Home | Column | There is little chance of the MDC taming Robert Mugabe - By Don-Martin Ropafadzo

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09 February, 2009 12:43:00 By Don-Martin Ropafadzo

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OPINION - Zimbabweans have been swindled. And, to make matters worse, the swindlers themselves are complaining that they didn't get a good deal. The MDC is whining and complaining about its chosen partner as if they did not know what ZANU-PF's intentions were from the very beginning.

I fail to understand how these party people reach their decisions and if they discuss anything at all.

Real grassroots people consultations, like we used to see in Morgan Tsvangirai's old ZCTU days, have been discarded.

It appears as if the MDC's national executive, its highest decision making body, seems to now be rubber stamping decisions ZANU-PF style.

In September of last year, the MDC carelessly signed an agreement without having covered or addressed all the contentious issues that were paramount to the setting up of and the implementation of a Government of National Unity (GNU). The agreement was supposed to direct and safeguard the operations of the GNU. That agreement was never implemented because those outstanding issues the MDC ignored when they signed were the very same ones that caused problems; and they continue to do so after yet another SADC Summit. At the Pretoria Summit, Tsvangirai was, once again, quick to accept the SADC directive without the full information that came with it and, apparently, without much consultation, causing mumblings from within his negotiating team.

There were rumblings of discontent and rumours started circulating to the effect that the main MDC was itself split in two over the SADC directive. Then we cheered when we heard that there would be a meeting of its national executive, but we became immediately discomfited when we were told that the meeting would be taking place that very Friday, hardly three days after the SADC meeting, meaning that there was not going to be deeper or widespread consultations and the people's views over such a serious and extremely important issue would not be given a chance to be heard.

MDC national treasurer, Roy Bennett, whom we all believed was in great danger if the ZANU-PF goons ever got close to him, surprisingly flew into Harare from exile in South Africa like someone returning from a safari.

Yet, we, however, know that in spite of this agreement, there are people who would never see tomorrow if they so much as set foot in Zimbabwe today.

Bennett, like many senior MDC officials, is free in Zimbabwe today but many MDC supporters and junior officials are either in jail or underground, along with human rights activist Jestina Mukoko and many MDC people who are being held for, among other things, supporting a party whose National Treasurer Bennett is.

In simpler words, ZANU-PF is giving freedom and protection to MDC leaders but continues to arrest and incarcerate MDC supporters or those perceived to be such.

Is it not ZANU-PF's slogan that mwana we nyoka inyoka chete? (A baby snake is a snake).

The MDC is being duped and those at the top of the MDC hierarchy are smiling as they are treated as royalty because ZANU-PF wants sanctions lifted. ZANU-PF wants MDC leaders minus their supporters. Am I missing something here?

The SADC Summit, the MDC's reaction to the directive imposed on it and the aftermath of the whole exercise prove beyond any doubt that the MDC thinks as it walks instead of taking just a little time to chew an issue over, searching for the right decision and giving people a chance to also offer some input.

It continues to allow itself to be rushed and they make fatal mistakes.

For a few days after the summit, the MDC was busy denying and deflecting rumours of deep divisions within their camp. And then suddenly, everyone was talking unity and reiterating their combined desire to join the government of national unity, based on the September 15, 2008 agreement. In a statement after the meeting of his national executive last Friday, Tsvangirai himself said that, sadly, Zanu-PF was not the type of constructive and positive partner that he envisaged when he signed the GPA.

"Let us make no mistake, by joining an inclusive government, we are not saying that this is a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis, instead our participation signifies that we have chosen to continue the struggle for a democratic Zimbabwe in a new arena..." said Tsvangirai.

This means that the MDC has always known that joining hands with ZANU-PF offered no solutions but they are saying that they are choosing "to continue the struggle in another arena". Apparently, an arena infested with ZANU-PF and one in which we, the people, are not invited.

"We in the MDC are convinced that there is no intention on the part of ZANU-PF to put all these issues to rest," said Nelson Chamisa, Secretary for Publicity and Information, hardly a week after jumping into bed with ZANU-PF.

Chamisa went on to concede that there is no wish, on the part of ZANU-PF, to consummate an inclusive government in line with SADC resolutions.

"In short, there is no wish to tackle the outstanding issues as directed by the SADC Heads of State," he said.

But they are the ones knocking and hammering on the door to be let into their own house.

After being fooled by Mugabe and ZANU-PF and after being duped into signing a fraudulent document and after Mugabe refused to implement the agreement, am I to believe that there was ever a time that the MDC actually believed they could trust and work with Mugabe and ZANU-PF?

Are these people in MDC leadership like the rest of us? Do they see what we see and hear what we hear?

Just how can they be so naive?
Now the MDC is back to its routine of always complaining as if SADC cares; as if the so-called African Union, now under the 'leadership' of one Muammar Gaddafi, cares. Does the MDC expect any one of these tyrants to hear their unceasing complaints against Mugabe and act on them? There is absolutely no way ZANU-PF and the MDC can jointly run a ministry together, let alone a country. There are some who say the MDC did the right thing so as to expose that it is ZANU-PF that is not willing to compromise and show willingness to cooperate. That, of course, is nonsense. ZANU-PF made its intentions public during the March elections and the MDC knows it.

ZANU-PF refused to cooperate and it is the MDC that is always cooperating with ZANU-PF and not the other way round.

The people knew all about ZANU-PF and that is why they voted for the MDC.The MDC should have simply refused to join this GNU thing. The MDC has clearly sold the people out.

It's called treachery.
Is this what the people have been waiting for all these years? Is this the best the MDC can offer its staunch supporters many of whom have died for it? Apart from their well-known ability to complain, what does the MDC offer the people now?

What does the MDC intend to do with Mugabe and his war crimes? The MDC cannot forgive Mugabe on behalf of the people, can they? Are they then going to protect Mugabe, Chiwenga, Mnangagwa, Shiri, Chihuri and all the known murderers from not only the Zimbabwean people but from the international community who are screaming genocide every day? Is the MDC going to tell the world that it has such a big heart that it can have hundreds of its supporters killed by one man who has killed thousands of other citizens that it can still forgive that man?

If, for example, because of joining this government, Roy Bennett demands and gets his farm back, is he going to take it knowing that 10's of others were killed for simply owning farms and not for opposing Mugabe the way Bennett did? The MDC must revise its sellout decision. I thank Botswana's Ian Khama for his principled stand and support. I hope he keeps supporting the people of Zimbabwe if, as it appears, they feel betrayed by the MDC.

I thank Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and Zambia's Rupia Banda for trying to show African despots that the people of any nation come before the leaders. SOURCE: Mmegi Online

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