"We have to find solutions to have the inclusive government working again,” Tsvangirai said!
God help us! I really do not think Tsvangirai will ever learn. It is not a matter of getting the inclusive government working AGAIN. It has never worked. He was the one who said it was working, when he knew it was not.
The inclusive government will be considered “working”:
- if it restores law and order throughout the country and those responsible for serious human rights violations are arrested and brought before the courts of law.
- if all repressive laws and practices are removed so the there is freedom of expression and association and a truly free press
- if it stopped all farm invasions, carried out the promised land audit without further ado and take away the farms from those with more than one farm.
- if the writing of the new constitution is put back on track and the process accelerated so delivery the new constitution and the holding of fresh free and fair elections in original time-table of18 to 24 months. There are many substantive issues that only a properly constituted government can address and this GNU hybrid has shied away from.
These are the important issues the GNU’s performance will be judge. The firing of RBZ governor and AG, the swearing in of Roy Bennett, the lifting of targeted sanctions, etc; these are peripheral issues. They are important to the concerned individuals or the particular political party but there are of little importance to the nation.
There is no chance of ever getting this GNU to work; that is the harsh reality. To start with the GPA which Tsvangirai himself signed gave Mugabe all the executive powers – he is head of State, head of government and commander of Army and all other State Security Organs. Mugabe has the power to disrupt the GNU so that it does NOT deliver any of the four goals stated above. And that is exactly what he has done. Yes sometimes he has abused his position and was down right a “dishonest partner”, as Tsvangirai rightly said, is pursuit of his selfish goals. Mugabe has shown again and again that he is a ruthless and heartless dictator; surely no one expected him to behave honourably and honestly just because he too signed the GPA!
The end objective of GNU is to dismantle brick by brick Zanu PF’s repressive and corrupt political system and replace it with a free, democratic and prosperous one. Of course Mugabe and his cronies will have no role in the new political dispensation; indeed many of them will not only lose the wealth they looted but will face serious human rights violation charges. In short, Tsvangirai expects Mugabe to honestly preside over a process that will incriminate and punish his thugs and henchmen and end with him losing the very thing he has vowed he will not lose- political power. Not even a five year old would be that naïve to expect that from a village idiot!
Zimbabwe is caught up in this mess of the GPA and then the GNU because the nation had a tough question: what to do with a discredited dictator who has been rejected by the electorate but refuses to relinquish power? Those who got us into this mess and proposed the GPA’s answer was to appease the dictator and then over the two to three years life of the GNU erode all political power from under the dictator. Well that strategy has singularly failed!
Now, nine months later, Zimbabwe is back to where it was on 27 June 2008 facing the same question – be it with a sight change. What to do with a discredited dictator, who has been rejected by the electorate, accepts all the appeasements allowed him, but still would not relinquish his dictatorial powers?
The nation can go through the torturous process of parching up the GPA – give Mugabe more to appease him here and force him to give up something there. There is one thing we can be sure of however; Mugabe will never ever preside over any meaningful democratic reforms and regime change!
In June last year we failed to address the tough question: what to do with a discredited dictator who has been rejected by the electorate but refuses to relinquish power? The GPA was not an answer but a fudge. As a nation, we can continue to fudge it but that will not make the problem go away.
Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and others have pointed out at the full shop shelves, the 3% GDP growth rate and all the other signs of economic recovery the country has enjoyed since the signing of the GPA and formation of the GNU. On the political front; although human rights violations and acts of lawlessness have continued, they were nothing compared to what happened in April to June 2008. These are very important and very significant gains; the nation has Tsvangirai and company to thank for that. However, we have to ask ourselves was this the best Zimbabwe could have done?
If we had stamped out the violent farm invasions, carried out the land audit and taken away the extra farms from those who have one that one farm and thus put these farms, many of which have been left fallow; this would have made a big impact on Zimbabwe’s food production and economic recovery. The GNU failed to do this.
It was universally acknowledge that foreign aid, particularly from the West, would be critical to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery. The West have stated in no uncertain terms that they would not give direct aid to Zimbabwe because they were not convinced that this GNU was anything else other than Mugabe’s dictatorship by another name. Tsvangirai himself, who had been for nine months pretended that the GNU was not a Mugabe dictatorship in all but name, finally admitted that it was indeed a dictatorship.
How much more would have been achieved if Zimbabwe’s government today had the total support and confidence of the international community?
Nine months since the formation of the GNU, unemployment still remains at 80 to 90%. Most of those employed work for government as teachers, medical staff, etc or they are involved in the buying and selling of goods. Very few people are involved in the production of raw materials or finished products – the sector generating national wealth.
Zimbabwe has been reduced into a nation of civil servants and shop keepers! Where is not for the millions of Diaspora dollars pouring into the country, things would be a lot worse that there are already!
Yes not as many people have been arrested, tortured and/or murdered since the formation of the GNU compared to the period before the GNU. But as soon as Mugabe feels an pressure to implement meaningful democratic reforms he has responded by stepping up the arrests, tortures, etc.
The GNU is not going to deliver on most, if not all, the political reforms it promised. Mugabe has kicked the media reforms into the tall grass. He has made his position very clear on the writing of the new constitution – either we accept his Kariba draft or we get nothing. See the list of ifs list above for what this GNU should have done but have not.
The fundamental weakness with the GPA was offered the answer to what to do with a dictator who refuses to relinquish power by offering to appease him. The GPA did not offer Mugabe a golden handshake; which would have been unacceptable, rewarding him for all the years of repression and corruption. The other option was to let Mugabe to remain president but with no executive power. He did not accept that because there was no guarantee he would not be prosecuted for all the crimes he committed whilst in power. The solution he demanded was that he remained president with all the dictatorial powers.
The GPA endorsed Mugabe’s position that he was would NOT be democratically accountable to the Zimbabwe electorate.
The question we must now answer is: was the price of having food in the shops a fair price for the nation to pay for losing our fundamental and basic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country? Tsvangirai, Biti and the rest told us it was.
The question any level headed individual should have asked themselves before signing the GPA, which millions of others have asked themselves throughout history, is: if we give up the right to hold a leader to account what recourse will there be for us if the leader fails to serve our interest.
The GNU will never work because if gives all political power to a dictator and leave us, the people, completely at his mercy.
There is no point in tinkering with the GPA by taking something from here and giving something there; the only change that really matters is that Mugabe must be held accountable to the people and what better way than by having a free and fair election.
The GNU has failed and must now be set aside. People must now concentrate on internationally supervised fresh elections; that was the best and only solution to Zimbabwe’s political crisis in June 2008 and still remains the only solution now! We must have our democratic right to a meaningful vote restored and not be short changed again.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess - which has caused tragic human suffering and costed hundred of thousands of human lives – because the nation accepted the falsehood that we can still do well even if we have been systematically denied our basic and fundamental political rights. Time for puss-footing is over; it is now time to address the nation’s problems head on and with iron resolve. It was Tsvangirai who led the nation down this garden path of the GNU; he must now do the honourable thing and resign! As for Mugabe and his cronies, all they looted from the people must be recovered and that responsible for the regime’s many serious crimes, they must for once feel the full weight of the law.
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