FOOL ON THE HILL

Day after day
Alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Well on the way
Head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Day after day
Fool on the hill
Day after day
Fool on the hill
Day after day
Fool on the hill
Day after day
after day after
day after day

TSVANGIRAI WANT SADC TO INTERVENE IN ZIMBABWE: HIS EXCUSE FOR NOT WALKING OUT OF THE GNU!

Tsvangirai calls on SADC as the guarantors of Zimbabwe’s GNU to intervine after nearly two years of frustration of Mugabe sending MDC from pillar to post whilst Zimbabwe still remains firmly rooted in chaos.

In 2008 Tsvangirai and MDC were like chickens that had been caught in the rain, were thoroughly soaked, are cold and are desperate for shelter and warmth. Mugabe offered them the prime minister and a few ministerial positions, knowing MDC will forget their promise to bring democratic change to Zimbabwe. Ironically it was MDC that had the stronger hand than Mugabe but were too stupid to realise it.

The GPA and the GNU was a stitch up! The GPA gave Mugabe excessive dictatorial powers and it was naïve of MDC to think the dictator will not use these powers. The only reason Tsvangirai signed on to it is a mix of sheer incompetency and greed.


Long before MDC finally agreed to the GPA the party had complained again and again about the AU and SADC favouring Mugabe when these institutions should have been impartial arbitrators. But surprisingly, MDC still went ahead and signed the GPA content to accept the AU and SADC as the guarantors of the agreement knowing fully well the guarantees were not worth the paper they were written on.

MDC is NOT offering “Zimbabweans the only genuine hope of achieving some dignity and a say in their own destiny” as some people would have us believe. MDC has done is offer Mugabe a chance to go back into State House when the whole world would not accept him as the legitimate president of Zimbabwe following the sham June 2008 presidential run-off. Mugabe has used the time to regroup and rebuild his dictatorship when it was at the verge of complete collapse. The ordinary people have gained nothing from this GNU.

The much hoped for Zimbabwe economy recovery has not happened because nothing has been done address the underlining causes of the economic melt down – mismanagement and corruption. Nothing has changed on the political front either. Mugabe has kicked the writing of the new constitution into the tall grass, media reforms have taken two years in coming and yet the goal of a free press and freedom of expression still remains, like a mirage, in the distant horizon; the threat of politically motivated violence continues to hang over the nation; etc.

How anyone can see “genuine hope” in Zimbabwe’s hopeless political and economic situation beggars belief!

Tsvangirai and MDC should admit the GPA was a blunder and walkout of the GNU. They should have never entered into this agreement. Ever since they assumed the position of power walking out has become unthinkable; give up being PM Tsvangirai to revert to plain old Morgan Tsvangirai was too much to bear. MDC is asking SADC to intervene no because that he expects the later to do anything, it is simply an excuse for him and his friends to stay in the GNU.

As national leaders, Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues have been a total failure; it is time that the Zimbabwean electorate flex their muscle and reminded this lot that they will never ever have their vote. Simba Makoni thought he had the Zimbabwe electorate in his pocket only to learn that he did not when the votes were counted. Zimbabweans are not stupid, they know Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have sold them cheap to Mugabe and Zanu PF. They better enjoy the little power they have now because they will never win the next election.
The Zimbabweans in the Diaspora understand what MDC has been doing in these last few years and they may not have a vote but they certainly have influence over the Zimbabweans still in the country, who have the vote. Tsvangirai should remember the hostile reception Zimbabweans in UK gave him last time he tried patronising them! Mugabe is banking on using violence to force the electorate to vote for him; it is unthinkable that there will be another political leader as naïve as Tsvangirai to get him off the hook again!

THE CHINESE JOIN IN THE CHIADZWA DIAMOND RUSH: MILLIONS OF ZIMBABWEANS CRASHED IN THE MAD RUSH!

A Chinese firm has been granted mining rings in Chiadzwa. This has to be the equivalent of the gold rush in America; except that it is Mugabe and his cronies and friends only who are allowed to join in the diamond rush.

The Chinese financed a birth day party for Mugabe and is now they are getting their reward. The birth day party costed a few hundred thousand US$ including the present for the dictator. It was a one-off payment. The diamonds rights will earn the Chinese a cool US$ 1million plus a day; easy money. The Chinese will be in Chiadzwa beavering day and night for the next four to five years at least - thanks to MDC the dictator's hold on power is now very secure!

In Zimbabwe schools and hospitals are barely functioning for lack of funds and the nation is dishing away its resources and wealth for a song! This has to be proverbial hell-on-earth!

BENNETT ACQUITED OF TERRORISM CHARGES BUT THE REAL WINNER IN MUGABE!

Court acquits MDC’s Roy Bennett of all terrorism charges.

My guess is Mugabe will now swear in Bennett and earn himself a thousand brownies. He is a master at making a big song and dance each time he gives anything minor or, as is the case here, something he should have done a long, long time ago. He publicly gives with the right hand and under cover takes away even more with his left hand.

The right of Zimbabweans to have a meaningful say in the running of the country is THE BIG ISSUE – broken into free and fair elections, free media, democratic constitution, rule of law, etc - in Zimbabwe and has been these last thirty years remains untouched. Tsvangirai and MDC have fought hard over the trivial issues like the swearing in of Bennett and firing of Gono, they had no appetite to take Mugabe on the big national issue.

Mugabe is a ruthless dictator and terrorist who should have been hanged for his crimes against humanity a long time ago but has somehow evaded the law. He murdered 20 000 innocent civilians in the mid 1980s but that did not stop the whole world falling over themselves to honour him. British knighted him but that did not stop him a few years later started kicking them in the teeth! He has turned Tsvangirai, the “West’s puppet” according to him, into his own acolyte; like it or not Mugabe is miles ahead of us all.
“I am feeling good!” Bennett said after his acquittal. Nothing compared to what Mugabe is feeling; only a canning fox like him could drag the whole world’s attention away from what really matters over a trivial issue like this for this long. After swearing in Bennett he will even be rewarded by having at least some of the targeted sanctions lifted!

TSVANGIRAI AND BITI FIGHT FOR CONTROL OF MDC: ONE FIGHTS FOR STAGNATION THE OTHER FOR REASON AND HOPE.

Yes, ultimately Tendai Biti and Morgan Tsvangirai are fighting for the leadership of the party but first and far most it is a fight to stop the party drifting like a boat down the flooded Zambezi River; at the mercy of Mugabe who is calling all the shots in this GNU.
Contrary to what Professor Makumbe would have us believe MDC is NOT a democratic party. If it was, then the party would have never made so many monumental blunders. A democratic debate where reason is allowed to prevail would have never allowed MDC to sign on to a power sharing arrangement that effectively gave Mugabe all his dictatorial powers back. For what; the privilege of the dictator kicking MDC in the teeth!? Having made the initial blunder, no democratic party worth its salt would then let Mugabe rid rough shod over them and do nothing; which is exactly what MDC has done.
MDC’s problems go back to its formative days. The party is a mix of all sorts; individuals with grey stuff between their ears and hotheads with nothing but mud. The later were particularly good at ramble rousing which the mob find irresistible. Since the party was concerned about swelling its membership and public support the ramble rousers were welcomed and appointed into key leadership positions. At the end of the day individuals, political parties, everyone is judged on what they have done not empty rhetoric. Rhetoric has never been a substitute for well formulated and thought out policies something one can not get full democratic debate is stifled. MDC should have learnt this from Mugabe and Zanu PF.
The fight in MDC at present is for the party to have meaningful democratic debate. People like Tendai Biti are frustrated that the party should be blundering from pillar to post like a blind man when they can see the way out.
MDC, but even more so Zimbabwe, has paid a heavy price in the last year for having an effective government. MDC is part of the GNU and so it must share the blame of the GNU’s failures.
Of course, the ramble rousers in the party do not want the open debate. They do not like to have what the do or say closely questioned and scrutinised; it will not be long before they are exposed for the empty drum making the most noise that they are. They know that in a truly democratic MDC, they will be sideline or pushed out completely. The present set up has allowed them to hold positions far beyond their ability and they are very pleased with the spoils of power. They will of course fight to maintain the status quo even when that means the party and the nation drifting into dangerous waters.
Last time Zimbabweans voted for MDC out of desperation; MDC was the only viable alternative to Zanu PF. MDC has cleared failed to deliver the democratic change it promised; still the party still remains the only alternative “in the horizon” as Professor Makumbe rightly said.
Still people like Biti will be judged on what they have done regardless of whether there was an alternative party or not. Dr Simba Makoni and Dumiso Dabegwa, after years as key members of Mugabe’s dictatorship, thought they could renounce the dictator and the nation will forgive them. That did not happen. Zimbabwe is in this mess because there was not even one principled leader with the guts to stand up for what is right.
The fight in MDC is over whether or not the party will continue blunder along or will reason, for once, be allowed to prevail! The October 2005 MDC split was purely about power there were just as many deadwood and sensible people in each of the resulted factions. One can only hope that this split will sort out the seed from the chuff. People like Biti should have never traded in quality for quantity! “Vana Biti vakakanganisa kukuvirira zvose mavhu namarara!”
Professor Makumbe, you have always failed to see that it was Mugabe not MDC that was under pressure to enter into the power sharing agreement. The only reason why MDC have not walked out of this GNU and what you rightly admitted to be “false peace” is because they have no plan B. They can not think of what to do next.
The GNU has allowed Mugabe to have the legitimacy that he had lost after the sham June 2008 election and the time to regroup his party. He will end the GNU and shutter the pseudo peace at a time he chooses.
MDC has done nothing to bring democratic change in Zimbabwe it promised; the political violence of 2008 is set to be repeated, freedom of expression still remain a distant dream, etc. To suggest we should give up our demand for democratic change in exchange for false peace and the shops full of food is an insult. We want real and lasting peace, all the freedoms and human rights others take for granted, economic prosperity – we want and deserve it all – and not mere of crumbs Mugabe chooses give away today only to snatch away the next day!

TUTU, SA'S CONSCIENCE, SAYS THE NATION HAS LOST ITS PRIDE. SOON IT WILL BE VOICES OF BIGOTS LIKE MALEMA THE MASSES WILL HEAR!

Corruption and mismanagement is driving SA’s masses into violence and the racial tensions are rising. “South Africa has lost its pride,” says Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the many generally regarded as SA’s moral conscience.

After Nelson Mandela South Africa has had the misfortune a succession of arrogant, incompetent and corrupt leaders – the scourge of Africa. The only thing setting SA apart from the rest of Africa and, in the end, might be her saving grace; is that SA has someone like Desmond Tutu – “South Africa's moral conscience” as you so rightly put it. If any of the other African countries ever had such a person then he or she was co-opted into the corrupt ruling elite long before their voice box of their moral conscience had developed.

What has made having a conscience so important is that there other democratic institutions like the Police, Free Press, the Judiciary, etc who should hold the executive accountable are totally ineffective. The individuals manning them are themselves corrupt are any integral part of the corrupt ruling elite or the institutions are undermine to render them totally ineffective. People like Archbishop Tutu are therefore the voice of the voiles multitudes within SA itself and the continent at large.

It is deeply regrettable that SA’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair by Archbishop Tutu himself only looked at the human rights violations during the Apartheid era. Even then, it left out the “big fish”; as the Archbishop himself admitted. The Commission should have also addressed the economic injustice of the time; some people, especially the whites definitely benefited greatly from apartheid whilst others, almost exclusively the blacks, were greatly disadvantaged. When the Children of Israel walked out of Egypt to mark the end of their years in bondage the Egyptians paid them silver and gold as compensation. A similar thing would certainly have helped.

Even though there was no formal law forcing the rich whites in SA to share some of the wealth with the impoverished blacks; that should not have stopped the white doing it out of a sense of restorative justice. The very fact that the whites have remained unbelievably rich is the face of grinding poverty amongst blacks has itself ho helped ease the racial tension carried over from the past.

Still in time, South Africans will have sooner or later settled down and lived in harmony side by side, what makes that increasing unlikely is two things:
1) the failure by successive ANC regimes to harness SA’s vast resources and use the wealth to improve the lives of all its people. SA after President Nelson Mandela has had its share of incompetent and corrupt leaders.
2) having failed to deliver the economic prosperity they promised South Africa’s black leaders will use the whites as the scapegoats just as other failed African leaders have done, notably Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
For SA the clock is ticking, the country must take immediate action to strengthen its democratic institutions without which she has no chance of stamping out the growing arrogance and corruption of the ruling elite. Failure to do will mean increased poverty and the impoverished masses, out of despair, will hear the racist rhetoric of bigot like Julius Malema and not the voice of the conscientious Archbishop Tutu!

REPORTS OF IN FIGHTING IN MDC: HOPE TSVANGIRAI GOES, HE IS USELESS!

There are reports of infighting in MDC.

The complete lack of democratic values and accountability is at the very heart of PM Tsvangirai and MDC's poor performance and failure to bring about any meaningful change in Zimbabwe. Democracy was a very important subject of discussion in MDC one Violet Gonda, SW Radio Africa tried to bring up in Hot Seat with guest, Professor Makumbe. Sadly the Professor, did not do justice to it. Whilst he has certainly mellowed; he was critical of the PM and MDC this time, in the past he had nothing but praise for the man and party. Still he criticised in one breathe and gave the excuse for none performance in the next.

There were so many erroneous things said about PM Tsvangirai and MDC; it is important to set the record right.

1) In this last interview Professor Makumbe and other have repeatedly failed to point out that MDC had their tramp card after the June sham elections; no one would accept Mugabe as the legitimate president of Zimbabwe. By signing the power sharing agreement MDC got Mugabe off the hook.
2) Just before MDC jointed the GNU the party assured the world, they will end the arrangement if it did not work out. It certainly has not worked out, no one would deny that. Instead of ending the arrangement the party now talked of the GNU as “the only game in town”. Nonsense, MDC did not have a plan B and should admit it.
3) Not only did MDC make the mistake of ignoring Mugabe’s arrogance and sweeping the GNU’s serious short coming under carpet, PM Tsvangirai wanted the rest of the world to do the same. What an insult.
4) After all the farce by MDC to have control of Home Affairs, the party compromised and agreed to joint control. But worse still, what difference has the MDC made to policing in Zimbabwe? None!
5) Professor Makumbe and PM have talked of MDC soldiering on in GNU till the new constitution is written. This task was supposed to be completed in 18 months according to the GPA, we are four months away to the end date. Where is the new constitution? The truth is Mugabe has kicked this and many other democratic reform issues into the tall grass. If he should ever relent on this, then the best the nation can expect is an air-brushed Kariba Draft. Are we to wait another five years for that!
6) The prospect of the same violence of 2008 being repeated in Zimbabwe’s next elections, whenever Mugabe should decide to hold them, is real. MDC have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to ensure the political violence of 2008 will never happen again. Nothing. This is certainly PM Tsvangirai and MDC’s greatest failure and betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe.
7) Zimbabwe economic recovery is on hold because this GNU has failed to carryout the necessary internal reforms, like stop the farm invasions, stop political interference in the mining sector, etc. and thus get Zimbabwe working again. Outsiders have been disappointed to note that the GNU was nothing but Mugabe dictatorship by another name; they have refused to give the country the much needed foreign aid.
8) Zimbabwe is stuck with Mugabe and PM Tsvangirai and MDC have no idea what to do next. If there was real democratic debate within the MDC then the party will have learnt form their past blunders and figured an alternative to “doing nothing”. Whist Prof Makumbe is right in saying there is no alternative to MDC in “the horizon” still that should not mean Zimbabwe should not see MDC for the failed party it is.

The in fighting in MDC is to be expected in any party or organisation wandering aimlessly with no sense of direction or purpose and the opportunity to air different points of view are routinely stifled. If the in fighting produces a significant change then it is worth it. Even if it results in the further fracture of MDC, it will hopeful be the wake-up call Zimbabwe need to start looking beyond MDC for the men and women to lead them out of this mess. Like it or not Tsvangirai will never do that, not even in a thousand years..