Tsitsi, Mugabe is a master at playing the game of smoke and mirrors. The Zimbabwe economy is still in a mess and is set to get even worse.
The international community who had step in after the formation of the GNU to get help the recovery of the country’s hospitals, schools, prisons and other humanitarian aid dependent activities are cut back. They had hoped to see the GNU getting its act together and take over these functions only to see the later seat back. Indeed in some cases the members of GNU have turned round to make ridiculous demands for the sole purpose of unashamedly enriching themselves – the demand that all MPs and Senators should be involved in the consultation process for the new constitution and be paid a cool US$300 daily allowances being one example.
The GNU is as good as died; Mugabe can see that. He knows fresh elections are the only way out; he has to decide when will be the most opportune time. But even there, he does not have much room to play with.
Mugabe knows winning the next elections will be a Herculean task but he also knows he can not afford to lose the elections either. When one has so much dirty to hid as he has, losing an elections and let his past come out is simply unthinkable!
For the last ten years Mugabe has used the land issue as the only election issue. He has milked it for all he could, 90% of the white farms are already occupied by him and his cronies. So he needs another election issue. And the targeted sanctions against him and his cronies is emerging as THE issue.
Mugabe has always blamed Zimbabwe’s economic melt down on the sanctions and now he can hit at the West for imposing the sanctions and hit MDC for calling for them to be imposed and now for failing to have them lifted.
Zanu PF youths have the outward excuse for beating up MDC supporters; the underlying and unspoken excuse is to stop MDC threatening Mugabe’s struggle hold on political power at all cost.
Tsvangirai really believed he could talk the West into lifting the targeted sanctions regardless of just how phony the GNU turned out to be. He was being naïve, of course. Mugabe is only capitalising on Tsvangirai and MDC’s incompetency – not for the first time!
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