There are many ways of killing a rat; trap it, poison it, starve it, etc. Similarly there are many ways of getting rid of a dictator like Mugabe and achieve the dragged regime change. Whilst Tsvangirai and MDC chose to cooperate with the dictator and give him and his cronies all they ask for - the equivalent of over feeding the rat in the hope that it will clock in the pounds and die of heart failure. Of course rats are smarter than that, when there is plenty of food rats multiple.
The West had a different method, the complete opposite of MDC, starve the dictator and his cronies of the luxurious they crave for. They slapped the targeted sanctions and shopping trips to America and Europe stopped. They freeze the assets of the individuals and companies propping up the regime. And they stopped foreign aid and assistant to the regime.
The regime responded by printing money fuelling the country’s hyper inflation. The regime has tried everything to raise foreign currencies; it has sold of all the nation’s jewels to the Chinese and whoever, it commandeered all the foreign currency in individual or company accounts it could lay its hands on, etc. It its desperate effort to raise the funds to buy the Mercedes Benz, Plasma TV, etc for the ruling elite the regime pushed the national economy completely off track sending it into total melt down.
It was the growing pressure from his cronies, starved of the luxuries, and the ordinary people, denied of the bear necessities of life, that forced Mugabe to accept MDC into the GNU. If was an ideal solution for the dictator; he will continue to be President and enjoy all his dictatorial powers and Tsvangirai will get the West to lift the targeted sanctions and get the foreign aid flowing again! Mugabe had avoided the dreaded regime change!
Tsvangirai and Biti tried to sell the GNU to the West but they were no takers. Unlike MDC the West was not easily fooled; they wanted real change not a whitewash. For Mugabe to retain people like Gideon Gono at the RBZ, Johannes Tomana as AG, JOC running a parallel administration, is totally acceptable.
Tsvangirai and MDC are now insisting that Gideon Gono and Tomana must go as a “matter of principle”! Principle! Since when did Tsvangirai have any principles? He does not even know the meaning of the word. This is the posturing of a puppy because it knows its mother is right behind! The real fight is between Mugabe and the West.
Mugabe knows that people like Gideon Gono, Johannes Tomana, JOC, are the bear are the critical pillars on which his dictatorship stands. The GNU has clawed away at the brick work and all there other structural work that filled the gap between the supporting pillars. Take away one, just one of these supporting pillars and the whole edifice will collapse. Mugabe knows that and so does the West. So who will blink first!
The situation favours the West; the rat chewed through everything including the grain bags and now the gnawing hunger pains are driving it mad! The West does not have to do anything else but wait and they have all the time in the world!
Mugabe’s cronies can fight over the remaining white farms and it is now a dog-eat-dog fight. But as for all the other luxuries they had become accustomed to there will be none. RBZ Governor Gideon Gono can remain in his office but what good is that to them if he can not buy them the luxury goods and give them the foreign currency to pay for their children studying outside Zimbabwe. The truth is there is no money in any RBZ account!
One of the greatest achievement of the GNU since its formation was to end price control – it was a stupid policy in the first place and it is ironic that the GNU should boost of a common sense position. It has allowed shop owners to fill shops with food and other goods. The people were now getting restless about lasting economic recovery so they can be employed and earn the money to but the food, pay the school fees, etc. The people’s patience will snap if Mugabe does anything now to threaten the economic recovery. There will be riots in all the urban centres of Zimbabwe if Mugabe was to do anything to cause the same food and goods shortages of last year!
There will be regime change in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has a simple choice either give in and replace Gideon Gono and Tomana and see the whole dictatorship collapse. Or keep all the support pillars of the dictatorship and hope increased repression will contain the hungry party cronies and the long suffering masses of Zimbabwe. Knowing Mugabe, he will chose to go down fighting – things could very well get really messy, many lives could be lost.
What Mugabe must know is that he has dragged this nation into this hell and he and his cronies have a lot to answer for. If he decides to takes this country into yet another blood bath he and all those close to him will have to account for every innocent blood shed. What this nation will not do is give in to his murderous blackmailing. It is a great pity that some section of Zimbabwean society have done so in the past and thus allowing his murderous rule to survive this far.
There will be regime change in Zimbabwe and about time too!
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