Does Tsvangirai ever stop to think before he makes all these outrageous public statements! So Tsvangirai is “adamant” free and fair elections are only possible after we have produced a new constitution. What nonsense!
1) The GPA gave the GNU 18 months to produce a new constitution. The GNU is now 12 months old and nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done. And it is not the people but the politicians who are holding back the whole process. At this rate we could wait for another four years and still have nothing to show for it. This GNU was imposed by politicians like Tsvangirai on the people it is ridiculous to hold the nation hostage to a process that was imposed on them.
2) Even if the people were to accept for this torturous constitution writing process to run its course; what guarantees do we have that it will be any better than the one we have now? None. Mugabe wants – and there is a man in this GNU who has always got what he wanted - the new constitution to be based on the Kariba draft, which is just a rehash of the present constitution.
3) Even if Mugabe was to be pressured – at present I can not see where that kind of pressure would come from, but let us just assume it was done – into accepting a people driven constitution. What is there to stop him using violence during the referendum to ensure the new constitution is rejected. According to Tsvangirai, there can not be free and fair elections without the new constitution. By extension, there will therefore be widespread violence during the referendum since the new constitution will not be active then!
4) Even if a new democratic constitution was passed after passing through all the hops and the loss of hundreds, if not thousands of lives; what is there to stop Mugabe disregarding the new constitution and once again use violence to achieve his political goals? We are in this pickle precisely because Mugabe is a law unto himself, he is not going to have a Saul-to-Damascus type transformation just because someone flashes in his face a new constitution.
The GNU was Tsvangirai’s idea and it has proved to be a total disaster. Instead of admitting that and move one; all Tsvangirai is seeking to do is extend the life of the GNU under the pretence that it must write a new constitution.
Zimbabweans must address the thorny problem of how to ensure national elections are free and fair now. Tsvangirai’s hare-brain schemes are designed to kick the problem into the tail grass on the vein hope that the problem will go away. Of course that will never happen, indeed time was made Mugabe even more arrogant and ruthless!
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