Retire Chihuri and Chiwenga and Zanu PF - Medousa - will grow new snake heads!

Here we go again, MDC making confused, contradictory and, frankly, nonsensical demands.

“The current leadership in the security sector has in the past shown that they are partisan. In our view, the best way to realign the security sector is to retire at the very minimum the Commissioner-General of Police Augustine Chihuri and the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) General Constantine Chiwenga,” the MDC’s policy document states.

It is Chihuri’s sworn duty to investigate all unlawful activities and arrest all those responsible. During the three months to the June 2008 presidential run-off over 500 people were murdered and yet no one has ever been arrested. Does MDC really expect Chihuri to up hold the rule of law because he made a public commitment to do so when he failed to do so after taking an oath!

The simple act of forcing Chihuri and Chiwenge into retirement will not transform these partisan institutions into democratic ones. One can even add the retirement or death of Mugabe himself in the mix and still this Zanu PF dictatorship will survive and thrive. These individuals are the public faces of the dictatorship; they masterminded all the intimidations, rapes and murders and supervised the executions of these heinous crimes. Still they are buts the visible snakes growing out of the mythical Medousa’s head. Cut one snakehead off and two will grow in its place.

The years of economic mismanagement, rampant corruption and, in the last ten year, the all out looting – the three ugly beasts behind Zimbabwe’s economic collapse and then total melt down - has costed Mugabe and Zanu PF dearly in terms of public support. Zimbabweans have desert Zanu PF and voted for alternative in droves, knowing they risked the wrath of Zanu PF. Corruption and looting have allowed the unscrupulous individuals to prosper and allowed the party to generously reward the ruthless individuals who have carried out its dirty work. Mugabe and others planned the murders but it was the ruthless that have the blood on their hands. The unscrupulous and ruthless constitute the body and soul of the Zanu PF dictatorship; they have as much to lose from regime change as Mugabe, Chihuri and all the others.

MDC should have pushed for democratic reforms the very next day after the signing of the GPA and not to do so now, a few months before fresh elections. And worse still push for the reforms by making an empty gesture. At this critical stage in our history when the nation is literally dying for meaningful democratic changes the last thing we wanted is more endless posturing from MDC.

As if having a ruthless dictatorship was not bad enough but MDC’s sheer incompetency in all this is make one’s blood boil!

888

Given the man-hours the South Africa government has invested in the Zimbabwe crisis and its critical importance to the economic and political stability of SA and the whole region there must be more to President Zuma’s failure to attend the Namibia SADC meeting than that he had another commitment. It would have taken a couple of hours of his precious time to fly there address this single item on the agenda and fly back.

In Zambia President Zuma had tried, the first time, to put his foot down and rein in Mugabe. The later had responded by becoming even more arrogant and belligerent and thus called President Zuma’s bluff. President Zuma knew the Namibia meeting would be tough.

With SADC’s demands for more political reforms still ringing in his ears Mugabe knows he must push for elections to be held this year. Instead of taking SADC head on and resist reforms he wants to avoid the reforms by making sure that there was no time to see them through even with the best will in the world.

SADC and more so MDC should started pushing for the democratic reforms soon after the formation of GNU. They were slow off the start and three years is a long time to prepare for fresh elections particularly when all parties agree the GNU is not working!

President Zuma knows Mugabe has a strong hand and he really does know what to do next. Delaying the discussion on Zimbabwe has bought President Zuma more time but of course the hesitation would have heartened Mugabe.
If push comes to shove Mugabe will force the holding of election by withdrawing his party from the GNU and the GPA says the GNU will collapse. President Zuma will have to forget his demands for elections to be held next year to allow for meaningful democratic reforms. He can do so quietly now or be forced to do so later!