NTA is GNU by the back door - who cares as long as it implements reforms. By Nomusa Garikai

“The electorate should not embrace everything that is always uttered by some excited politicians who are trying to take Zimbabwe to another Government of National Unity GNU through the back door by advocating for a National Transitional Authority NTA,” wrote Gugugu Magorira.

People like Magorira have never understood that the primary task of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms so that we can have free, fair and credible. They have never understood why this was not done and, even more significantly, they do not appreciate that we still need to implement the reforms or Zanu PF will once again rig the next elections.

The most important thing to remember here is that the present system of the Zanu PF dictatorship is not working and unless we implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle it we are stuck with the dictatorship. The 2008 to 2013 GNU was meant to dismantle the dictatorship but MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years because Tsvangirai and friends are corrupt and incompetent.

Of course if we had had competent leaders then they would have implemented the reforms and we would not be stuck in this hell.

We need to end the Zanu PF dictatorship on that there can be no debate. The peaceful way to end it is by implementing the democratic reforms. (Let us assume at that we now know what these reforms are and how they are to be implemented; if not, we can come back and sort this later.) The question then is who can we trust to implement the reforms this second time around?

Can we trust Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T or any of the MDC factions to implement the reforms? Joice Mujuru and her Zim PF or any of the former Zanu PF leaders who are now in the opposition camp? The answer is no we cannot trust them because the MDC leaders are the ones who failed to implement even one reform during the GNU because they are corrupt and incompetent. When someone has proven they are corrupt and incompetent it is naïve to expect them change because these are quality people can cast away like a snake shedding off its old skin.

Can we trust Joice Mujuru and her Zim PF or any of the other former Zanu PF leaders like Dumiso Dabengwa and his Zapu who have now joined the opposition camp to implement the reforms? The answer has to be a NO because they are too have proven during they decades at the heart of successive Zanu PF governments that they are corrupt and incompetent. Mujuru and friends are not fighting to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship but to reconstitute in their own image and get back on the gravy train.

It is academic to ask if we can trust President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies to implement the democratic reforms and deliver free and fair elections. This is the one thing they will have to be forced to do just as they were forced to by signing the GPA in 2008 because they know they will never win free and fair elections and they will never give up power willingly.

So if we are going to have free, fair and credible elections we will have to appoint a body of competent and incorruptible men and women who understand what the reforms are and how they are to be implemented to carry out this critical task. We can call the body NTA, GNU by the back door or whatever; the name is of no consequence.

What most people have objected to is a wishy-washy NTA that will not implement any democratic reforms – to appease President Mugabe so he and his cronies will embrace the idea.

So it is not the idea of the NTA or GNU by the back door per se that we should object to as long as it will implement all the democratic reforms and finally deliver the long awaited free, fair and credible elections!

“It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice,” said former Chinese President Deng Xiaoping. He was the visionary leader who dragging China by the scruff of the neck from the nation where billions lived in squalor and hopeless despair into the prosperous nation it is today with the second largest economy in the world and beaming with self-confidence and hope of an even brighter tomorrow.