SADC troika summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for Thursday in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
The trouble with the present political crisis is that it is over issues like the firing of RBZ governor Gideon Gono, the swearing in of Roy Bennett, etc; matters that will at best have only a marginal effect on the ordinary citizen. Ok Mugabe will climb down and fire Gono and swear in Bennett so what?
The chances are Mugabe will appoint another Mugabe loyalist to replace Gono. Gono himself will probably continue to run the key accounts although be it remotely. As for Bennett, he will be just another MDC Minister, hopeful, a shed better than Home Affairs Minister Mutsekwa who may just as well be a Zanu PF Minister.
The political crisis should have been over the really big issues affecting all Zimbabweans like ending the state of lawlessness and the culture of impunity by arresting and punishing all those responsible for the violence and murders. Tsvangirai’s answer to Mugabe’s failure to end Zanu PF’s struggle hold on the public media and create a truly free and independent media was to launch his own MDC newspaper!
It took nine months of MDC grooving before Mugabe followed by weeks of sulking to get Mugabe to finally fire a few Mugabe loyalists. How much longer will the nation have to wait for the day when the electorate will exercise their basic right to vote for whoever the please without fearing for one’s very life?
Zimbabweans have waited for over three decades now for the restoration of their basic and fundamental human rights and freedoms. Rights denied them by Mugabe. Whatever Tsvangirai comes back from the SADC meeting on Thursday with; if it does not guarantee the rights and freedoms of every Zimbabweans with immediate effect then it is simply not good enough. Zimbabweans have waited for their human dignity for thirty years now; they should not have to wait another day. If there was political will these rights and freedoms can be guaranteed at no significant cost in terms of money or time.
If there was ever a time when Zimbabweans should stand up and be counted; there will not the a better time than right now!
1 comment:
THIS WAS REPLY TO COMMENTS ON THE ZIMBABWE TIMES
Majays
You are right; MDC will never go back to Mugabe to demand that those responsible for terrorising and murdering so many people last year be arrested because Mugabe has this covered. He saw to it that the GPA calls for all this to be swept under the carpet. It is significant to note that Tsvangirai did care about life- his own only. When he feared for his life, he simply suspected that his life was in danger and that was enough; no promise of a Mercedes Benz would make him leave Botswana. Over 400 Zimbabweans were murdered in cold blood and their only crime was that they had voted for him! He did not have the human decency to ask for a proper investigation into their deaths so that the dead’s loved ones would at least know what happened. He simply did not care, they were all expendable!
The failure to have last year’s reign of terror investigated will only encourage Mugabe’s thugs to terrorise and kill again and again and again. There is absolutely nothing in the current GPA to give anyone the confidence that last year’s nightmare would not be visited on the nation again. Indeed that political terror and murder is a mathematical certainty the GPA is silent on Mugabe disbanding his thugs and henchmen. They are allowed to continue running their training camps and fully armed! As long as Tsvangirai himself is not touched he would careless how many Mugabe murders next!
Masango Matema
I did not say Gono is not important; he is. However compared to what should we, as a nation should be concerned about; then media reform, restoring the rule of law, etc are infinitely more important than whether or not Gono should be fired.
Gono is nothing more than the rear-view mirror on a car; I would much rather talk about the engine, the gearbox and most significantly that I, as the rightful owner of the car, has the car-keys and that I decide where we are going - not some village bully. Zimbabwe belongs to us, the people, not to Mugabe and his cronies.
We the people should take back the ownership and control of what is rightfully ours. People fought and dead for freedom, justice, peace and the right to be treated with dignity and respect. And for three decades Mugabe has denied us all these things. Now we have a chance to get all these things back and all Tsvangirai is offering us is Gono! And you think that is a fair deal!
The irony is Tsvangirai would not even be asking Mugabe to dismiss Gono, Chinamasa and all the other Mugabe cronies if he had rejected the GPA and had been elected president in his own right. Mugabe and his cronies would be out of all our lives – hopefully in jail for their murderous past. Even at this late hour Tsvangirai has a problem comprehending this which is why he will be gloriously happy and content if Mugabe fires Gono.
The real irony and tragedy of it all is that Zimbabwe’s destiny should be in the hands of a ruthless and heartless dictator on the one hand and a stupid moron on the other!
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