US Senators were not impressed by Biti & co failure to answer a simple question

It was USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe who said, in a Wikileak, Tsvangirai was “a flawed and indecisive character”. The Ambassador singled out Tsvangirai as the leader of the MDC but he could have said the same of all the other opposition leaders. Last week the American Senators had first-hand experience of just how incompetent and indecisive Zimbabwe’s opposition can be.  

The US Senate on foreign relations committee invited Peter Godwin, a Zimbabwean author and journalist, and a posse of MDC Alliance members to ask them a simple question: Should the US lift the targeted sanctions against the Zanu PF regime or not? The sanctions were imposed on targeted Zanu PF leaders in 2002 to force the regime to stop serious human rights violence including failure to hold free and fair elections.

Without exception, each Zimbabwean gave a factual account to show that nothing on the ground had changed to justify lifting the sanctions. Peter Godwin then gave the Senators an earful of feeble excuses why the sanctions should be lifted. At least Peter was decisive. Tendai Biti and his fellow MDC Alliance members could not be more ambivalent, they would not give a straight yes or no answer. They insisted, they were there “to re-engage”.

So, the Americans had gone to great expense both in treasure and their valuable time to get these Zimbabweans to Washington only to learn just how indecisive Zimbabwe’s opposition members are and thus confirm something Ambassador Dell had said back in 2004.

I have said it 1 000 times and know will say it 100 000 times again that Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. Just to prove this point the opposition members who were not invited to go to Washington would too have shown just how confused and lost they are on the same subject of sanctions.

"The US can't reform our electoral system. The fight has to be taken to Parliament to ensure the Electoral Act is aligned to the Constitution. We need to enforce ZEC's obligation to make public the voters' roll. We need to monitor the voter reg \ voting process for irregularity," tweeted Fadzai Mahere, a prospective Mt Pleasant independent candidate for next year’s elections.

Ever since Mahere set her eyes on the parliamentary seat, her brain (assuming she had any to start with) has turned into mash. She has been told a million times that without implementing the democratic reforms first, there is no hope of next elections being free, fair and credible. She is paying lip service to calls for verified voters’ roll, for example. Even with the best will in the world, there is no way ZEC can register 7 million voters from scratch in four months and then produce a verified voters’ roll in the remaining four or less months.

Mahere, like the rest in the opposition camp, will contest next year’s elections even without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. After all she and the rest in the opposition are fight over the few gravy train seats they know Zanu PF will be giving away to entice them to contest the flawed elections. When it is the scraps you want, you do not care how they are served.

Yes, madam Mahere, the Americans are not going to reform Zimbabwe’s electoral system but how is a Zanu PF controlled parliament ever going to it? Zanu PF is going to rig next year’s elections to retain its dominance and, by participating in the flaw and illegal process, the opposition are foolishly giving the process credibility.

"Hon Misihairambwi has moved a motion in Parliament which l have seconded to debate the merits of a transitional government. This is where MDC should be concentrating their efforts in order to put their points across, not globetrotting. We look forward to the debate," tweeted Mliswa.

The hon Misihairambwi was an MDC cabinet member is the last GNU in which the MDC had the majority in cabinet and in parliament and yet they failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years. If MDC failed to get any democratic reforms implemented during the GNU what hope is there of getting any now in a Zanu PF dominated arrangement!

Misihairambwi contested the 2013 elections with no reforms in place because, like everyone else in the opposition, she was confident of winning. This time the opposition camp has become very crowded and she knows that her hopes of winning any scraps this time are considerably reduced, especially someone like her with precious little to show for all her years in parliament. She is hoping another transition arrangement would postpone elections and extend she stay on the gravy train by another year or two!

President Mnangagwa was free to invite Misihairambwi  or anyone else from the opposition he wished into his cabinet. What he could not do is use the coalition as an excuse for postponing next year’s elections.

Zanu PF must hold free and fair elections next year or set down. If the elections are not free and fair, all signs are that they will not, then the results will be judged null and void. The people of Zimbabwe; with the help of SADC, UN and the international community; will then decide what transition administration will be required to take the country forward. President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies cannot be dictate what happens next or expect to play a leading role, if any at all, given they wasted the same opportunity during the last GNU.

As for the MDC opposition leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU; the nation would not be in this mess if they had not wasted it. The nation would be spare the agony of yet another utterly pointless because, with not reforms, Zanu PF will just rig the vote as before.

Zimbabwe has had the great misfortune to a corrupt and tyrannical ruling party like Zanu PF but having a corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless opposition has compounded the nation’s problems. There is no way Zanu PF would have remained in power for all these last 37 years dragging the nation this deep into this hell-on-earth if it was not for the fact that we have one of the most corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless opposition politicians in human history.

Only a Zimbabwean opposition posse would fly half-way round the world to “re-engage” and still fail to answer the simple question everyone knew they would be asked. Of course, the sanctions must remain in place. Zanu PF has stubbornly refused to implement even one democratic reform necessary for free, fair and credible. It is naïve, to even suggest the removal of Mugabe transformed the party into a democratic party.