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November 26, 2009
Zimbabwean leaders must stay home and solve problems
see listener response
After what we have seen among the three political parties, the next elections are going to be very interesting indeed.
For once, all the participants will have to fight for the people’s attention; the people’s vote.
And for that, we thank Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s bumbling and lack of direction.
There was a time when I honestly believed that I knew what Tsvangirai and his MDC stood for.
There was a time when I honestly felt that we had an alternative.
There was a time that I hailed Tsvangirai and the MDC as godsend.
Don’t ask me now because I am a lost sheep. The direction that I have believed in and followed for over a decade has finally fizzled out into a thicket full of thorns.
I cannot understand these people anymore. I honestly cannot.
They have had enough time. All of them. Mugabe more than anyone else and Tsvangirai continues to assault his own credibility.
And I still do not understand why Arthur Mutambara and Welshman Ncube are right up there where their presence misdirects national attention to issues that have nothing to do with the nation but have everything to do with their pathetic and disgraceful attempts to stay where they do not belong.
As we all know, on November 5, 2009 the SADC Troika met in Maputo to try to save Zimbabwe’s unity government, which was teetering on the brink of collapse after Tsvangirai had partially ‘disengaged’ from the government.
Right from the very beginning, the unity government was beset by problems.
Months and months of useless negotiations brought in the GPA and almost a year later, the negotiations continue.
But what are these people always negotiating about?
Tsvangirai could not even capitalise on Mugabe’s intransigence but always said all was well.
Then Roy Bennett was re-arrested, setting off events that led to Tsvangirai half quitting the government and for the first time admitting that there were numerous problems within the unity government.
He came back on his own after being promised more negotiations.
And to show how seriously SADC viewed the state of affairs, Tsvangirai and Mugabe were given fifteen days to stop the nonsense, after which South African President Jacob Zuma would visit for a first hand briefing and to offer advice and support.
This all had to be done inside of 30 days.
There was urgency and our neighbours were concerned.
SADC was losing patience.
But alas! Mugabe was the first to leave Zimbabwe for some obscure conferences.
Then Arthur Mutambara’s so-called “key negotiators”, Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, disappeared into Europe for some useless ministerial World Trade Organisation meeting.
Then Tsvangirai also left the country for Libya, via Morocco.
Obviously, SADC’s 15-day deadline came and went with no negotiations having taken place.
All these people had no valid reason to leave the country at such a critical time. They could easily have deferred their trips to a later date.
These are people without a working government but who run around negotiating and making deals on behalf of a none existent government. Who do they report to?
Meanwhile, fear and violence slowly start to grip our nation as, once
again, we start to witness all the bad things that got so many of our
citizens mercilessly killed last year.
The time limit given by SADC expired last Saturday while most of
the negotiators were outside the country.
This was a blatant show of insensitivity and now some people are
beginning to agitate for travel bans to be extended to include
Tsvangirai and some of his cabinet ministers who have also started
excessive travelling, leaving pressing issues unattended to back
home.
Said Welshman Ncube: “The 30 days set by the Troika is a timeframe for the facilitator to report the status of the talks and give whatever guidance he wants to give but we are certainly not guided by any deadline. We have never done that and we will never do it.”
Meanwhile, Tongai Matutu, a Tsvangirai parliamentarian and co-chairperson of the select committee on the constitutional reform process, said that the MDC‘s marriage with Zanu-PF in the inclusive government is that of a man and woman who just bear children but are not in love with each other.
“We are not in love with Zanu-PF that is why you saw us partially pulling out of the government over the outstanding issues.”
There seems little urgency among these three groupings.
At the height of last year’s intense negotiations that ushered in the unity government, someone in Morocco invited Tsvangirai over there and he came back home with an award of some sort.
From Morocco, Tsvangirai travelled to Libya, the current African Union chair, where he said he briefed Muammar Gaddafi on the unity government.
I really wonder what he told him.
Last Friday, MDC-Tsvangirai posted a statement on their website in which they launched a stinging attack on negotiators from the MDC-Mutambara, branding their counterparts as “mischievous and insincere” for delaying talks to resolve the outstanding issues in the unity government, saying it was extremely concerned at the lack of urgency shown by ZANU PF and Arthur Mutambara’s party, in resolving the outstanding issues as soon as possible, as instructed by the guarantors.
Welshman Ncube, Mutambara’s Secretary General, rejected the accusations and blamed the other parties for alleged failure to commit themselves to the talks.
That all these principal players could actually go globe-trotting when there is so much important and urgent business to be attended to is a mystery never meant to be solved.
If I had it my way, I would confiscate these people’s passports, lock them up in a room with minimal ventilation and tell them to go to work.
For the whole top group to rush to get on planes when the people and the nation are so desperate for solutions at such a critical point is all the evidence we need to kick all of them out of office.
What was it that was urgently to be told to Gaddafi that could not wait? Zimbabwean ministers and negotiators go to a world trade conference, for what? What are they selling? What are they buying? I thought they had no products to sell and had no money to buy anything.
It is such a shame to see the MDC behaving in such a manner. It is insulting and insensitive on their part to do what they have always accused Mugabe of doing. At least they could have taken their trips at another time having attended to the pressing issues at home.
SADC gave them time limits because they believed how urgent this exercise is but as soon as they left Maputo, Zimbabwean negotiators packed their bags and left so that the deadline would come and go in their absence. And it did.
The heart of the matter is that we are better off with new elections so that we can throw all these rascals out. The people of Zimbabwe cannot be faulted to conclude that Zimbabwe’s so-called “principals” and their ministers want to perpetuate the misery because they are all benefitting from it? We are, once again, made to wait for them to assemble at their own convenience not at the convenience or beckoning of the nation.
The next elections are going to be interesting because the three leaders are hardly endearing themselves well with the people.
It is time to throw the rascals out.
What do you say?
Send me your comment on tano@swradioafrica.com.
Now they have re-started negotiations again but are haggling like merchants at an auction. They do not have the urgency of time.
Tsvangirai, the complainant, said that SADC deadlines were not cast in stone.
And Ncube had the gall to add: “You are talking about people who have been negotiating for the past two or more years.”
Yes, two or more years, and achieved what? These useless and misdirected negotiations are causing untold misery to Zimbabweans while the likes of Welshman Ncube continue to live and act as if anyone cast a vote for them.
It is time to throw the rascals out.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that my fellow Zimbabweans is the way it is today, Thursday November 26, 2009.
Heart Feedback
Man, I agree with some of your sentiments however, the prolem is not Mugabe alone but the whole bloody ZANU party. On the other hand, the MDC leader may have his own faults - like any human being, me and you included - but I think he has tried his best to make the unworkable work. Most of my friends back home, despite all the problems, say things can only get better. They have tested a bit of freedom since the formation of the inclussive government. Independence in Zim is a long short.
Keep safe
Steve
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Tanonoka
Why do I have the feeling that if you did get the rascals in one room and lock the door behind them - supposedly to get them to finalise their endless talks and negotiations - you will throw away the key! You might be interested to know it would be the best thing to happen for Zimbabwe.
I agree this GNU is a waste of time and money.
When President Obama gave the WOZA ladies the freedom award he called Mugabe a dictator. He was saying something that the rest of the Western leaders have not said in plan English. In other words at the end of these talks there will be no foreign aid for Zimbabwe and therefore no economic recovery.
Fresh elections is the only way out of this mess and, I notice, some S W Radio Africa listeners are too caling for fresh elections. Thank you for taking a lead on this!
Best regards
Wilbert
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