, PSMAS, etc. They are all in a big mess and they will all require a lot of money to get them back to business.
Zimbabwe has paid a heavy price for this Zanu PF dictatorship! The recovery will be long and hard.
“We have been spectators while the right of people to express themselves through the ballot was violated but we are saying it’s time for change," said Tsvangirai.
Well he is right to say "we have been spectators" because for the last 15 years Tsvangirai and MDC have been spectators when they could and should have brought about the democratic change they kept promising but never delivered.
When Tsvangirai and MDC were in the GNU they had their best chance ever to bring about meaningful change in Zimbabwe but they were too busy enjoying the trappings of power they forgot about reforms.
It is only after Mugabe kicked Tsvangirai and his MDC friends off the gravy train that they have remember the need for ending the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have proven to be corruptible and breathtakingly incompetent. It was folly to have trusted them with the nation's destiny and it would be madness to do so again after they past betrayal. All Tsvangirai is after is a way back on the gravy train, he will never ever deliver the democratic changes the nation needs so desperately. Never ever!
Post a Comment