TSVANGIRAI CAME BACK FROM THE WEST EMPTY HANDED: HE WILL NOW FACE THE POLITICAL FALL OUT, THE BIGGEST LOSERS ARE THE PEOPLE!

Tsvangirai is going back home empty handed; he had hope to raise something towards the US$ 10 billion Zimbabwe requires to finance its economic recovery. All he got was US$ 42 m from EU for budgetary support; the rest was given for humanitarian assistance. Now he has to face the music and the nation must assess the price of this failure.

Mugabe and his cronies had hoped Tsvangirai would come back with lots of money. Ever since Gono “cleaned” out the last dollar from the last ZRB account, the cabal’s extravagant life styles has suffered; the stead supply of expensive cars, plasma TV and the ready supply of foreign currency to buy all the other luxurious have all but stopped. The ruling elite used to spend Hundreds of thousands of dollars a month and for months now have had to make do with the US$ 100 a month allowances paid to all the other civil servants.

Tsvangirai was sent off with specific instructions to get the targeted sanctions imposed by the West lifted. Mugabe and his inner circle with loot starched away outside the country have been waiting to draw on that to ease the economic hardships caused by the economic melt down. No doubt those Zanu PF officials who have been sidelined in the last few months would happily “melt” away. Sadly the West has spoken with one voice on this; the sanctions will stay.

So Mugabe and his cronies have no new money to loot, they can not leave the country and they can not access whatever loot they had whisked out of the country for “a rainy day”. They will no doubt be foaming at the mouth angry with what they will consider to be Tsvangirai’s failure. The harsh reality is Mugabe and his cronies have only themselves to blame for Tsvangirai’s failure.

Even before the Tsvangirai signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) it was clear the outcome was a very poorly disguised wolf – Mugabe - in a sheep’s – Tsvangirai – coat. Tsvangirai was naïve, foolish and was readily bullied into signing the agreement. No one else was that easily duped.

Indeed to reassure his own Zanu PF supporters Mugabe was forced to discard the sheep coat and use his wolf teeth even before Tsvangirai was dispatched on the begging trip. On the dictator’s birthday party, held three weeks after the formation of the GNU, Mugabe gave his thugs the green light to invade more white farms. The move was to allow the thugs to continue looting but more significantly to assure them that their looted wealth would not be taken away from them; he calls the shots not Tsvangirai.

Mugabe has always treated Tsvangirai with contempt, but then the dictator has treated everyone else, even those in his own party, Zanu PF, with the same contempt. But after the failure mission, Tsvangirai would no doubt be up for some extra grilling by the dictator. The country’s Mugabe control public media has already starting taking pop-shots at Tsvangirai; from now on they just fall short of the “puppet” abuse of the pre GPA days. The Zimbabwe public and the West are angry with Tsvangirai too.

There was NO logical reason why Tsvangirai agreed to join Mugabe to form this GNU; not after Mugabe did after the 28 March election and then to “win” the presidential run-off. And then to make matters worse, signing GPA in which Mugabe has the sweeping dictatorial power. Of course the GNU was not going to work and the people have warned Tsvangirai of all this repeatedly.

After nearly four months of GNU people had expected Tsvangirai to finally admit that he had been wrong. Instead Tsvangirai stubbornly maintained the GNU was working. The West gave him the two finger sign, literally, when he had the chic to ask them to “reward” GNU for progress they could not see but Tsvangirai insisted was there.

People have a lot of patience and sympathy for the proverbial “underdog”, even a blundering one like Tsvangirai. But when the underdog assume airs and becomes arrogant the people’s patience and sympathy will disappear like mist in the morning heat!

The future looks gloomy for Tsvangirai and MDC; at the end of the day the GNU has meant a lot of rotten eggs on their faces. Mugabe and his cronies will not have any brownie points from having been a party to the GNU still the party bought itself some valuable breathing time.

The country’s economic problems are not over by a long mile; and it was this that forced Mugabe to accept Tsvangirai into the GNU. Still things are not as grim as they were last year; there is food in the shops, Zimbabwe has stopped printing paper money which had fuelled the run away inflation, the West has returned to feed the poor, schools and hospitals have reopened although not functional, etc. Mugabe will no doubt take advantage of the eased economic pressure to regroup.

Mugabe will be desperate to ease the economic hardships of his ruling elite; their continued support is wholly dependent on his continued ability give them the luxuries they have grown accustomed to. He will cream some of the aid money using the “humanitarian plus” Deputy P M Mutambara talked about; a scheme in which the regime expropriate some of humanitarian aid money and use it to pay Ministers allowances and other government expenses.

Mugabe will probably not care either way if the GNU collapsed. His main focus would be to drag his feet over the writing of the new constitution and then steam roll the whole process to ensure he gets what he wants. Hold new elections soon after; he will have his thugs to help him secure yet another election “victory”!

In the present political climate in which Tsvangirai is seen as a weak and indecisive leader prone to blundering; the election is there for Mugabe to lose.
The real big losers would yet again be the people of Zimbabwe. They have been the big losers in all these thirty years under the dictatorship. When Tsvangirai handed the dictator a life-line last year it is the people who have lost the most; the GNU it has failed to delivery any meaningful economic recovery or any political reforms. So it will be a wasted two years when the nation should have done to ease the long suffering people. Unless the people start now to think of a plan to end this dictatorship, Mugabe will be life-president. If the people are expecting Tsvangirai and MDC to stop him, then one thing is certain Tsvangirai will once again let them down

IT'S CONFIRMED, IT'S OFFICIAL: TSVANGIRAI IS MUGABE'S PUPPET - HE CONFIRMED IT HIMSELF!

After two weeks of being told the same thing by Western Government; they will not lift targeted sanctions and renew foreign aid to Zimbabwe because the GNU has NOT made any meaningful democratic reforms. On Saturday Zimbabweans forced him to cut his planned speech chanting “Mugabe must go!” And yet the very next opportunity Tsvangirai had to show he was getting the message; he is back to defending Mugabe and the “progress” GNU has made.

The BBC reporter tried his best to force Tsvangirai off his set course; all to no avail.

“When will there be a free-press in Zimbabwe?” Tsvangirai was asked. He promised that would happen by the end of the month, end of June. So by the end of July, BBC would be back in Zimbabwe!

Freeing the media is something the GNU should have delivered within days of taking office if the political will was there. Will Zanu PF end it’s strangle hold on the country’s print and electronic media; that is doubtful. Getting the said public media to stop calling him a “puppet” has been the extend of Tsvangirai’s fight for press freedom so far. In two weeks time the world will know what kind of free press Tsvangirai is talking about; “Totenda dzamwa dzasera nebenzi!” as one would say in Shona.

The BBC reporter pointed out to Tsvangirai that so far Western governments have pointedly refused to give this Zimbabwe government any financial assistance because there was no progress in the promised democratic reforms, they said. Tsvangirai said his “re-engagement” exercise was a great success because the West that was hugely “sceptical” of the GNU is now “accepting” it. His task now was to get the West to “reward the GNU for progress that has made and support the democratic process”. Clearly the most Western governments are yet to see this progress because none so far have rewarded the regime.

“Did you understand why you were heckled by Zimbabweans, the other day and why most of them do not want to go back home?” Referring to the Saturday June 20 incident in London in which Tsvangirai was force to abandon’s speech.

“Yes, I do,” Tsvangirai answered. “Many of them left the country in extraordinary (economic and political) circumstances ….. We now have a new political dispensation! The situation is totally different.” Zimbabweans everywhere are getting angry and frustrated with all this talk of “progress” and “incremental” gains when they can see for themselves there is none.
"We all know of a post-conflict situation. We had a similar experience in 1980, Mugabe declared reconciliation with the very same enemies he was fighting. In South Africa Nelson Mandela did the same. It is not an unusual experiment." Tsvangirai commented on his extraordinary relationship with Robert Mugabe, given what the dictator did to him, his fellow MDC leaders and supporters and the Zimbabweans in general.
“Transition in all those other cases happened after the old guard had accepted it had lost and that history had moved in another direction. What is unusual here is that transition is taking place when Mugabe has not accepted he lost. .. the violence continues…. the farm invasions have been even accelerated.” The BBC reporter pressed Tsvangirai.

“Mugabe has accepted change,” was Tsvangirai’s reply. This GNU is comparable to the Ian Smith and Abel Muzorewa’s 1979 Internal Settlement in which Smith like Mugabe returned all the real power and Muzorewa was the window dressing.

Tsvangirai had to be pressed before he would admit the Zimbabwe’s land reform has been “a disaster”. He had wanted to describe it as “imperfect”.

About Amnesty International’s recent scathing report, Tsvangirai said the organisation was “still steamed in the past”.

You can take the donkey to the river, but you can not make it drink. Zimbabwe is stuck with Tsvangirai. Whilst the West would have welcomed him as a partner they could work with to pressure Mugabe to accept meaningful democratic change. The West now realises in him they have a Mugabe puppet who would lie through his teeth about “democratic reform” just to get aid.

Meanwhile Mugabe has positioned himself so that he can claw back any “democratic reforms” and re-establish his dictatorship whenever it should suit him.

The West should not be a party to Mugabe’s dirty trickery and in any way indulge Tsvangirai’s mind numbing political naivety and denial of the truth.

Zimbabweans everywhere are angry that the man they had placed so much hope has turned out to be one of the country’s most incompetent leaders. Tsvangirai and the entire MDC leadership should be consigned to herding goats. Zimbabwe’s repressive political system has not allowed men and women of substance, honour and quality to take up leadership positions. I believe the country has such high calibre candidate. The country must now make a concerted enough to find such men and women or else the nation’s future is hell! Mugabe and Tsvangirai are set to take this country deeper and deeper into the annals of hell.

MDC leaders have been invited to eat with their Zanu PF counter parts at the high table. Many MDC leaders have become indistinguishable from Zanu PF members when it comes to their support of this Mugabe dictatorship. All those who do not agree with the dead end route MDC has taken have to break clean in the next few weeks or they will all be painted with the same brush.

Zimbabweans have never been this angry with their leaders and that, I believe, is the first solid proof that they have come of age, they are a much more enlightened electorate; they are a discerning voters who can distinguish quality leaders from the spineless goat-herders.

PM TSVANGIRAI BOOED AND JEERED "CHANGE" BY ZIMBABWEANS: DOUBT IF HE GOT THE MESSAGE!

PM Tsvangirai was jeered into silence by Zimbabweans in exile.

“What is our message to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora,” the PM had started. “Let me state it here and I will state it boldly: ZIMBABWEANS MUST COME HOME!”

Whatever he had to say after that he did not say, his audience composed of mainly Zimbabweans in exile booed and jeered.

“Chinga maitiro!” (Change you ways!” the crowd chanted. Tsvangirai greeted this with a smug smile of total bemusement.

Ever since Tsvangirai signed the GPA in September 2008 and then joined Mugabe to form the GNU the ordinary Zimbabwe has again and again expressed their disappointment with where Tsvangirai and MDC were going. For five months now this GNU has failed to bring about the democratic reforms MDC had promised. Even those Zimbabweans who had given Tsvangirai the benefit of the doubt and had expected change, really change, when Tsvangirai was sworn in as PM and many MDC leaders took up ministerial position have finally lost patience.

Mugabe was given excessive power in the GPA and has gone on to abuse them since the formation of the inclusive government. Zimbabwe is still under the same dark cloud of oppression as before. Nothing has changed.

Zimbabweans have been calling Tsvangirai to acknowledge this and change his own tactics. His current approach of giving total support of Mugabe and turn a blind eye to the reality on the ground has only served to embolden Mugabe and his cronies who have continued to violet the GPA and do as they pleased. Zimbabweans want Tsvangirai and MDC to change and hence the chant “Chinga maitiro!”

Tsvangirai tried to silence the crowd. The smug was soon replaced with flashes of annoyance. “You better listen to me!” Tsvangirai shouted.

It was clear then that Tsvangirai had lost it; the crowd was not going to listen to him. “Mugabe must go!” they chanted. It took a few minutes before it dawned on Tsvangirai that he too must go, the audience would not want to hear another word from him.

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess today because back in 1980 Mugabe had this “Mister Know It All” attitude in which us the people were assigned economic roles and were expected to play our part no questioned asked. We were denied all the basic rights and freedoms.

Tsvangirai and his friends at MDC expected the people to give the same reverence to them as they did not Mugabe and Zanu PF 30 years ago. Tsvangirai and company expected people to do as they are told and no questions asked. The Zimbabwean crowd in London represented a representative sample of the Zimbabwean people inside and outside Zimbabwe. The message from the Zimbabweans to Tsvangirai and his MDC friends is a simple one: “WE WANT MEANINGFUL DEMOCRATIC REFORMS IN ZIMBABWE.” And since it has proved impossible to achieve that with Mugabe still in power, then clearly: “MUGABE MUST GO!”Gone are the days when leaders would ride rough shod over the people. Zimbabweans are not contend with you empty promises of democratic reforms; they want these rights delivered up front. PM Tsvangirai, it is you who had better listen!

BRITISH TO REWARD ZIMBABWE'S GNU FOR DOING NOTHING: IRON LADY WOULD HAVE NEVER DONE ANY SUCH NONSENSE!

So the British government has decided to “support Zimbabwe’s inclusive government”!? In a few days, we will know how much the British will put into Tsvangirai’s begging bowl. So far only the European Union had put US$ 42 million “for budgetary support” in the bowl. Everyone else, the Americans, Germans, Norwegians, etc. had pointedly refused to even put a token amount in the bowl – “yamatanda nyadzi” as we say in Shona. “Not until there are meaningful democratic reforms in Zimbabwe,” they told Tsvangirai.

The democratic reforms we Zimbabweans are dying for and the West is calling for is freedom of expression, end to intimidation and lawlessness by Zanu PF thugs and, worse still, by State Security Agents, etc. These reforms do not cost the GNU a penny and should have taken a matter of days – the time required to repeal the repressive laws, etc. The GNU is now five months old and yet these simple changes have not been carried out.

This GNU must be judged and rewarded on the basis of what it has achieved and not what it says it “will” do. It has had five months in which to act. Yes there are reformers within the GNU but more importantly there those who do not want change; they want the dictatorship and all it stands for to remain. Like it or not those who do not want change are the ones calling the shots in the GNU.

“The reformers who have faced torture and death in pursuit of democracy have chosen to make this government work. We must find ways to support them,” argued junior foreign minister Mark Malloch-Brown. Nonsense!

The British government has repeatedly decried the lack of meaningful reform and blamed Mugabe and his cronies for it. Minister Malloch-Brown himself acknowledged Mugabe is still a problem; he talked of “strong doubts about Mr Mugabe”.

All money donated as humanitarian aid is not really beyond the GNU’s reach; the administration has already said it will appropriate such funds in what Deputy PM Mutambara called “humanitarian plus”. At least there is an attempt to ring-fence humanitarian aid; there is no such thing with government to government aid. All money thrown in the begging-bowl is as good as thrown a black-hole!

The British can put whatever spin they wish on their planned “support” of Zimbabwe’s GNU; the bottom line is the money will be used by Mugabe and his cronies to consolidate their hold on power. The British will be rewarding the hardliners for standing firm and not giving one inch to those calling for democratic reforms.

I expected the French, whom Tsvangirai is yet to visit, not the British to break rank with the rest of the West one such a fundamental point as basic human rights and freedoms. It is times like this that one wishes the Iron Lady or Winston Churchill was still in 10 Downing Street; there would be no such wish-wash nonsense from the British!

TSVANGIRAI'S COWARDLY WARNING OF DIRE CONSEQUENCES IF THE GNU IS NOT FUNDED WILL EMBOLDEN MUGABE AND THE CABAL TO USE VIOLNCE!

Mariko, in the last article you wrote “There is a real danger of Zimbabwe breaking up into warring factions as has happened in other countries like Somalia. You must be worried about that surely!”

I assume that you were specifically referring to my statement “Tendai Biti and Tsvangirai both have tried the “GNU is the only game-in town, support it or Zimbabwe is doomed!” argument.”

The West and anybody else out there should judge for themselves whether or not this Government National Unity has carried out the promised democratic reforms with the energy and commitment expected of it to warrant the lifting of the targeted sanction and renewal of aid. They should be allowed to make that judgement call without undue pressure of dire consequences that may or may not happen if they decode one way or the other.

Any of those within Zanu PF to make such threats is unacceptable. That is black mail pure and simple. That these threats should be made by those within the country’s Police, Army and other State Security Organs is high treason and should be investigated with the diligence and urgency it rightly deserves.

The policy of appeasement has never worked because one is not dealing with rational individuals with any sense of fair play and decency. Given in to their demands today and tomorrow they will come up with even more demands.

The individuals who have driven Zimbabwe into the gutter today are the same individual who in the past threatened to turn the country into a blood bath if their hold on power was threatened. Being in power has allowed Mugabe and his cronies to loot unchecked, forcing school and hospitals to close for lack of funding whilst they used the money to buy cars and other luxuries. In the last ten years they have carved the nation farms amongst causing such disruption to the country’s food production 80% of our people are now dependent on food aid!

Mugabe and his cronies have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people in their three decades in power to prove their blackmail was not an empty threat. And the people for their part gave in to Mugabe and his cronies and they in the end lost everything; Mugabe, oblivious of the people’s suffering and despair, demands have become more and more ridiculous.

Anyone who claims to represent the ordinary people in Zimbabwe must be acutely aware of this vicious circle of appeasement the nation is caught up in. They should know the solution is not to try to appease the cabal but to break the cycle by standing up to the cabal!

What people like Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti are doing is blackmail the West on behave of the cabal. Even if the West was foolish to fall for that they too will be forced to rethink. The cabal’s modest appetite in 1980 has grown in leaps and bounce over the years, it is now humongous. Back in 1980 Mugabe and any of his cronies would have been contend to with a US$50 000 - house. Today Mugabe owns a mansion worth US$6 million, his daughter rents a US$5 million apartment, he has farms valued in millions of dollars each, no doubt he has millions of dollars starched away somewhere. His wife, Grace, has farms, houses, money in foreign accounts, etc. all valued in hundreds of millions of dollars. Whatever the West throws in Tsvangirai’s begging bowl will disappear in a flash.

Thank God the West is sending Tsvangirai back home empty handed!
The second reason why we need to break this vicious circle that nation’s economic recovery is totally dependent on us wrestling the land and other important resources looted by the cabal over the years and put them back into productive use. In other words we should not be seeking just to end this policy of appeasement but to reverse it. It is pay back time; Mugabe and his cronies must give back to the poor what they looted and account for all the suffering and murder of innocent lives!

So to answer you question Mariko whether or not are not I am concerned that Zimbabwe might suffer the same blood shed it suffered last year or worse. I am concerned. These fears are real today because thirty years of appeasing Mugabe and his henchmen has emboldened them. The people of Zimbabwe have paid dearly for the thirty years of pursuing the erroneous policy of appeasement. The Mugabe dictatorship has taken away their livelihoods and them destitute and yet the cabal demands more. What the cabal is asking for now is the people’s very soul and it is used to getting whatever it wants and will not be denied. For the people they will lose their humanity if they give up their soul; this is something well worth fighting for.

If the cabal start a fight then the people will have no choice but fight the good fight. The cabal must however know that this is a fight they will not win and whose consequences they will have to account for.

People like Tsvangirai and Biti, who are actively promoting the discredited policy of appeasement and selling cosmetic change in the regime as the democratic change the people are seeking; are doing so to win favours with the dictator. They are no different from the old guard within Zanu PF itself who have too have sold their soul to the dictatorship.

Claims that Tsvangirai, Biti and many others in the MDC are somehow different from the Zanu PF old guard because of what they have suffered under Mugabe is more no valid that Mugabe’s own liberation struggle credentials. Whilst it right and proper that those who suffer and risk their very lives fighting for a common cause are honoured as heroes par excellence. It must be stated that no amount of heroic can ever justify taking away the basic human rights and freedom of another!
What we are grappling with in Zimbabwe today is a great human tragedy perpetrated by men and women who were yesteryear’s liberators. In condemning the new oppressors we must too deal with those hunting with the hounds and running with the hare!

US AMBASSADOR MCGEE'S PARTING SHOT TO ZIMBABWE'S GNU - SANCTION WILL STAY: GOD BLESS YOU AMBASSADOR AND BON VOYAGE!

US Ambassador Jim McGee has once again put his finger on the real reason why the GNU has achieved very little for all its bloated size and nearly five months in office – there is “no political will” to do anything. “Zanu-PF still has the ability to say ‘we will do what we want’, and there’s nothing the MDC can do about it,” the Ambassador said. And MDC on the other hand does not “have enough clout in government to push for more reforms”.

The Ambassador reiterated America’s position – targeted sanctions will remain and America will not give any financial assistance to the Zimbabwe government until there is progress in democratic reforms. The good Ambassador is only restating what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama said to PM Tsvangirai to his face. They were all repeating what America has been saying all along.

A “full term” report of what PM Tsvangirai’s three-week trip “to re-engage” the West did or did not achieve. Consider this to be a “half term” report. The Americans told Tsvangirai what they have been saying all along. PM Tsvangirai’s trip to America achieved absolutely nothing; it was a complete waste of time and resources!

Ambassador McGee would be living Zimbabwe soon at the end of his tour of duty. The good Ambassador was in a unique position: he had the courage to tell Mugabe he is a dictator. The Ambassador refused to be cowed down by the dictator’s abrasive tactics; the Ambassador was held up at a road block for many hours on one occasion and has been belittled in the government controlled media. The regime would have loved to label him a white racist but since the Ambassador has some black blood in his veins that would have never work.

Ambassador McGee would have loved to have had a sworn enemy in Mugabe and a great friend in Tsvangirai. Sadly it was not to be the later has no political clout. The Ambassador could not hide his exasperation when Tsvangirai signed the GPA and joined Mugabe in this GNU. At the time, he said the agreement as having holes so big one could drive truck through. History has proven him right!

Pleasant trip, Ambassador McGee! You were disappointed by Zimbabwe’s leaders; but so is every Zimbabwean whose life these men and women have turned into a living nightmare and many others have lost their lives unnecessarily. You should be glad, Mr Ambassador, you made millions of friends is us, the ordinary Zimbabweans. You are our hero. We are sad to see you go, you were our voice. From the bottom our hearts we wish you a pleasant trip and God bless!

WEST SEND TSVANGIRAI EMPTY HANDED: TO THING AGAIN ABOUT THE GPA AND TO FACE THE TYRANT MUGABE!

Prime Minister Tsvangirai is now in Sweden. He has just left Germany Chancellor Merkel did NOT give Tsvangirai anything. He has already been to Netherlands and USA; and none of these countries have given the PM anything to show for all his singing, dancing and smiling from ear to ear he has been doing. Anything these leaders have given they made sure it was not put in his bowl; they did not trust this GNU with a penny of their money.

Tsvangirai set off a week ago with a PM seize begging bowl and an ego to match. He does not even have a penny to rattle the bowl with.

Ordinary Zimbabweans have said again and again that the GPA was unworkable and Tsvangirai in his infinite wisdom said it was "imperfect but workable". Ever since Tsvangirai, Biti and the other MDC leaders became PM, Ministers, etc. they have behaved as if they "know best" and the rest of us are fools. (Much the same way Mugabe has treated us for the last thirty years!)

Tsvangirai went to Europe and America confident he will sell this whitewashed dictatorship as a transitional democracy to be “rewarded and not punished”. We were lectured about it being it a “process and not an event”. Although after four months in government the GNU had absolutely no democratic change to show the process was working.

Tendai Biti and Tsvangirai both tried the “GNU is the only game-in town, support it or Zimbabwe is doomed!” argument. That had the “I am the Supreme Leader, without me the whole world stop spinning!” overtones of a tyrant. It was laughable, coming as it did in from a tyrant who had failed in such a spectacular fashion.

Mugabe may have bullied MDC into accepting the GPA but did Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and even more so Mutambara have to embrace the arrangement with such passion and enthusiasm? Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders have tried to sell the world the strange idea of a democracy headed by a dictator. No one in there right sense would buy such nonsense.

Tsvangirai set out on this tour to the West confident of his democratic credentials; he expected all Western leaders to bow down to him in reverence. What Tsvangirai did not realise was that when he joined Mugabe’s dictatorship lost all his democratic values and worn the dictator coat-of-arms!

The humiliation of being send back home empty handed and having been “exposed” as nothing more than the tyrant’s errand boy will, hopeful, force Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders to see the GPA for what it is: a pathetic attempt to repackage the dictatorship and pass for a democracy.