I have just been reading an excellent article in the Zimbabwe Times by Tendai Dumbutshena entitled “Wake up, smell the coffee, Mutambara”. Tendai raises some really important issues, issues I have raised myself on this page. What worried me is the shallowness of those who commented on the article.
There have been 8 comments, starting with Chenai Chipikiri at 9.29 am to Tatari Muzavazi at 1.42 pm. They all, except for Siti Chikati, took turns to pour scorn on Mutambara – and it is early yet, the denigrating had only just begun! The bottom line, sadly, is that they all missed the thrust of Tendai’s article.
“Wow! I can’t believe there are Zimbabweans out there who still believe that the mess that obtains in Zimbabwe today has nothing to do with the West,” wrote Siti Chikati. Well such ranting should be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserve. However when someone like Mutambara, a prospective Deputy Prime Minister, too say the same nonsense repeatedly then he deserves all the scorn we can throw at him.
I do not care a hoot about the up-start Mutambara; what I am concerned about is that in the excitement to pour scorn on Mutambara people lose sight of the very important point Tendai brought up in this excellent article.
Tendai made it very clear that the GPA that both Tsvangirai and Mutambara signed was folly. “The MDC factions should stop pretending that the GPA offers a solution,” wrote Tendai. “On the contrary it only prolongs and legitimizes Mugabe’s rule. They should have the humility to admit that the country is living with the consequences of their folly”
So the GPA and now the continued effort by both Tsvangirai and Mutambara to make it work are the root cause of the deepening economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe. Yes, Tendai also wrote about Mutambara’s foolish blubbering and anti-West rhetoric but that was only a side issue. That most of the readers should be commenting on Mutambara’s rhetoric to the exclusion of everything else showed just how shallow they are. When the house is on fire it is hardly the time to be swatting the flies!
None of the readers poured scorn on Mutambara for signing the GPA, for all the time wasted trying to make it work and now for the real possibility of a Mugabe led regime for the next four years. To do so; they would have had to pour scorn on Tsvangirai too- that, for them, would be an act of sacrilege. A few years ago the same individuals would lynch you to even suggest that Mugabe could do anything wrong - if the truth be told (and it must) myself included in the lynch mob!
Many people may dismiss Siti Chikati for living in his/her own dream world. The sad reality is there are still many Zimbabweans who themselves still live in their own cloud cuckoo land in to say anything critical of Tsvangirai is simply unthinkable.
It is not just Mutambara who should open his eyes and smell the coffee, Mutambarai is small fish, Tsvangirai too should open his eyes (Tendai did not want to say that probably because he did not want to annoy his readers – or was it sacrilege to him too) and above all it is us, the people, who must open our eyes!
The destiny of Zimbabwe is not in Mugabe’s hands; much less in Tsvangirai’s and even less Mutambara’s but in our own hands. Mugabe has ridden rough-shod over us all these years because we, the people, let him. And now Tsvangirai and Mutambara believe it is their turn to have a go, and unless we stop them, they too will ride rough-shod over us.
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