Thursday, 6 June 2013

After all the posturing, President Zuma calls off the show down with Mugabe 9 June SADC summit!


President Zuma calls off 9 June SADC summit on Zimbabwe but does not give a new date! It was going to be a show down with Mugabe; that much was clear.

 

 Mr Zuma’s task is to help steer Zimbabwe back to peace and stability. The next objective is the holding of free and fair elections.

 

President Zuma and therefore SADC’ s task was always to “help steer Zimbabwe back to peace and stability”. The emphases being on the word HELP or FACILITATE.  And therefore PM Tsvangirai’s failure to get even one of the democratic reforms implemented has made that task impossible.

 

The truth is PM Tsvangirai has not even tried to get the reforms implemented these last four and half years. He believed the new Copac constitution would be all he needed to deliver free and fair elections, at least that is what he said all along right up to the referendum on the new constitution.  It was only after the referendum that the PM finally realized that the Copac constitution was too weak to deliver free and fair elections that he started asking SADC to pressure Mugabe to implement some of the reforms.

 

The biggest mistake President Zuma has made was to give Tsvangirai the impression that even at this the last minute; he could still get Mugabe to implement the reforms! Tsvangirai has since got four of the other main political parties to gang-up behind him in demanding reforms.

 
SADC last week said it was not going to reopen the reforms issue strengthening Mugabe’s hand.

 
President Zuma should just tell PM Tsvangirai that he should have implemented the reforms when he had the time to do and now it is too late. A showdown with Mugabe when President Zuma has such a weak hand will only end with a lot of egg on the latter’s face! And Mugabe will relish rubbing it in; the whole world will never hear the end of it!

3 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

“The SADC summit on Zimbabwe, which was due in Maputo, Mozambique on Sunday, will now be held in Pretoria, South Africa on Monday 10 June,” S W Radio Africa reports.

Zimbabwe has just completed a voter registration exercise that was completed on 19 May 2013. Many people has dismissed it as chaotic, still no one is denying there had been one such exercise. If it had been done properly would Senator Coltart still be asking for another one just because the new
constitution called for it? Of course not!

According to the report, Ms Zulu and her team are talking elections before July 31; then they too must have dismissed calls for implementing any reforms! PM Tsvangirai can speak with “one voice” (he got four other parties to gang-up with him in demanding reforms) and in as many tongues as he chooses; the fact of the matter is reforms are dead in the water!

There is absolutely no reason why elections should not be held by July 31.

Zimbabwe Light said...

“We cannot have somebody coming from a country with very serious problems of its own like the Marikanas and all to pontificate and say we will use the roadmap. We do not need the roadmap. We need the Constitution, and we have it,” said Professor Jonathan Moyo.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Chimoto

We always come back to this nonsense of "I fought Mugabe." or "I fought Smith." I do not dispute Tsvangirai or Mugabe or whoever's heroic contribution for one minute. I honour it and praise it to the heavens. But my honour does not extend to turning a blind eye to what they have done wrong; that I condemn to the deepest parts of hell!