There
is a growing chorus of people supporting the idea of Zanu PF inviting the
opposition to form another GNU or National Transition Authority.
“ACADEMIC
and political analyst Ibbo Mandaza says that a transitional government in the
form of a government of national unity (GNU), followed by elections two years
later is the way to go in resolving Zimbabwe’s political crisis,” reported
Newsday.
“Speaking
on a BBC television programme, Hardtalk hosted by Stephen Sackur, Mandaza said
there was need to mediate the conflict and have national dialogue which
includes everybody, including main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to form
a transitional authority.”
Whilst
there is good reason for some mechanism, be it mark-2 GNU, NTA or whatever, to
implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship
and deliver free and fair elections. Only a fool who expect Zanu PF to preside
over the process and get the job done.
People
must not be fooled; whatever GNU Mnangagwa may come up with it will not be
there to implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for.
Zanu
PF rigged the July 2013 elections to get a very comfortable two thirds majority
in both parliament and senate. The party has since won all but one of the
by-elections since to boost its majority even further. Tsvangirai, out of spite
and his usual foolishness, recalled all the seats from the break-away Tendai
Biti group knowing fully well he was not going to even try to win the seats
back in the by-election because his party had passed the “No reform, no
election!” resolution.
So,
with a 75% plus majority in both houses, Mnangagwa does not need to invite an
opposition members in his government. There can only be three reasons why would
want a GNU, they are all for selfish gain:
1) Mnangagwa, like Mugabe before, has always
wanted a one-party dictatorship. When Zanu PF was forced to sign-on to the
multi-party Lancaster House Constitution in 1979 they party set about to create
a de facto one-party State. The principle purpose of all the Gukurahundi
massacre was to completely destroy PF Zapu, their main rivalry at the time, clear
the deck, and impose the one-party state. Mnangagwa played a central role in
the massacre, because he, no doubt, subscribed to its principle objective.
Mugabe failed to achieve his Gukurahundi objective, wipe PF Zapu off the
Zimbabwe political stage, but achieved the next best thing – whip the party into
joining Zanu PF to form the de facto one-party state we have today.
Mugabe has ruthless denied the political space to all other opposition
parties accusing all opposition politicians of being puppets of the West hell-bend
on disrupting the peace and unity with their regime-change agenda.
No doubt, Mnangagwa will argue that he is inviting the opposition to
join his government in the name of national unity – the political correct
euphemism for one-party dictatorship, brought in by the back door.
Tsvangirai, Ncube and many others in the opposition camp will jump sky-high
at the opportunity to get back on the grave train. Tsvangirai was no more than
a tea-boy with the fancy post of Prime Minister during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
With no SADC leaders agenda to worry about as last time, Mnangagwa can afford
to completely ignore the window-dressing opposition.
A healthy and functional democracy needs a robust opposition to hold the
government to account, something the corrupt and incompetent MDC politicians
have failed to do. Their being co-opted into Zanu PF government will silence
them completely.
2) Mnangagwa
knows that for him to stand a chance of winning the next elections he will need
a lot more than the 8 months left of the present parliamentary term. He wants
to use the creation of this fictitious government of national unity as an
excuse for postponing next year’s elections which must be held by the end of
July 2018 at the latest. He would want to argue that the new administration has
had to agree on the democratic reforms needed to take the country forward.
Mnangagwa knows that there no democratic constitution in the world that
would allow the seating government to postpone elections because it makes a
mockery of fixed term parliament. So, for him to pull this off he is playing
the same dirty trick Mugabe played during the GNU – bribe the opposition,
pamper them silly with the trapping of power, to buy their silence.
3) If Mnangagwa cannot postpone the elections then
he will have no choice but to rig the elections to hang on to his post as
president. He and his Zanu PF colleagues cannot afford the luxury of holding
free and fair elections and risk defeat. They cannot contemplate defeat because
they will stand to lose a lot more than the right to hold public office; they
will lose the power to stop the world investigating their past. For the last 37
years Mugabe, Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF cabal have looted the
nation blind and committed some shocking human right violations.
Even at the height of the Zanu PF factional wars, the one thing the
Mujuru, Mnangagwa and G40 factional members all agreed on was that a Zanu PF faction
must retain power at all cost and that is why no faction has ever supported the
implementation of democratic reforms.
The Mujuru faction was booted out of the party three years ago and it
has paid lip-service to democratic reforms and free and fair election. She and
her newly formed People’s Rainbow Coalition would rather take their chance and
contest flawed elections next year than demand reforms to ensure free and fair
elections which could result in a democratic government. She has as much to
fear from such a government as Mnangagwa and the rest in Zanu PF because she
too is guilty of the wholesale looting during for 34 years in Zanu PF.
So, Mnangagwa would be inviting the opposition to join him in his new
administration to reassure them that they too will have a share of the spoils
of power in post Mugabe Zimbabwe. He wants as many opposition parties to take
part in next year’s elections even if they know Zanu PF will rig the vote to
stay in power. He wants them to be assured the party will allow the opposition
some generous scraps.
Morgan
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had more than the balance of power in the 2008
to 2013 GNU, MDC had a numeric majority in parliament and cabinet. They also had a clearly defined task to do,
implementing the raft of democratic reforms. Yet, after five years, they still failed
to get even one democratic reform implemented. Only the politically naïve would
believe that the opposition will accomplish anything by joining a Mnangagwa led
government of national unity in which they will not even be elected MP and with
a vaguely defined task of implementing electoral reforms.
Morgan
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out big time during the 2008 to 2013 GNU
they will be joining the Mnangagwa mark-2 GNU for no other reason than to
sell-out again!
We
need the democratic reforms implemented, there is no question that this is the
nation’s ticket out of the hell-hole Zanu PF has landed us in, but to think
that a mickey-mouse GNU headed by someone like Mnangagwa would reform himself
and his Zanu PF cronies out of office is the madness that landed us into this
mess in the first place! We want a mark 2 GNU but one with competent players,
not the same clowns from GNU mark 1, and a realistic chance of getting the
reforms implemented.
If
Mnangagwa cannot deliver free and fair elections then he must stand down. If he
fails to deliver free and fair elections then he will be compelled to stand
down. Either way, the nation will have a chance to appoint competent men and
women to form the GNU mark 2 without having to include Zanu PF and MDC
politicians. The latter had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms
during the 2008 to 2013 GNU; they fail and now they must go.
11 comments:
There are three reasons why Mnangagwa will actively want another GNU:
1) He wants a one-party dictatorship and this is one way of creating one by the back door.
2) He will use the existence of the GNU to justify postponing elections giving himself more time to stamp his own authority on Zanu PF and the nation before going for election.
3) If he cannot postpone elections then he will have no choice but to rig next year's elections. For him to stop the results being rejected he must make sure all opposition parties contest the flawed elections and inviting them into his administration will be his way of telling them there will be more scraps for you where those came from!
All the three reasons above are for Mnangagwa and Zanu PF's selfish gain at the expense of the ordinary people.
@ Sarah
Zanu PF "is being magnanimous and have the good of Zimbabwe at heart"! Of all the feeble excuse for a Zanu PF led GNU that takes the biscuit! It is not in the nature of a hyena to be magnanimous to a lamb and Zanu PF is the ruthless hyena of Zimbabwe politics.
You are on the ground and you clearly got it wrong that Zanu PF can ever be magnanimous. So you can be on the ground and in touch with the practical situation and yet still get things hopeless wrong. The stupid argument that only those on the ground know is just another variation to the age-old argument that only those who fought in the liberation war know best. There is nothing in being on the ground or fighting in the war that say you are wiser than everyone else.
If you think Wilbert is wrong then say why you think he is wrong and not give us all this bull about you being on the ground or in heaven. You admit that "the opposition is dead" then what would a dead opposition accomplish in this GNU?
It is Mnangagwa who was the GNU to give himself time to ensure he wins the next elections and is cunning enough to give the impression that he is doing the opposition and nation at large a great favour.
Mnangagwa has just been addressing his Zanu PF supporters in Harare and was talking of “Pasi nenhandu!” (Death to the traitors!) After 37 years of independence who are the traitors? The opposition and all who dare criticize him, of course.
Anyone who thought the events of the last two weeks have made Mnangagwa reflect on what he and his Zanu PF cabal have done was wrong. He has returned as cocky and arrogance as ever. The man is not a democrat and he will never implement any meaningful reforms!
“History has taught us that failed liberation movements cannot and will not self-correct. The solution has to come from outside these movements‚” said SA DA leader, Mmusi Maimane.
“Zanu PF has become nothing more than a patronage network engulfed in fighting over access to power and state resources for those who are politically connected.”
Well spoken!
Here is Zimbabwe, people are doing themselves a great disservice by taking their eyes off the demand to implement the democratic reforms, the only sure way to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. The removal of the dictator Mugabe is not the death of the dictatorship especial when it is the dictatorship itself that has surgically removed him and replaced him with another dictator!
Zimbabwe’s next elections are due next year in July at the latest, the challenge is for SADC to reject the result if they are not free and fair, as is almost certain to be the case.
@ Austin
True, there is no one in the opposition worthy of the people's vote. Still, it will be a serious mistake here to see Zanu PF as the solution. We are in this mess because of Zanu PF and the factional changes that has resulted in the demise of Mugabe will change nothing. Zanu PF will still be as corrupt and tyrannical as ever.
The solution here is to demand and have the democratic reforms implemented and then only then hold elections. The democratic reforms will force the politicians on both sides of the divide to up their game and thus force quality leaders to emerge.
Democratic reforms will force quality to improve and your mistake is you are limiting your choice of leaders on the ones there before the reforms. Implement the reforms first and then ask whom to vote for, the likes of Tsvangirai will not last a week once the country has been opened up to real competition.
We all know that Mugabe rigged the last elections (Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest of the Joint Operation Command (JOC) Junta know this better than anyone else because they are the ones who masterminded the vote rigging schemes from start to finish) and so he was never the country's legitimate head of state. The irony is that it was the same Junta that mounted the coup that toppled the tyrant and installed Mnangagwa. What must be made very clear here is that Mnangagwa himself is NOT Zimbabwe's legitimate head of state because the coup itself was not a legitimate.
Two wrongs do not make a right, never did and never will!
What makes the recent Chiwenga coup particularly repugnant is the fact that the same thugs who perpetrated the first wrong, the blatant vote rigging, are the ones behind the coup. A close examination of the Junta’s past shows that these are career criminals. They are the one who staged the 2008 coup d’état in all but name to falsify the vote count of the March 2008 election to stop Tsvangirai becoming president, among many other treasonous crimes. The names of Chiwenga, Mnangagwa and Mugabe himself feature throughout the years as the ringleaders.
The only thing unusual about the 15 November 2017 coup is that the Junta was acting against one of its own.
“Today we are witnessing the beginning of unfolding democracy in our country.” Mnangagwa said.
That is a truck load of bull! How can the illegal act of the Junta, which is itself an illegal body that has no regard for the rule of law and democracy and the end product of the coup is clearly meant to reassert the Junta’s hegemony and veto in Zimbabwe politics be considering “the beginning of unfolding democracy”?
This is all about power and Zanu PF dictatorship led by JOC Junta’s ruthless determination to retain political power at all cost.
“Vachahukura! Vachihukura! Zanu PF ichitonga! Igotonga! Pamberi neZanu PF! Pasi nemhandu!” Is the devil, Mnangagwa, JOC Junta’s and Zanu PF thugs’ creed. There is no room for free, fair and credible elections in that creed!
Many of us suffered many hardships and risked life and limb in the liberation war, many comrades lost their lives, fighting for a free, democratic and independent Zimbabwe. It is heart breaking to see what Mugabe and his gang of thieves and murderers have done to this great nation. If I had known this would happen, I and many others would have never left home to fight! Never!
The men and women we fought along side with for freedom now call us barking dogs for reminding them that they are denying povo the very things we all fought for – freedom, human dignity, a meaningful say in the governance of the country and a fair share of the nation’s wealth.
Mnangagwa’s ascendance pinto the presidency was engineered by thugs for their own gain. It stinks! Enough of this corrupt and tyrannical rule by thieves, vote rigging tricksters and murderous tyrants. Zimbabwe will never live up to its full potential or its people ever taste the sweetness of freedom as long as the Zanu PF dictatorship survive. We must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms and only then can we be certain of the demise of this curse!
@Ty try
Mnangagwa is dismissing all those calling for democratic reforms as barking dogs and restating Zanu PF's core tenet to hold on to power at all cost. Zanu PF ichatonga igotonga! Mnangagwa has already made it very clear that he view implementing democratic reforms as tantamount to Zanu PF reforming itself out of power.
The power to decide who rules the country belong to the people and they express it in free, fair and credible elections. Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have usurped the people's power by corrupting the State Institutions like the Police, Judiciary, ZEC, etc. so that they ignore their duty of maintaining law and order, produce a verifies voters' roll, etc. necessary for the delivery of free, fair and credible elections.
Zanu PF has been resisting demands to have the democratic reforms implemented because it has benefited from usurping the people's power to achieve its no-regime-change mantra.
Mugabe had no right to usurp the people's right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. It is absurd that the Zanu PF dictatorship should be resisting calls for reforms, calling those demanding reforms barking dogs, as if having usurped the people's power the regime now has the right to hold on to its ill-gotten gains!
Pasi nemhandu is a more that a hate speech! It is treason! The people's right to free, fair and credible elections is at the very heart of the country's political and economic crisis that has dragged this nation right up to the edge of the abyss. The very stability and survival of this nation is on the knife edge! These responsible for this tragic situation are therefore guilty of committing the most serious crime one can ever commit - crime against the nation, treason.
@ Mavaza
“The man whose name became synonymous with Zimbabwe, has resigned as president after 37 years in power. But will always remain a hero who brought independence and an end to white-minority rule. Even those who forced him out blamed his wife and “criminals” around him,” you say.
This is the type of foolishness that got us into this mess in the first place.
Mugabe and many of all those who have been with him these last 37 years played a key and important role in the liberation war but it is nonsense to still maintain they a liberation heroes when they hijacked the revolution soon after independence for their own selfish purposes. Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs; who, by the way only booted him out of the presidency to replace him with another member of the Joint Operation Command (JOC), the shadowy Junta, proof that nothing has changed; have ruled this nation with an iron fist.
Mugabe and his Zanu thugs looted the country’s wealth like rats in a granary that eats what it wants and urinate and s**t on the rest leaving the true owner of grain to starve. Mugabe has ridden roughshod over the people’s freedoms and basic human rights denying the right to free and fair elections for the sole purpose of extending his rule and looting.
You focus on Mugabe’s liberation war contribution but ignoring his demonic tyrant since independence is an insult to all those who have suffered under his corrupt and tyrannical rule. Only a brainwashed idiot would still consider Mugabe a hero! Sadly, it must be said, Zimbabwe has a glat of such idiots; even now with the mountain of evidence of the real and true Mugabe, a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant, some idiots still cherry pick on which Mugabe they want to see.
Do not air brush the last 37 years of Mugabe just to suit yourself because his rule affected the whole nation and will continue to do so for generations. History will judge Mugabe for whom he has proven to be – a corrupt and ruthless tyrant whose appetite for absolute power and loot was insatiable! Yes, idiots will want to call him a hero but they are idiots, they think they can change historic facts, and must be ignored!
*COME AND BE AN EYE WITNESS OF HISTORY BEING MADE, THE HISTORIC USHERING IN A NEW ERA AND BETTER COUNTRY LED BY OUR LOVED CDE ED MNANGAGWA*.
The Zanu PF propaganda machine can go into overdrive but even it cannot change the historic fact that Mnangagwa was “voted” president by General Chiwenga and his posse of coup plotters who pointed the gun at Mugabe. Mugabe himself was illegitimate because he rigged the last elections; Mnangagwa, General Chiwenga, the posse of coup plotters, everyone else in the Joint Operation Command (JOC), the Junta behind all looting, vote rigging, murders and coups, and Mugabe himself who was the Commander –In-Chief of JOC know only too well.
The coup removed Mugabe a tyrant the nation desperate to remove, yes, but still that does not change the fundamental fact that the coup itself was illegal. Two wrongs do not make a right. Worse still, the coup itself was carried out be the same criminals who have been behind the imposition of Mugabe all those years not to put their past wrong right but rather to impose a new dictator. Those coup plotters have not done the nation any favour here as this is just the Junta swapping one dictator for another.
The people of Zimbabwe must stay away from the crowning of one dictator and illegal president in place of another dictator who too was illegal. Nothing has changed here and yet the Junta want us to believe this is a new era! This is just the Zanu PF dictatorship playing power games in which we the people are nothing but pawns.
People must stay away and refuse to take part in these stupid games! The only president we will celebrate is one we, the people voted for and not the Junta!
There is no doubt that Mnangagwa will be more pragmatic and ditch many of Mugabe's stupid policies but what we must not lose sight of here is that Mnangagwa is, above all else, a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant. He will never allow any meaningful democratic reforms and free, fair and credible elections. The pressure on him to implement the reforms must therefore be maintained if not increased.
There is a real danger of these in the West rushing in to engage with Mnangagwa just to catch up with the Chinese who have profited greatly over the years from all the looting that has been taking place in Zimbabwe.
If the dictatorship is going to be dismantled then it is us, the people of Zimbabwe, who will have to fight for it and even have to fight the West, who up to now have been on our side. It will be a great pity if all we have achieved here is get rid of one dictator only to replace him with another and allow the dictatorship itself to carry on as before!
This is typical Mugabe, it is always what he wants that matters. If his demise had been handled by democrats and not thugs then he should be facing trial for all the horrors he has caused these last 37 years. He will die in Zimbabwe in Chikurumbi or by the hangman's noose!
Mugabe has been granted immunity from prosecution.
An illegitimate regime has no power and authority to grant anyone immunity from prosecution especially on something as serious as treason. Mugabe has looted, rigged elections and committed politically motivated multiple murderers all of which have cause untold human suffering, deaths and brought the nation on the brink of total collapse and instability. To sweep all this under the carpet will be serious dereliction of duty and betrayal of all those who have suffered and died and set a dangerous precedent that will only return to haunt the nation again.
This is one immunity that can easily be revoked and it must and will be revoked!
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