A jovial Mugabe announces last week that he will stand for re-election in the next Zimbabwe election if his party, Zanu PF, nominates him.
The GNU has allowed Mugabe the economic and political space and time to reorganise his party and reinstate his iron grip on power following the economic melt down leading to the 2008 elections and the sham presidential run-off.
Mugabe had never held free and fair elections since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980; the March 2008 elections were not to be any different. Still, when the results started coming in, Mugabe realised he stared election defeat in the face! In the presidential run-off Mugabe stepped up his campaign of intimidation, rape and murder to a new frightening level never seen in Zimbabwe or in any other country in modern history. For the first time the Police, Army and the other State Security Agents were not only used to back-up the traditional Zanu PF party thugs; this time, they spear headed the political violence. For three months the nation was turned up side down, millions of people were affected and over two hundred were murdered in cold blood.
The level of violence was so great that Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s challenger, was forced to withdraw giving Mugabe a clear run. Mugabe’s victory was roundly condemned and the international refused to accept him as the legitimately elected president of Zimbabwe.
By signing the power sharing arrangement with Mugabe and forming the GNU; Tsvangirai got him off the hook.
The GNU allowed Mugabe to force his ever demanding and wasteful cronies to accept the close down of his money printing crazy to adopt some basic economic policy changes which had fuelled the country’s run-away inflation and economic collapse. These simple changes have ended the hyper inflation and allowed the shops to fill with food and other commodities.
Mugabe had the upper hand in the GNU and he blocked the far reaching changes economic changes for a full economic recovery. And the political front, the Zanu PF dictatorship has remained untouched; he blocked all democratic reforms. Indeed Mugabe has even managed to consolidate his own political power by getting a lot more Zimbabweans to share in the looting of the country and, worse still, get some to soil their hands with serious human rights violations. As for MDC, he has successfully discredited them forcing them to accept responsibility for the West imposed targeted sanctions.
Mugabe has good reason to be buoyant and talk of fresh elections with confidence; his electoral prospects are infinitely better now than even he could have dreamt possible in the last ten years. The GNU was a marriage of convenience for the old fox, Muage; he inherited the rich dowry Tsvangirai brought. Tsvangirai got nothing but a heart break out of the arrangement. And the people of Zimbabwe, who are the real victims of this failed GNU, they lost a real chance to bring meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe. They had believed in MDC and had risked their very lives in giving them the greatest electoral mandate to any opposition party in Zimbabwe’s history. It will take a long time and more sacrifices to build up a similar head of steam!
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