After two weeks of being told the same thing by Western Government; they will not lift targeted sanctions and renew foreign aid to Zimbabwe because the GNU has NOT made any meaningful democratic reforms. On Saturday Zimbabweans forced him to cut his planned speech chanting “Mugabe must go!” And yet the very next opportunity Tsvangirai had to show he was getting the message; he is back to defending Mugabe and the “progress” GNU has made.
The BBC reporter tried his best to force Tsvangirai off his set course; all to no avail.
“When will there be a free-press in Zimbabwe?” Tsvangirai was asked. He promised that would happen by the end of the month, end of June. So by the end of July, BBC would be back in Zimbabwe!
Freeing the media is something the GNU should have delivered within days of taking office if the political will was there. Will Zanu PF end it’s strangle hold on the country’s print and electronic media; that is doubtful. Getting the said public media to stop calling him a “puppet” has been the extend of Tsvangirai’s fight for press freedom so far. In two weeks time the world will know what kind of free press Tsvangirai is talking about; “Totenda dzamwa dzasera nebenzi!” as one would say in Shona.
The BBC reporter pointed out to Tsvangirai that so far Western governments have pointedly refused to give this Zimbabwe government any financial assistance because there was no progress in the promised democratic reforms, they said. Tsvangirai said his “re-engagement” exercise was a great success because the West that was hugely “sceptical” of the GNU is now “accepting” it. His task now was to get the West to “reward the GNU for progress that has made and support the democratic process”. Clearly the most Western governments are yet to see this progress because none so far have rewarded the regime.
“Did you understand why you were heckled by Zimbabweans, the other day and why most of them do not want to go back home?” Referring to the Saturday June 20 incident in London in which Tsvangirai was force to abandon’s speech.
“Yes, I do,” Tsvangirai answered. “Many of them left the country in extraordinary (economic and political) circumstances ….. We now have a new political dispensation! The situation is totally different.” Zimbabweans everywhere are getting angry and frustrated with all this talk of “progress” and “incremental” gains when they can see for themselves there is none.
"We all know of a post-conflict situation. We had a similar experience in 1980, Mugabe declared reconciliation with the very same enemies he was fighting. In South Africa Nelson Mandela did the same. It is not an unusual experiment." Tsvangirai commented on his extraordinary relationship with Robert Mugabe, given what the dictator did to him, his fellow MDC leaders and supporters and the Zimbabweans in general.
“Transition in all those other cases happened after the old guard had accepted it had lost and that history had moved in another direction. What is unusual here is that transition is taking place when Mugabe has not accepted he lost. .. the violence continues…. the farm invasions have been even accelerated.” The BBC reporter pressed Tsvangirai.
“Mugabe has accepted change,” was Tsvangirai’s reply. This GNU is comparable to the Ian Smith and Abel Muzorewa’s 1979 Internal Settlement in which Smith like Mugabe returned all the real power and Muzorewa was the window dressing.
Tsvangirai had to be pressed before he would admit the Zimbabwe’s land reform has been “a disaster”. He had wanted to describe it as “imperfect”.
About Amnesty International’s recent scathing report, Tsvangirai said the organisation was “still steamed in the past”.
You can take the donkey to the river, but you can not make it drink. Zimbabwe is stuck with Tsvangirai. Whilst the West would have welcomed him as a partner they could work with to pressure Mugabe to accept meaningful democratic change. The West now realises in him they have a Mugabe puppet who would lie through his teeth about “democratic reform” just to get aid.
Meanwhile Mugabe has positioned himself so that he can claw back any “democratic reforms” and re-establish his dictatorship whenever it should suit him.
The West should not be a party to Mugabe’s dirty trickery and in any way indulge Tsvangirai’s mind numbing political naivety and denial of the truth.
Zimbabweans everywhere are angry that the man they had placed so much hope has turned out to be one of the country’s most incompetent leaders. Tsvangirai and the entire MDC leadership should be consigned to herding goats. Zimbabwe’s repressive political system has not allowed men and women of substance, honour and quality to take up leadership positions. I believe the country has such high calibre candidate. The country must now make a concerted enough to find such men and women or else the nation’s future is hell! Mugabe and Tsvangirai are set to take this country deeper and deeper into the annals of hell.
MDC leaders have been invited to eat with their Zanu PF counter parts at the high table. Many MDC leaders have become indistinguishable from Zanu PF members when it comes to their support of this Mugabe dictatorship. All those who do not agree with the dead end route MDC has taken have to break clean in the next few weeks or they will all be painted with the same brush.
Zimbabweans have never been this angry with their leaders and that, I believe, is the first solid proof that they have come of age, they are a much more enlightened electorate; they are a discerning voters who can distinguish quality leaders from the spineless goat-herders.
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