Can Zanu PF and MDC PF wiggle out of the Constitutional Amendment No 19 dilemma?

Pic: The octogenarian illegitimate President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe being sworn in after the daylight theft of the March elections he lost to Morgan Tsvangirai

It is not an exaggeration that many Zimbabweans are distraught over the protracted power sharing negotiations taking place in the country following the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) on 15 September 2008.

For many the significance of the GPA was its potential to unlock the doors to social, political and economic stability that have been shut by the ill premised arrogance of a power deluded Zanu PF.

The flicker of hope the signing of the GPA had raised in this regard has been fading with each day that passed and the inclusive transitional government was not formed.
The failure to form the Government is not understood by many impoverished citizens who are more focused on providing for day to day survival necessities.

The problem has been and still is the Zanu PF unwillingness to relinquish power via democratic means.

Having raped the electoral process and refused to uphold the outcome of the March 29 elections Zanu PF has ever since that demoralising defeat in the Presidential election been obsessed in finding gaps to exploit and reassert itself as the ruling party despite relentless international pressure on it to uphold national, regional continental and global democratic conventions to which the country is a signatory.

The SADC and AU have bent backwards too far by allowing Mugabe and Zanu PF to negotiate their political relevance in the country after the lost elections.
The reason is not because the AU and SADC Heads of State are sycophantically supportive of Zanu PF Pan Africanism but rather because they are afraid.

They are cowards all of them with very few exceptions. Most of the political heavyweights in Africa are in office because they rigged their way to power and have no moral high ground on which to compel Mugabe to behave otherwise.

In addition to that fear, most of these leaders that disenfranchised and politically abused Zimbabweans look up to for support are themselves presiding over ailing economies underpinned by rampant corruption and propped by the military establishments they have corrupted into defending individuals rather than systems of governance.

There is not a single African country that is not ceased with the political refugees and asylum seekers problem that bedevils Africa. Not even the impoverished Zimbabwe and Somalia or the strife torn Sudan and DRC.

The MDC appears to have finally realised that to wrestle power from intransigent Mugabe they need to match his devious brand of politics with unorthodox politicking of their own at the same time they maintain global pressure on his rogue regime without turning the people’s party into a rogue political institution.

That is why the party agreed to participate in the SADC mediated process to address the political impasse in the country albeit reluctantly as it had won elections but the win was rendered of no consequence by the intervention of Warlord politicking by Mugabe and his militia.

After studying Zanu PF procrastination and diversionary tactics to avoid the inclusive government the MDC has resolved to go for brook and take Zanu PF and its coterie of cowardly sympathisers in Sadc and Africa at large head on.

MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai told the timid SADC Heads of State they were COWARDS straight into their face after they threw their political weight behind the octogenarian Zanu PF leader Mugabe by reducing wide ranging Ministerial allotment disputes and other bottlenecking issues to the expeditious implementation of the GPA to a dispute over management of the Home Affairs Ministry and legislation of a Constitutional Amendment necessary to formalise and legitimise the GPA.

None of the cowardly SADC Heads of State were impressed by the uncomplimentary verdict but they lacked the guts to stand up to Tsvangirai and voice their misgivings over the uncomplimentary remark.

Instead they chose to go behind the toothless bulldog that SADC mediator Thabo Mbeki now is after he was dishonourably forced to relinquish the South African presidency by a threatened vote of no confidence from his ANC sponsors, to bark their discontent over the remark.

This was an afterthought reaction after MDC Secretary General Hon Tendai Biti had reinforced the uncomplimentary remark and declared the hopeless SADC resolution ordering co-management of a Government Ministry a nullity.

Overzealous and compromised as well as fatally wounded Thabo Mbeki responded to two accusations on half a page accusation by the MDC with a 10 page rigmarole wherein he accused Tsvangirai and the MDC of puppetry, dereliction of leadership responsibility, disrespect of Sadc leadership and prevarication in negotiations for power sharing.

Thabo Mbeki is in an invidious position of his own making. He knows how compromised he is to Zanu PF and how disdainful he is towards Morgan Tsvangirai to be able to side with him even where he and his MDC party may clearly have an irrefutable point.

His political clout has been severely reduced after he was forced to resign the South African Presidency by his very own sponsoring ANC party yet he decided to remain SADC mediator in chief in Zimbabwe.

If he was found unsuitable to lead his own people in South Africa SADC, AU and all those behind his continued stay as mediator on Zimbabwe are missing the point big time.

What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander and conversely what is bad for the goose must also be bad for the gander.

Thabo Mbeki has voluntarily accepted he was no longer relevant in South Africa’s political leadership after the party that sponsored his election decided he was bad for its image. In Zimbabwe however the Party that justifies his mediatory role has determined he is equally bad for Zimbabwean political impasse settlement but he has decided to hang on the role because as he puts it his SADC sponsors have not expressed displeasure about how he has executed his role thus far.

He is wrong. The only customers he was asked to serve by his sponsors Mugabe and Tsvangirai are no longer equally satisfied with his service and he must admit that to his employers or face the embarrassment of being asked for an explanation when one of the customers refuses to pay citing that he was not served anything as Mbeki tipped his order in the dustbin which must pay him.

Mbeki’s incompatibility with the leaders of the parties he has been tasked to bring together aside, he will not achieve the ultimate statesmanship he wants to prove himself to be in Zimbabwe that he failed to prove to the South Africans.

The agreement on CA No 19 is by no means a measure of his suitability to mediate the Zimbabwe political impasse to a logical conclusion.

Rather it is a political snare he and his favoured Zanu PF and its despotic leader Mugabe have been entangled in by the MDC they loathe.

Mugabe will have limited options to decline the Constitutional Amendment without irking the SADC leadership he profoundly thanked for determining that he must be allowed to co-manage the Home Affairs Ministry with the MDC thereby increasing his Ministerial allotment from 15 agreed in the GPA to 16 if we are to believe that the allotment of the other 30 Ministries had been resolved, which is not supported by MDC.

The major catch though is how CA No 19 will be steered through Parliament by whoever is given the responsibility to do so unless Zanu PF makes irreversible concessions on sticking issues surrounding Ministerial allotments.

If Mugabe remains pedantic and refuses to equitably share the Ministerial portfolios with Tsvangirai, the MDC will block passage of CA No 19.

Mugabe will remain an illegitimate President and the economic and social woes facing the country will continue unabated.

Before SADC can expect MDC to support the passage of CA No 19 into law they must be ready to ensure that MDC demands for equitable distribution of Ministerial portfolios has been guaranteed, the Provincial Governors appointments Mugabe made have been rescinded, the extension of Dr Gono’s term as Reserve Bank Governor by Mugabe is equally nullified, the Composition and role of the National Security Council has been defined and reduced to an Act of Parliament, the criteria for appointments to all Statutory positions including Military Commanders, Permanent Secretaries, Ambassadors, Heads of Parastatals, Heads of Standing State Commissions and any other key state appointments will be reduced to a formula that is congruent to the formula used in determining the number of portfolios each party to the GPA was allocated.

This will be awesome for many established Zanu PF ensconced in powerful State positions and they will not go down without a fight.

If Mugabe agrees the formula with Tsvangirai, the likelihood of Zanu PF opposing passage of CA No 19 is as high as the likelihood of MDC opposing passage of the same legislation if the concessions are not made.

Mugabe has the option to try and drive the implementation process individually relying on backroom advice from Zanu PF and Mbeki and cause a stalemate and remain illegitimate and hamstrung by the sanctions he currently alleges are restraining him from managing the economy and more of them in future in response to the political stalemate.

Alternatively he can choose to behave Stately for once and in the interest of the people he always brags he will die to protect as long as they rally behind him, and fall back on the GPA at Article XX clause 20(1) (3) (j) which states that President Mugabe;
“Shall, pursuant to this Agreement, appoint the Prime Minister pending the enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment no.19 as agreed by the Parties;” [my emphasis].

His party has already endorsed that position and by proclamation there from he can appoint Morgan Tsvangirai as interim Prime Minister and Prof Arthur Mutambara as his Interim Deputy and task the two to steer CA No 19 passage through Parliament.

Alternatively the Socrates Professor Arthur Mutambara can grab the “indecisive and political midget” dragging his feet while the country bleeds by the collar and drag him to Mugabe’s Office the GPA in his right hand and read out the above clause and demand immediate action from the octogenarian despot masquerading as our president and hey he could be Deputy Prime Minister forthwith.

Whichever way Mugabe and Zanu PF will have to give in on power demands from the MDC or they will preside over the same problems that have dogged them for the past 8 years with no solution appearing to be crystallising.

Constitutional Amendment No 19 will test resolve for GPA

PIC: From L-R MDC Chief Negotiator Tendai Biti, President Morgan Tsvangirai and SADC Mediator Thabo Mbeki in whom Zimbabwean hopes for the better are vested if only they unanimously put Zimbabweans ahead of all else


The Zimbabwe feuding political protagonists are back to the drawing board over stalled negotiations to form an inclusive Government desperately needed to regularise Robert Mugabe’s electoral theft that culminated in his disputed and unrecognised re-inauguration as President of the country on 27 June 2008.

In a classical example of what happens when the cart is put before the horse the protagonists are back to square one after months of futile attempts to circumvent the Global Political Agreement (GPA)and gain everything by Zanu PF with support from Sadc mediator Thabo Mbeki and Prof Mutambara’s MDC PF.

The GPA states at Article XX clause 20(1) (3) (j) that President Mugabe;
“Shall, pursuant to this Agreement, appoint the Prime Minister pending the enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.19 as agreed by the Parties;” [my emphasis]


To kick start the implementation of the GPA the geriatric despotic “President” Robert Mugabe had to appoint the Prime Minister and his deputies as well as the Vice Presidents and set up the team to drive the implementation of the agreement.

But no he had other ideas to plunge the agreement into chaos as he has done with the country’s politics and economy.

He appointed the Vice Presidents alright but not before he had attempted to steal ownership of the agreement from the other parties to the agreement and implement it as he deemed fit.

It did not work and he was left in a quandary as his cynical efforts were severely exposed by the alert MDC while the MDC PF went all over the place to try and short-circuit the process and realise its gains.

After two months of trial and error Mugabe has been compelled by SADC to wake up to the reality that he cannot form a legitimate Government on his own and gain its international recognition.

The problem though is that his eyesight has deteriorated so much with age he relies on Patrick Chinamasa to read out the agreement to him and he always omits or puts a spin to the wording in the agreement.

The MDC negotiators must first and foremost request the Mediator to cause Mugabe to act as was agreed in clause 20(1) (3) (j) of the GPA before they can negotiate lest they will waste time and effort in a process Mugabe is not willing to live by.
This is so because the agreement at Article XXV states;

“25. Commencement
This Agreement shall enter into force upon its signature by the Parties.”

It couldn’t be clearer than that could it? And for Mugabe, Mbeki and Prof Mutambara who loathe Tsvangirai for his poor academic qualifications to fail to understand and implement that is tragic.

If the Mediator cannot secure that undertaking from Mugabe the negotiators must demand that he resigns and the AU appoints his replacement soonest.

Constitutional Amendment No 19 (CA No 19) should not cause problems in its drafting as it should capture the spirit and letter of the GPA which states at Article XX at Clause 20 (1) (1) last paragraph which reads;

“In the exercise of executive authority, the President, Vice Presidents, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers must have regard to the principles and spirit underlying the formation of the Inclusive Government and accordingly act in a manner that seeks to promote cohesion both inside and outside government" as read with Article XXIV of the GPA reproduced in full hereunder.

“24. Interim Constitutional amendments
The Parties hereby agree:
24.1 that the constitutional amendments which are necessary for the implementation of this agreement shall be passed by parliament and assented to by the President as Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act No 19. The Parties undertake to unconditionally support the enactment of the said Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No 19;
24.2 to include in Constitutional Amendment No19 the provisions contained in Chapters 4 and 13, and section 121 of the draft Constitution that the Parties executed at Kariba on 30 September 2007 (Kariba draft).”
It is not clear why the parties have been called to negotiate an agreed position but we are tempted to speculate that the draft has been twisted to reflect the fraudulent alterations effected to the GPA by Patrick Chinamasa and his octogenarian leader in Zanu PF.

The critical issue is not who drafted what but what wording was used and whether or not that wording captures the spirit and letter of the GPA.

If Mbeki was an honest mediator which unfortunately facts expose he is not, he would have simply returned the draft with notes on where it did not reflect what was agreed before him without the necessity of staging another talk show that will result in a stalemate over peripherals.

Zanu PF and MDC formations cannot be seriously expected to oppose a draft that captures what they agreed unless the initial agreement was faked which appears to be the case justifying the current negotiations.

Another issue that appears to have necessitated the current round of negotiations is the reaslisation that SADC erred in resolving that the only outstanding power sharing concern was over management of the Home Affairs Ministry when clearly that is not the case.

Unless the draft of CA NO 19 takes into account the disputed power sharing issues concerning appointment of Governors, Permanent Secretaries and other Statutory positions proportionate to the formula used in allocating the number of Ministerial portfolios for each party, the MDC is better off opposing the passage of the constitutional amendment that will for all intends and purposes be the basis upon which the interim regime emerging from the GPA will be premised.

Zanu PF and its leader appear to hold the belief that passage of CA No 19 is forgone. That is a dangerous premise on which the Party leader is proceeding. MDC support is crucial.

The benefits that accrue to the party from its involvement to regularise a fraudulent electoral process could come back to haunt the party if not carefully managed at the stage of passing CA No 19.

The National Security Council’s role in Governance must be tacitly explained and its operational limits clearly defined.

It does not help matters when amid heated disputes Mugabe extents Dr Gono’s Governorship of a Reserve Bank that will fall under an MDC Minister without seeking the recommendations of the said minister and the Party that will oversee the function of that Government portfolio.

Even if MDC were in favour of Gono’s contract extension, they now must oppose his unilateral appointment and cause Mugabe to rescind it pronto.

The people of Zimbabwe are not in favour of the fraudulent GPA government that has disenfranchised them and the longer the parties haggle while economic woes pile on the shoulders of the ordinary people of Zimbabwe the more disenchanted they become.

Instead of wasting days on this hopeless negotiation process the MDC must make a tactical withdrawal from the GPA and let Mugabe and his geriatrics form whatever illegal Government they like so that he will realise the folly of his wooden headedness.

The trials and tribulations Zanu PF and its demented leader have put the Nation through exceed tolerance limits of the most stubborn mule yet Zimbabweans have endured with exceptional demeanour and resourcefulness.

The MDC is already being portrayed as part of the Zanu PF inspired hardships facing the populace and they either must force through the concessions they want to move the country forward or simply absolve themselves of the responsibility unless the democratic process that took place on 29 March is respected by ZANU PF.

That is the strongest position that the MDC holds and must build on for the betterment of our country.

It is no use advising Zanu PF and MDC PF because those political formations are arrogant and supremacist they never take kindly to any advice or national concerns.

Only the MDC has the trust of the majority to make a difference to their lives as they have hitherto listened to the suffering masses and must continue doing so to retain their trust.

The people say No to a GPA government that leaves Zanu PF in sole charge of national governance.

Some kind of strategy this from Professor Mutambara

PIC: Mugabe Mutambara and the People whose plight they champion?



A political leader who gains power by appealing to people's emotions, instincts, and prejudices in a way that is considered manipulative and dangerous is described as a demagogue.

Such a statement would to a large extent describe Prof Arthur Mutambara leader of a shelf political outfit that broke away from the MDC party on 12 October 2005.

The outfit now dubbed MDC PF because of its perceived and in many instances proven leadership alliance with the loathed Zanu PF party which alienates the party’s leadership from the majority of “its” bankable assets - MP’s, Senators, and Councillors -other than those holding a portfolio in its Executive, is a political Trojan horse in Zimbabwe.

It has the dubious distinction of claiming kingmaker status in the hung Parliament that emerged from Zimbabwe’s March 2008 elections which failed to demonstrate that muscle in elections for Parliament Speaker but its leader has cynically positioned himself to be king (Deputy Prime Minister Designate) from the ashes of his defeat in Zengeza West Parliamentary elections and also secured 3 Ministerial posts 2 Senatorial Appointments and is poised to land a Provincial Governorship, 3 Permanent Secretaries, 3 Ambassadors, 1Provincial Administrator for his electorally dumped National Executives.

Zimbabweans are at loss of words to explain how an electorally vanquished political Party without any visible electable leader in its ranks can end up supplying a significant contingent of the next Government officials as envisaged in the foregoing.

Prof Mutambara who fronts the Party boasts being the most academically educated political leader in the world and by extension the best political strategist.
Achievements as he has accomplished for the shelf political outfit he leads are to him a day job with no sweat at all.

His strategy is very well defined. It is the attachment and detachment strategy. One fundamental principle guides the execution of the entire strategy for his success in adversity.

Align and conquer. That is the strategy he has effectively used to remain visible in a political arena where he has absolutely no following of his own making.

It is a dynamic strategy but is also highly unreliable, reactionary and unpredictable. One would opt to support a more stable national strategist than a reactionary and risk all inclined Prof Mutambara for National leadership.

But it will not worry Prof Mutambara who has everything to gain from going for brook than hold on to nothing.

In his 2008 Heroes day celebration commemoration message he made it clear that his strategy is premised on implementation before planning.

There is ample evidence to show that he was not buffing. When he accepted Presidency of the MDC PF faction from out of the blue there is mounting evidence he had not analysed the power dynamics within MDC.

When he realised he had joined the weaker faction and it was impossible to lead it to an electoral victory he reacted by seeking to realign his faction with the one that remained loyal to Tsvangirai in vain.

His strategy then was to exploit the political popularity of the original MDC and get as many of his loyalists elected using a one opposition candidate per Constituency model that would, if it had carried, landed his faction a credible 45 seats in the 210 seat Parliament leaving Tsvangirai with 64 of the 99 seats his Party garnered and that would have spelt political doom for Tsvangirai as Prof Mutambara would have aligned with Mugabe’s Zanu PF to form a Government not withstanding his now proven unpopularity with the electorate.

Realising the folly of the failed electoral pact with Tsvangirai and the possible humiliation he would face if he contested the Presidential election against Tsvangirai and Mugabe who had been joined in the race by Dr Simba Makoni whose popularity was over exaggerated, Prof Mutambara reacted by announcing his withdrawal from the Presidential election and aligning his faction with the “independent” presidential bid of a party-less Dr Makoni.

These desperate alliances were pursued out of desperation by Prof Mutambara who had no strategy in place for his faction to compete and win the elections and if they lost to remain relevant in Zimbabwe politics.

Then there was the shameful attempt to legitimise Mugabe when the faction rushed to State House to meet then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki who had intimated he wished to revive discarded political dialogue after Mugabe had proclaimed himself winner of the 27 June 2008 hoax Presidential runoff election that was neither legitimate nor did it produce a credible result.

Prof Mutambara held Tsvangirai in utter contempt but his March electoral victories in Local Governance, Parliamentary, Senatorial and Presidential segments together with the failed alliance pact and the exposure his no show at State House infuriated him to a point where his spite for Tsvangirai degenerated to schizophrenic levels.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) talks eventually took off the ground and resulted in negotiations that ushered the 15 September 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) that rewarded Professor Mutambara’s political outfit without loyal supporters immensely.

But the rewards have remained on paper for far too long and infuriated many Zimbabweans not least of them the MDC PF leader.

The only tangible benefit his faction would have realised out of the GPA settlement would have been if the party’s fielding of the Speakership of Parliament Paul Themba Nyathi had won the post which sadly for the Faction was wrestled by the loathed MDC candidate Hon Lovemore Moyo.

The convening of Parliament was another example of how dangerous the demagogue Professor‘s strategy of align and conquer can be.

Power sharing negotiations between Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s roles having reached a deadlock the matter was referred to Sadc as underwriters of the GPA and they resolved that negotiations must be concluded under Mbeki’s mediation and created a pseudo reference group any aggrieved party could fall back on that has really never been allowed to input into the negotiations whenever they encountered sticky issues.

Professor Mutambara had secretly cobbled an unholy alliance with Zanu PF to sideline
Tsvangirai from the GPA government or make him drop his demands for power equity wherein Zanu PF and his MDC faction would field one Parliamentary Speaker from his faction and if that succeeded the two formations would form the Government.

The secret deal was convincingly sold to the SADC mediator who bought into it after receiving reassurances from both Mugabe and Prof Mutambara that the alliance would prevail and severely weaken Tsvangirai’s demands for power that were in the way of forming the Government.

Then South Africa President Mbeki whose affinity with Zanu PF and MDC PF has been subject of much debate sold the unholy plan to his SADC peers who allowed Mugabe to proceed with the convening of Parliament notwithstanding the prohibition of such moves in the GPA.

As fate would have it that was to be Mbeki’s last act of betrayal of Zimbabweans as a SADC head of State.

The alliance collapsed dramatically when Hon Lovemore Moyo fielded for the Speaker’s position by Tsvangirai triumphed.

Mugabe dropped threats to form the government he had unequivocally made in the run up to the SADC meeting and thereafter.

Mbeki was ousted as South Africa President by his ANC sponsors’ threat to move a motion for his impeachment after the corruption charges against his former Deputy in the Party now Chairman Jacob Zuma were found to have been politically manufactured.

The GPA power sharing process was briefly thrown into disarray as Mbeki leaked his wounds and regained his composure. After two weeks of uncertainty he was convinced by Prof. Mutambara and Mugabe that his role in Zimbabwe mediation was more critical for their survival than hitherto and he agreed to resume the mediation process more so to recover his lost esteem than anything else.

The renewed effort resulted in Tsvangirai gaining concessions from the weakened Zanu PF despot Robert Mugabe and the frightened Professor Mutambara when his powers in the GPA Government were elevated to devolve from the Constitution and not Mugabe as was initialled agreed between Zanu PF and MDC PF with Mbeki’s initial approval.

Robert Mugabe’s henchman in Zanu PF realised that their leader had been jolted by the Parliamentary Speakership loss and the subsequent jeering he got when he addressed parliament and advised him to harden up in power negotiations with the MDC over Ministerial allotments.

Mugabe obliged by gazetting a list each party would be allotted in the envisaged GPA Government.

The list triggered a vicious response from the MDC which sought to establish by what authority Mugabe had allotted Ministries before regularising the Constitutional appointment of the Prime Minister and his Deputies.

SADC Mediator Thabo Mbeki fuelled the animosity between Zanu PF and the MDC when he visited Zimbabwe to defuse the tension that was threatening the implementation of the GPA.

Mbeki read out the Zanu PF endorsed allotment of Ministries and justified it courting the ire of the MDC that has for some time been accusing him of bias.

They rejected his recommendations and requested the matter be referred to SADC Heads whereupon Mbeki reverted to the Sadc Troika on Politics and Security that must house the Reference Mediation Team and fed them with lies that the stalemate was over control of the Home Affairs Ministry.

He presented the Troika a Zanu PF dossier prepared by the CIO wherein it accused the MDC of training insurgents in Botswana. Botswana denied the false allegations and requested SADC to send a fact finding mission to his country at their earliest convenience a challenge the Troika accepted showing their conviction in allegations from Zanu PF.

They do not know that it is a basic Zanu PF strategy to frame political opponents in advance of planned reprisals. The framing of Botswana is the first against a State by Zanu PF and was hinted by Mugabe on 15 September when he hinted that he will have his day to get back at Botswana’s President for criticising him in public.

Botswana had deported Caesar Zvayi from Botswana whom the Zimbabwe Government had assigned to pry on the Botswana Government while masquerading as a Lecturer at the University of Botswana and the Zanu PF allegations against Botswana have everything to do with that deportation.

If it was not for the fear Zimbabwe has of the reaction of American troops based in Botswana if it invades that country war would by now have broken out between Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Patrick Chinamasa has been yapping about Tsvangirai turning into a Zimbabwean Jonasi Savimbi in time and Zanu PF preparing to deal with him at that level.

Zimbabwe State controlled media has been building up the case about Botswana preparing for war and expressed misgivings about the relationship between Tsvangirai and the Botswana government until they decided to officially make the allegations that Botswana dismissed as patently false.

The reason Tsvangirai has been restricted to travelling on an ETD is because the illegal regime in Zimbabwe wants to monitor his travel to Botswana and link it to the insurgents training hoax.

When the SADC Troika invited the feuding Zimbabwe parties to Mbabane an Tsvangirai refused to attend on a restricted ETD he was responding to the false accusations being framed by Zanu PF and exposing Zanu PF insincerity in its involvement in the GPA negotiations.

The dull SADC Troika missed the signal to unravel the allegations of banditry being framed against the MDC and instead arranged for the Troika to visit Harare.

While in Harare they were officially handed the dossier on Botswana’s alleged alliance with Tsvangirai to train MDC insurgents and provide them rear bases from which to attack and destabilise Zimbabwe.

Professor Mutambara meanwhile is fixed on the Deputy prime minister’s position that awaits him if the GPA Government is incorporated and all else is secondary to that basic objective of his.

Unlike the MDC his faction morphed out as renegade outfit from funding provided by generous CIO donations as opposed to MDC start up capital mobilised from disgruntled Zimbabwean Farmers and Workers.

The MDC PF faction he leads is also heavily reliant on sponsorship marshalled by Thabo Mbeki as part of a grand strategy to weaken the MDC and rebrand it as the MDC PF.

The faction’s political gains have all been possible courtesy of Thabo Mbeki’s support both materially and ideologically.

Its dubious involvement in negotiations to resolve a Presidential electoral dispute it never contested was made possible by none other than Thabo Mbeki.

The 14 Legislative Constituencies it claims dominion over only accrued to it because it went into the election mischievously masquerading as MDC and those that were not sure it was divorced from Tsvangirai and aligned to Zanu PF voted for it.

The faction has never learned to exist as a standalone entity because of its align and conquer strategy.

Prof Mutambara is convinced that if he gets the Deputy Premiership in the Government envisaged by the GPA he will have found the springboard from which to catapult his faction of losers to dizzy political heights and therefore his frustration with anyone who acts in a manner he deems threatening to the realisation of his ultimate political goal at present.

But so far all his align and conquer strategy has managed to court utter disdain and spite for his party and himself personally to a point where he is now considered a maniac politician in our midst.

He has made significant conquests alright but he is yet to enjoy the fruits of his cynical gains and when he does come to realising them in practice he will find that his harvest is a harvest of political thorns and thistles as he has laid himself ground for a baptism of fire as an unwanted Deputy Premier.

He will spend the vast majority of his time in Government fending off sharp criticism and his effectiveness if he has any will be severely compromised.

Perhaps the schizophrenic Professor will find time to reflect his align and conquer political strategy and evaluate its suitability, efficiency and effectiveness for Zimbabwe.

We are sure he will come to the conclusion that Zanu PF and MDC are not political entities anyone can align with to conquer them. Their grassroots support is gelled by fundamental beliefs in their abilities to articulate and carry through programmes they initiate. They will not flock with demagogues who think a GPA is the means and end of their political economic and social misery. Neither will they rally behind him in his naively stupid call to unite in celebrating a government that legitimises Mugabe and Mutambara’s electoral fraud.

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Has Prof Mutambara gone insane?

SW Radioafrica had some startling insights to share with the Zimbabweans on how Prof Mutambara purports he leads. The self proclaimed political strategist par excellence who has wormed himself into the political limelight to a point where as he spoke he was waiting to be confirmed Deputy Prime Minister despite his breakaway faction of the MDC having won a paltry 10 Parliamentary seats and him personally having lost in Parliamentary elections to Colin Gwiyo in the Zengeza West Constituency contest had no kind words for Mugabe and Tsvangirai with a combined following of 200 constituencies for delaying him the opportunity to represent Zimbabweans who believe in those leaders in a GPA Government and expose them for their selfish and intellectual deficiencies.
It is widely held that the Robotics Professor has inherited her mother’s psychiatric condition and has gone insane and here is why.

Hot Seat interview: Journalist Violet Gonda speaks with Deputy Prime Minister designate Arthur Mutambara.
Broadcast: 14 November 2008
Violet Gonda: Professor Arthur Mutambara the leader of the other MDC in the inter party talks is my guest on the programme Hot Seat. Thank you very much Professor Mutambara for agreeing to talk to us. How are you doing?

Prof. Arthur Mutambara: I am doing fine. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to talk to your listeners.

Gonda: Now the SADC Heads of State met in South Africa (last) Sunday. First of all can you briefly give us the highlights of the outcome of this summit?

Mutambara: The summarized version of the outcome is that they decided by consensus that the government of national unity must be formed immediately. That the contentious Ministry of Home Affairs must be co-ministered between the MDC T and ZANU PF, and that the efficacy of that management will be reviewed in six months. That is the outcome – the key elements of the Zimbabwean outcome from the summit.

Gonda: So how was it taken by the leaders, including yourself?

Mutambara: We were very disappointed. Our position going into the talks was to say ZANU PF has got enough security ministries that it is actually in charge of. Let’s give Home Affairs to Mr Tsvangirai and his party. That was the position of our party. That is what we fought for in the summit deliberations – to allow Mr Tsvangirai to have complete and sole control of Home Affairs. So we were very disappointed by the outcome ourselves.

But I must say that going into the summit there was an agreement between the three Principals and the SADC leaders that we are coming to SADC for arbitration, we are coming to SADC so SADC can make a ruling and there was a commitment by the three players that they will abide by the decision of the summit. So before we went into the discussions there was this issue of coming for arbitration, coming for a SADC ruling. So we are saying ‘we are disappointed by the outcome, we don’t agree with the outcome but however we must show respect to SADC’.

We feel it is very difficult for us to have recourse outside SADC – most importantly because SADC was deciding by consensus. It is not wise; it is un-strategic for us as the opposition to go to war with 15 Heads of State. So we must remain engaged with SADC and try to appeal to SADC through the SADC structures as opposed to going against 15 Heads of State.

Gonda: So what are you saying? Are you going against what SADC is saying or it’s only the Tsvangirai MDC ?

Mutambara: Well, we are saying we did not get the outcome that we wanted. We wanted Mr. Tsvangirai to have control of the Home Affairs. What we are now saying is since SADC ruled by consensus we must respect that decision and then try to work out an arrangement where we salvage our country. We must remember that we have always said as a party we do not agree that we should allow our people to die for eight weeks because of disagreements over one ministry. We do not agree that we can destroy businesses in our country over disagreements over cabinet positions. We have always said that there is no such thing as a ZANU PF Minister, there is no such thing as an MDC Minister – we are talking about Ministers for the people of Zimbabwe . We are talking about collective responsibilities in cabinet and we are talking about mutual respect and mutual trust among the three players. So while we back Mr. Tsvangirai in pursuit of the Home Affairs Ministry we do not agree that not getting Home Affairs is sufficient a condition to destroy the agreement, is sufficient a condition to ruin our country over this matter.

And we are saying strategically, we must all remain engaged with SADC. There are very few options that we have as the opposition. That is our major problem because outside SADC, how do we get to the AU without SADC? How do you get to the UN without SADC? How do you go against your own regional body which is voting by consensus on a position?

So we are asking for caution. We are appealing for everyone – Mugabe and Tsvangirai included to put national interests before self interests.

Gonda: But some people say so what is wrong with demanding what is best for the country from Robert Mugabe because don’t you think it is unacceptable that a government that is killing its own people should be allowed to retain such positions?

Mutambara: Ya, but remember you are preaching to the choir. I told you that was our position to say Mr Tsvangirai must have Home Affairs. The question now is what do we do now after the 15 Heads of State have taken a position, after we had committed ourselves to accepting their decisions? We have to have some integrity, we have to be strategic because you can’t fight 15 Heads of State and expect to win. So we need to engage them. We need to engage ourselves. We need to keep talking. What we are saying is … (interrupted)

Gonda: But don’t you think it is strange that the Heads of State have prescribed this solution when in their own countries it’s never happened? They admitted that it’s never happened where rival parties actually co-share a ministry. How do you share a ministry and how will it operate?

Mutambara: I don’t want to repeat myself Violet. I am disappointed. I don’t want this outcome. I had a preferred outcome and I have given you my preferred outcome. That discussion you can have with Kgalema, you can have that discussion with Guebuza, with Salomao. Have that discussion with SADC. My position as a party is very clear. We want to have equitable distribution of ministries. Home Affairs must go to Tsvangirai that is my position. My dilemma now as an opposition leader is what do I do when I have a ruling from 15 Heads of State against me? Is it strategic for me to go to war with the 15 or should I remain engaged with them and work with them, work with the AU, work with SADC to get a resolution? That is what I am interested in right now.

Gonda: So wouldn’t it be strategic to side with Morgan Tsvangirai because this is what you want also – the equitable distribution of ministries. So wouldn’t it be strategic for you to side with Morgan Tsvangirai so that there is an equitable distribution of ministries and do you actually think that SADC has done enough to put pressure on Robert Mugabe, who actually lost the elections, to share the ministries fairly?

Mutambara: I am siding with Morgan Tsvangirai but I don’t side with foolishness, ok? I side with Morgan Tsvangirai in the debate that he must get Home Affairs. I don’t side with him when he says the people of Zimbabwe must suffer over a ministry. That is nonsensical. I do not believe that we should have eight weeks of deaths, eight weeks of destruction of our economy over a ministry. That is nonsense! What is important is to say Zimbabwe must come first before Tsvangirai , Zimbabwe must come first before Mugabe.

Now what we are saying is right now we have a ruling from SADC – from the 15 Heads of Government – we need to keep engaged with them because otherwise what are you going to do next? What are you …

Gonda: But…
Mutambara: listen, listen. You can’t go to the AU without SADC. You can’t have an election right now because Mugabe is in control of the country and any election right now would be unfair and unfree – it will be won by Mugabe under June 27 conditions. We have very limited options as the opposition. We need to be smart!
Gonda: By smart you said – as I read in some of the articles about this – that you prefer to influence from within? You know - sign this deal, do what SADC is saying and then influence from within. But my question to you is since when…

Mutambara: Don’t speak for me. Don’t speak for me. I am here let me speak for myself!

Gonda: Is that what you said?

Mutambara: Listen. What is smart is to remain engaged with SADC. What is smart is to keep working with Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe as three parties. You can’t have a government in Zimbabwe without Tsvangirai. To get this agreement to operate you need amendment 19 to pass through parliament. To get Amendment 19 to pass through parliament you need two thirds (2/3) majority. Mutambara and Mugabe cannot get a two thirds majority. So you need the three players to pass this agreement in parliament. We are stuck in this mess together as three political parties. But what is important is the people, not individuals, not ministries.

Who told you Home Affairs was more important than Education!? Who told you that Home Affairs was more important than Health!? The definition of a key ministry is a misnomer. We are also using a very wrong framework. Health, Water, Education are as important as Home Affairs. It is not worth it to destroy our country over a ministry! That is my position.

Gonda: But the MDC -Tsvangirai has also said they are not only concerned about one ministry but at least 10 key ministries. So…

Mutambara: That is nonsense! That is nonsense! We are down to one ministry. The rest of the ministries have been agreed to. This is where the Tsvangirai group becomes un-strategic by making the world their platform for discussion - you must narrow down your debate to one area. We went through discussions in Harare with Thabo Mbeki and Mugabe and settled the 29 ministries minus one plus one, and hence the debate is around Home Affairs. We do not entertain the nonsense around 10 ministries.

Gonda: But Professor Mutambara if it has been scaled down to one ministry – the Home Affairs ministry - don’t you think it is still important since Mugabe will still have the Defence Ministry? Why isn’t Mugabe being forced to share the Defence Ministry like he wants to share the Home Affairs Ministry?

Mutambara: Well Violet don’t keep going in circles you know my views about that one. Tsvangirai must get Home Affairs that is my position. Mugabe has enough Security Ministries. I have lost at SADC. My challenge is how do I operate when I have lost to 15 Heads of State? That’s what I am grappling with right now.

Gonda: But why do you chose to side with SADC and not with Morgan Tsvangirai on this issue because many people feel that SADC is siding with Robert Mugabe on this case and that SADC is not really being fair?

Mutambara: No but I am not siding with SADC I am siding with the people of Zimbabwe . We are saying if we put the people ahead of our own interests we should find an accommodation among the three of us. With some degree of pragmatism, with some degree of flexibility and also being strategic – if you do not work with SADC who do you work with? And ask Tsvangirai that question.

If you do not work with SADC how do you get to the AU without SADC? If you do not work with SADC how do you get to the UN without SADC? This is commonsensical and we want our leaders to be strategic. Even the Americans and the British cannot go against 15 Heads of State.

Gonda: But if the 15 Heads of State are not saying what you want – what the people of Zimbabwe want, according to the Tsvangirai MDC , why should he be forced to agree to that?

Mutambara: Whooooa Whoooa Whoaaa! Who says Tsvangirai was the people of Zimbabwe ?
Gonda: But he is the one who was elected. The people of Zimbabwe elected him.
Mutambara: Nonsense, Nonsense let’s speak logically! Let’s speak logically.

We have a decision that has been made by 15 Heads of State of which we are a member as a country. Zimbabwe is a member of SADC; we have not left SADC so we are bound by the decisions of SADC. We must respect SADC. We need to operate within SADC for us to have access to the UN, for us to have access to the AU.

It is a strategic matter here. There is no disagreement between me and Tsvangirai. I have fought for Tsvangirai to get Finance - he got Finance. I fought for Tsvangirai to get Home Affairs – I lost.

Now what I am trying to do now is to say - how do we move our country forward and we can’t destroy Zimbabwe over a ministry? That is a travesty. We can’t do that! That is irresponsible!

Gonda: But Professor Mutambara I go back to the issue of SADC – how can SADC be taken seriously when in the past it has been seen as siding with Robert Mugabe. Let me give you an example. The current chair …

Mutambara: But remember Violet …

Gonda: Let me give you an example…

Mutambara: Remember Violet I said…

Gonda : Let me give…

Mutambara: I saiddon’t ask me about SADC. Be organized Violet go andtalk to SADC. Don’t ask me that question…

Gonda: But you are the one who brought this issue up…

Mutambara: Talk to Kgalema, talk to Mbeki, get organized!Talk to Salomao. I don’t speak for SADC…

Gonda: Professor Mutambara.

Mutambara: Don’t give me irrelevant questions. That is an irrelevant question. Next question please that is irrelevant!

Gonda: Professor Mutambara I want your comment on this issue. The chairof SADC Kgalema Motlanthe declared - you know when he was head of the South African observer mission in 2002 - that the elections in Zimbabwe were free and credible. But this was at a time when people were horribly brutalised and these are the same leaders you are saying you have made a pledge to be bound by their rulings? How can SADC be taken seriously then?

Mutambara: I think – and I politely repeat myself – pick up your phone and call SADC. I don’t agree with those remarks that were made about our elections and you know my views. So I think what you needto do is to discuss this matter with Salomao, withKgalema, with Mbeki, with the SADC leaders. I am an opposition leader in Zimbabwe who is frustrated by the outcome and who is trying to navigate the way around by being strategic and not foolish.

Gonda: Ya, that is my point exactly that why should you accept this ruling when they have made other bizarre rulings before? Why is it you can’t fight and demand that this time we want an equitable distribution of ministries? Why can’t you fight for that now? Why do you have to fight when you are in a government? Are you suggesting that you can pull the wool over Mugabe’s eyes – a man who has manipulated and divided you for a long time?

Mutambara: Ya but we have not even said that. Next question please.

Gonda: No but…

Mutambara: Can you give me the next question please? There is no question there. I have answered that question already.

Gonda: Professor…

Mutambara: Give me a next question.

Gonda: When have you ever gotten anything out of Robert Mugabe?

Mutambara: Ask SADC.

Gonda: No I am asking you as a Zimbabwean leader. When have you ever gotten anything out of Robert Mugabe?

Mutambara: But I never said I got anything from Robert Mugabe.

Gonda: So why is it you would think that by giving him the Home Affairs Ministry or sharing the Home Affairs ministry that things will just change automatically when he has killed people…

Mutambara: Things won’t change Violet. Things won’t change. We don’t agree with the SADC decision. Our proposal was for the opposition - in particular MDC T – to own that ministry. We have lost at SADC. What we are now strategising is what is the best way forward and we are saying as part of our strategic framework we must remain engaged with the three players. There can’t be a government in Zimbabwe without anyone of the three and secondly and more importantly we need to keep on talking to SADC because that’s the only way we can get recourse at the AU or UN. You can’t navigate outside the SADC framework.

As to the details of our strategies of confronting SADC I think that is a matter that we will reveal later on. But we are saying we must remain engaged with SADC and we must remain working together as Zimbabweans and in the process we must put national interests before self interests.

Gonda: Now can you confirm if this actually happened – that after you all made your presentations before the Heads of State on Sunday, you and Morgan Tsvangirai actually went out but Mugabe refused to leave the room and sat in judgment in his own case?

Mutambara: I think you can confirm that with SADC. What we know is that we were recused and asked to leave the room because they were going to discuss the details of Zimbabwe . As to whether Mugabe was in or not - but Morgan Tsvangirai and our party left and allowed SADC to continue with their debates. We are not privy to who was actually inside the House but you can confirm that with SADC.

Gonda: Now Mugabe has threatened to go ahead and form a government or announce his cabinet. What will your party do if he does that?

Mutambara: But I have already answered that but I will repeat it so that you can understand because you seem to be very slow. We will not be involved in a government that is a twosome. The government that we are talking about is an inclusive government including three players. And three players are required to operationalise the agreement.

Amendment 19 to become law requires two thirds majority. Two thirds cannot be achieved by two parties. It can only be achieved by Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara working together. So there will be no joy without the three parties.

Gonda: I am sorry for being slow Professor Mutambara but we all know that this is the ideal and practically Mugabe can do whatever he wants. And that is why I was asking you that question that what if he still does that, because he has threatened to do that even though he needs a two thirds. So I am asking you what will you do – will you go ahead and be part of this government or not?

Mutambara: Do you want me to repeat again, I will repeat since you want me to keep repeating this. There will be no two-some, there will be no one-some, there will be a three-some. The threesome involves Mutambara, Tsvangirai and Mugabe - anything outside that is not legitimate it’s not even practical. For you to convert amendment no19 to become law – which means the agreement becomes law in Zimbabwe – you need two thirds majority. Two thirds can only come from the three parties. Is that clear enough!?

Gonda: How do you answer your critics who say you are being used as a destabilising force?

Mutambara: Nonsense. They can go and hang themselves that’s nonsense. Next question please.

Gonda: Thank you very much Professor Mutambara (laughing)
Mutambara: (laughs) alright.

Foolish African solutions for African fools’ problems

SADC MEDIATOR in CHIEF Thabo Mbeki was not worth ANC trust but is good enough for Zimbabwe according to SADC

Sadc Heads of State misfired yet again when they “resolved” that feuding Zimbabwe politicians must forthwith form an inclusive Government at their meeting in Sandtown South Africa on 9 November 2008.

To be fair this resolution was nothing new to anyone who follows political developments in the impoverished nation.

The resolution was an iteration of the tripartite Global Political Agreement signed between Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara on 15 September 2008 which had been referred back to the Heads of State as underwriters of its implementation of secondary resort after Mediator in Chief and first underwriter of first resort Thabo Mbeki and his reference group had failed to oversee implementation due to disputed inequities in the power sharing model proposed by Zanu PF octogenarian leader Robert Mugabe.

Robert Mugabe lost credible elections for re-election to the country’s Presidency on 29 March 2008. He refused to concede outright defeat and withheld results of that election for an unprecedented 32 days while his Party Zanu PF, The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the Joint Operations Commission (JOC) secretly fidgeted with the outcome to justify a Presidential runoff poll.

He then used brutal force, thuggery, murder, rape and other heinous crimes of intimidation to campaign for his re-election in the illegitimate runoff poll he had forcibly secured from a cowered ZEC.

By the time the runoff was staged on 27 June 2008 Mugabe was the sole contestant after leading contestant Morgan Tsvangirai was pulled out of the race by his MDC sponsors who had lost over 130 key activists to Mugabe’s violent campaign and had over 300 000 supporters displaced.

Robert Mugabe declared himself “landslide winner” of the farcical runoff poll and vowed to defend that gain with his life if need be against anyone aggrieved by his “success”.

SADC Heads of State who together with AU Heads of State had cajoled Morgan Tsvangirai to contest the runoff on undertakings the election conditions would remain as they were when he won the initial contest on 29 March, were shamed by the reports from their observer emissaries to the 27June runoff that declared the conditions under which the runoff was staged unsuitable for conduct of credible elections and the result as an inadmissible measure of the will of the Zimbabwe electorate.

At that juncture SADC and AU had options to resolve the looming crisis the disputed Presidential poll had triggered in the country whose economy has been battered by years of mismanagement, rampant corruption and alienation with most former Western block trade and political allies over the country’s human rights abuses.

They had the option to sanction Robert Mugabe for failing to conduct credible elections as per their minimum standards and tell him straight his re-election was null and void and he could not join them in meetings and conferences for Heads of State until that anomaly was rectified.

Alternatively they could have decided that the March 29 election results in the country stood and the winner was the legitimate President of the country whom they will engage in all future dealings with the country.

Finally they had a choice to set aside their electoral standards rules and in their place substitute conciliation and mediation, as they did, to resolve the dispute in a less embarrassing manner for Robert Mugabe whom many believe deserves respect for sacrificing his all to liberate the country from colonial bondage.

In all these choices the ultimate objective should have been clarified to restore electoral democracy in the country where the electorate had been disenfranchised by Zanu PF electioneering violence.

The SADC Heads of State were awe stricken by Mugabe’s Liberation War credentials that they decided to put the desire to protect his dignity ahead of the objective to uphold the will of the Zimbabwean electorate and restoration of threatened electoral democracy in the country.

This is where as it always has been in the past where SADC missed the point by a mile if not further.

Those of us who have followed how the League of African Presidents works when one of their numbers is under threat of dismissal from office for failed management by the electorate in their respective countries knew then as we do now that the MDC had a mountain to climb if their stolen electoral was to be recovered without undue blood spilling of innocent members of the electorate and the aristocrats in civil strife.

The African solutions to African problems adage for us is an African Presidential Trade Union of Heads of State rallying cry against disenchanted electorates whose dictates are couched in the principle of resistance to electoral decisions until the electorate summons the courage to reclaim their franchise using equal or more military force than that at the disposal of the insolent leader in question.

In Zimbabwe, SADC and AU like anywhere else where there has arisen a dispute between the leadership and the electorate are not and will not mediate to assist disenfranchised and deprived politically and militarily weaker citizens reassert their legislated rights to be led by leaders of their choice of free will.

Rather they are mediating to keep their member in the job regardless of the gravity and accuracy of incompetency charges levelled against him.

The SADC and AU mediation effort in Zimbabwe will always return a verdict that continues to support Robert Mugabe retaining his esteemed position as President and defacto leader of the country regardless of the reality that Zimbabweans no longer faithfully subscribe to his leadership in their majority.

The dictum behind this irrational support of unpopular regimes in Africa is the entrenched belief in many current African leaders that leadership and or regime change can only occur when the incumbent leader becomes militarily weaker than his challenger.

This is why military coups in Africa result in as legitimate a Head of an African State as one elected by a credible or incredible democratic electoral process.

Sounds very foolish and irrational but that is the reality in Africa and Zimbabwe is no exception to that cardinal rule that derived credence from how most countries secured freedom from colonialism.

The sooner MDC realises that appeals to SADC and AU over political disputes in the country with a senior and revered African Presidential Trade Unionist like Robert Mugabe are futile before they even contrived the better they will tackle the Zimbabwe impasse the country faces.

Zanu PF has been dishing numerous selling signals that would make it embrace real regime change in Zimbabwe be it from within its structure or competing political formations which signs have not been exploited to date.

Zanu PF and Mugabe will vouch any day and night that there will be no regime change in Zimbabwe that it does not approve. Whenever they say that Zimbabweans must know that Zanu PF are infact declaring that they will only hand over power to he who can command military muscle that matches or outweighs that at its disposal.

No party has really taken this hint seriously but now it maybe the tonic needed to complete the prolonged people’s democratic struggle against Mugabe and his illegal Junta regime.

When the SADC Heads of State therefore ruled that they still stand by the GPA and ordered the feuding parties to form a unity Government they irked the MDC and its majority following in the country but none of the African leadership.

The oppressed Zimbabweans have every reason to be infuriated by the bizarre SADC determination that the Unity Government must have a co-chaired Home Affairs ministry because that ministry had become central to the stall in forming the authority to lead the country.

SADC are fully aware that the arrangement is fraught with dangers of implosion but it’s a risk they are prepared to tackle when it arises rather than allow to come in the way of forming an inclusive government and open doors for external interference with sanctions against the country which will seriously harm regional economies because of the central position the country physically occupies making it the hub of regional inland trade routes.

An international blockade against Zimbabwe will translate in a total blockade against trade lines between Southern East Africa and Southern West Africa as it will be a major blockade on inland transport logistics linking South Southern Africa and North Southern Africa.

SADC regional leaders are not prepared to pay that hefty economic price because of political haggling in Zimbabwe over a particular ministry and reason that if the ministry is shared that will buy them time to strategise.

They are wrong though because a significant part of the aid package Zimbabwe needs to revive its ravaged economy will not materialise and its useful trade infrastructure for the region will continue to disintegrate further.

Secondly the ministry has emotional sway in Zimbabwe politics because of the way it has been politicised to suppress and savage fundamental human rights in the past and not many Zimbabweans and foreign investors alike and will derive inspiration from its shared control as accountability will be difficult to pin down.

In any event it is a serious indictment of the unity in Government’s unity if they do not trust each other with a ministry.

But the real reason behind fierce competition to control the Ministry is because of its military capacity that Zanu PF wants to retain if it is to remain politically relevant.

In the premise the MDC must pullout of the deal now rather than waste time appealing to the AU which will endorse the SADC ruling and find means to escalate the dispute over Mugabe’s legitimacy to the UN.

A similar implosion in Kenya was only controlled when the UN’s special envoy Kofi Anan became ceased with the dispute mediation and as long as mediation efforts in Zimbabwe remain in a Sadc appointee’s control the impasse will continue unabated.

The call by Dr Lovemore Madhuku of the National Constitutional Assembly for the MDC to mobilise its supporters against Mugabe’s intransigence requires serious thought as it has the greatest potential to highlight the extent of the crisis gripping the country which the endless negotiation process is suppressing at the moment.

It is hard to mobilise in Zimbabwe where ruthless force is used to suppress demonstrations but it appears the only viable route left for Zimbabweans to dissociate with Mugabe’s Junta and reclaim their stolen vote of 29 March 2008.

Accepting the co-sharing of any ministry will be the worst level of capitulation by the MDC that could cost it dearly in the future.

Only downright African fools would accept a foolish SADC resolution to co-share a ministry with a single administrative structure. Zimbabweans maybe battle weary to engage in serious demonstrations against Mugabe but an official MDC pullout of the GPA may just prove the reinvigorating catalyst the people are waiting for to engage the Junta.

No Retreat, No Surrender in Power Sharing negotiations

PIC: MDC President and Zimbabwe Prime Minister Designate Morgan Tsvangirai



Sadc Heads of State meet on Sunday 9 November 2008 with their chair promising to be tough with Zimbabwean political protagonists to decisively conclude the power sharing deal it brokered that is in trouble over distribution of power among the subscribers.

Only fools will take the threatened tough action seriously given that SADC has been ceased with resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis for no less than 8 years now of which the past 18 months have been intense but to no avail.




We hope the threatened tough action is not admission on the part of the esteemed Heads of SADC States that hitherto they were guilty of handling the crisis with kid gloves as charged by many Zimbabweans and the UN.

That said it would be interesting to see what tough action the SADC heads will take given their repute for misdirecting their pressure in pursuit of elusive solutions for the Zimbabwe crisis hitherto.

When Mugabe ordered his Police and Intelligence operatives to viciously disrupt a Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds in downtown Highfield suburb of Harare where they killed Gift Tandare in cold blood and took into custody the most senior political opponents and thoroughly beat them up, Sadc responded by commissioning formal mediation talks between the victims of the thuggery and the assailant before the assailant’s long time friend and admirer Thabo Mbeki then President of South Africa.

Elated the vicious Robert Gabriel Mugabe bragged that he would dish out more of the same treatment to anyone in his country who sought to spearhead a regime change agenda in collusion with former colonial masters in Britain and America.

The mediation talks took forever to conclude and when they were suspended all Zimbabweans had gained was Constitutional Amendment No 18 (CA No 18) which was far less than the New Constitution they were after and the suspension of repressive legislation and violent politicking that was central to electoral rigging.

It was an improvement from the draconian provisions under which previous elections had been held and despite its rushed passage through Parliament and irrational insistence by Mugabe to hold elections before some of its provisions were in place, fairly peaceful elections were staged for the first time in the country on 29 March 2008.

The results of those elections were that Zanu PF and Mugabe lost the unassailable two third majorities they held in Local Governance, Parliament and The Senate to the opposition MDC and worse Mugabe lost the Presidential bid to Morgan Tsvangirai of the then opposition MDC.

The same leaders now threatening tough action to force down the Global Political Agreement they cajoled the victorious MDC to sign up to after they allowed Robert Mugabe and his Militia dubbed State Defence, Police, Prisons and Intelligence Operatives to manipulate election results at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) National Collation Office and force an illegal Presidential runoff between Mugabe which all of them endorsed.

They were tough with Tsvangirai to drop his victory claim and participate in the illegal runoff and all promised to ensure the runoff election would be credible.
After no less than 135 of his key activists were massacred in cold blood by armed Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF militia and hundreds of thousands others were displaced, all his rallies were violently disrupted or cancelled, his campaign transport had been impounded, his adverts had been taken off air and Print by the State Media Houses, he had been detained without charge on no less than 5 occasions while on the campaign trail and neither SADC nor AU had intervened Tsvangirai withdrew his candidature in the farcical Presidential runoff.

SADC, AU and the UN all called for postponement of the sham runoff but Mugabe responded by convening his ZEC to sit as an Electoral Court and declare the withdrawal null and void and stage the runoff as if nothing had happened.

On 29 Jun exactly 48 hours after the same ZEC that could not declare election results with similar participation for 32 days after 28 March elections declared Mugabe landslide winner of the solo contestant runoff Presidential election and his crowning was staged 2hours later in time for him to pack his bags and fly to the AU Heads of State meeting in Egypt the day after his coronation.

The AU leaders including the SADC leaders now threatening tough action on Zimbabwe leaders for being deadlocked on power sharing under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) they forced down in Zimbabwe in total disregard of the wishes of the electorate welcomed Mugabe to the summit fully aware his re-election was null and void and he had lost the presidency to Morgan Tsvangirai.

That was tough action against a despotic and errant former President which most Zimbabweans expect to be replicated in South Africa tomorrow by SADC Heads as threatened by the Chair?

The AU meeting resolved to mandate Sadc to revive mediation talks that had been put on ice by the elections and endorsed President Mbeki to continue as Chief Mediator despite damming disclosures by the MDC that he was compromised to Zanu PF and it had lost confidence in his impartiality.

Now that was tough on a genuine complainant seeking fair treatment and his response was to refuse to appear before Mbeki till there was in place a neutral observe and or monitor of President Mbeki’s mediation.

That drove the point and SADC and AU mellowed and put together a cosmetic Mediation reference Group to monitor and support President Mbeki’s mediation. It was a tame response to serious allegations of partiality that was threatening the resumption of dialogue.

Dialogue resumed and when negotiations reached a stalemate UN’s Ambassador Haile Menkerios of the Reference Group tested the effectiveness of the group by attempting to visit Harare on a fact finding mission. He was denied entry by Mugabe and scolded by Chinamasa.

When South Africa was put under pressure by FIFA to resolve the Zimbabwe impasse or lose the chance to host the 2010 football World Cup bonanza the Ruling ANC decided it was time to show some teeth.

Mbeki was told to go to Zimbabwe and return with an agreement or stay there until that objective was achieved. He obliged and coaxed Mugabe to accept the MDC demands for equitable power sharing between him and Tsvangirai and on 11 September 2008 the GPA was agreed upon by the parties.

Mugabe had tried to circumvent power sharing negotiations by pleading with SADC Heads to allow him to convene Parliament having cobbled an unholy alliance with Professor Mutambara to support a Speaker from that faction earning the faction a new designation MDC-PF from disenchanted MDC supporters who felt Prof Mutambara had sold out the democracy struggle for power.

The alliance was soundly defeated when MDC’s Lovemore Moyo was elected Parliament Speaker despite that two MPs from his formation had been arrested before the voting to guarantee that Zanu PF MPs would cancel out MDC votes for him and MDC PF would have a field day electing their formation candidate.

They revolted and voted for Moyo and the unholy Zanu PF and Prof Mutambara’s MDC PF alliance was exposed and left in tatters

That defeat resulted in Mugabe succumbing to the negotiations that led to the 11 September.

But on 15 September 2008 when the agreement was tabled before a parade of SADC Heads for the Principals to solemnise, they were duped to sign a forged document that Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa boasts having altered on instructions from Robert Mugabe.

Worse after he was legitimised as President Mugabe packed his bags to attend the UN summit in the USA without legitimising the agreed to Prime Minister and his Deputies as well as appointing the agreed to Vice Presidents.

On his return he unilaterally gazetted the Cabinet allotments for the parties ahead of appointment of the Prime Minister, and the Deputies as agreed.

Aggrieved by the blatant disregard of the GPA provisions by Mugabe the MDC registered its displeasure with the mediator who by then had been forced to resign as President of South Africa by his own party for victimising senior party members through trumped up prosecutions that were nullified by the country’s High Court.
Having lost his clout after Court criticism piled on his office he resigned to avoid fighting a threatened vote of no confidence.

The disagreement on how to implement the Zimbabwe power sharing deal coming as it did when Mbeki was still leaking his wounds, was not the best of problems for him to attend to and he took his time to accept resumption of leading the Zimbabwe mediation effort as mandated by SADC and endorsed by the AU and UN.

When he eventually visited Zimbabwe to try and unlock the impasse all he managed to do was infuriate the complainants whose confidence in him is very low by endorsing Mugabe’s unilateral allotments.

That was no way to mediate a complaint. Mr Mbeki projected himself as a Zanu PF extension and not a negotiator and his endorsements of the Zanu PF sharing model that grabbed all key ministries other than that of Finance was promptly declined by the MDC and an appeal lodged with the SADC Troika on Defence and Security for Arbitration by the reference Group.

A meeting of the Troika was convened in Mbabane Swaziland but could not take off because the chief complainant Morgan Tsvangirai has since June been denied a passport and the emergency travel document he was issued was belatedly issued and did not take account of his transit requirements in South Africa which Mugabe’s henchman have vigorously disputed after the embarrassment of a no show by Tsvangirai and his team to the negotiations.

The Troika had to postpone the meeting to Harare a week later where it failed to unlock the impasse because it lacks the teeth to bite where it hurts the intransigent Zanu PF and Mugabe.

The Troika concluded by referring the dispute to the full Sadc Heads of State meeting scheduled for Sunday where they have promised to be tough with Zimbabwe political leaders for dragging their feet in implementing the GPA.

But it is not all the leaders dragging their feet. One leader has taken it upon himself to take unilateral decisions that are causing the impasse and that is the leader SADC must target for tough action.

It would be a welcome gesture towards the toiling Zimbabweans they have disenfranchised and left vulnerable to hunger and starvation and unbearable economic hardships occasioned on the country by failed leadership of the same leader now causing the logjam inn implementation of the GPA.

SADC leaders have allowed Mugabe to believe and act as if he is the sole executive authority in the country and thus sole determinant of who to appoint, when and to which national responsibility.

That is the problem they have to deal with at their meeting on Sunday.
They must make it clear to Mugabe that his legitimacy devolves from the GPA of 11 September 2008 and not whatever had happened in the past under his stewardship of the state.

In this regard they must make it clear in no uncertain terms that he is only President of Zimbabwe to the extent he ensures the agreed inclusive government positions of President, Prime Minister, Vice Presidents and Deputy Prime Ministers are confirmed and constitutionalised after which he must sit with them to agree other Constitutional appointments.

That clarified they must bring him to the realisation that in terms of the GPA his powers are restricted to consensus Government practice with signatories of the GPA and not his party which failed to support his re-election bid on 29 March 2008 nor the JOC that fooled him to embark on the 27 June 2008 runoff fiasco and its preceding thuggery.

They should then clarify to him that the 31 Cabinet posts in the GPA are not Zanu PF or his property but rather a tripartite national institution of the signatories of the GPA whose distribution is not Mugabe’s prerogative to decide but must be distributed by mutual agreement among the principal signatories of the GPA.

That clarified the Heads of State must then discard the unilaterally gazetted allotment of Cabinet posts and consider each party’s proposed sharing model and eliminate Ministries where there is convergence on which party they should be allocated.

Therehave been too many conflicting statements coming from the parties and the SADC Troika over which ministerial portfolios are still in dispute for the Heads of Government to be abrupt and narrow down discussion to the Home Affairs portfolio alone.

It is obvious that no less than 10 portfolios, 6 Governorships, 31 Permanent Secretaries, over 60 Diplomatic posts and all Constitutional appointments are still in dispute and a formula to share them must be agreed.

The Heads of State must brace up for a diversionary argument from Zanu PF that MDC cannot be trusted with security ministries because alleged militia training in Botswana.

Similar allegations were levelled against MDC activists and MPs who were detained for six months on false allegations they were running military training camps in South Africa which the Zimbabwe Security and Intelligence operatives failed to disclose when required to do so by the High Court.

Hon Paul Madzore and his brother as well as Ian Makone, Denis Murira, Luke Tamborinyoka and the murdered Tonderai Ndira are some of the victims of the Zanu PF manufactured lies used stain the MDC.

SADC Heads must reject this ruse from Zanu PF aimed at derailing the power sharing deal and insist on tangible and verifiable evidence for this well known diversionary tactic by Zanu PF whenever it seeks to opt out of political agreements it realises are not in its favour.

Trivia like refusal to issue a Prime Minister designate a passport because he will campaign for more sanctions against a government in which he will be a key man must be extinguished once and for all. So should the continued violence by Zanu PF against MDC supporters.

While Zimbabweans welcome the hinted tough approach to be adopted by the Heads of SADC states in South Africa, the tough action must be directed to none other than the intransigent Mugabe.

Tsvangirai must not move an inch from his current position as he has already conceded too much in this deal.

Patrick Chinamasa and George Charamba offside

Pic: Left Patrick Chinamasa and George Charama aka Nathaniel Manheru both of Zanu PF


In his latest offering of vile politics Nathaniel Manheru aka George Charamba, Information and Publicity Secretary of Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe’s personal spokesman sheds insight into the retrogressive thinking that characterises a Zanu PF party in turmoil.

So astounding is the revelation of the Zanu PF conclusion about the cause of the economic demise in the country as evidenced by the outpourings of its Chief Executive and self proclaimed President of the country’s spokesperson, it defies all logic.



According to Charamba and by extension Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, there is no connection between the devastating hunger gripping the nation and the inclusive Government formation stalemate in the country.

The casual connection is in their view between the smart targeted sanctions imposed against filthy rich Zanu PF despots by America, Britain and their allies rather than the devastating hunger and faltering inclusive Government formation talks.
The outrageous conclusion aside, we did not miss the real cause behind filthy rich Charamba’s pretence to champion the poor’s cause.

A paranoid obsession to cling to power and shift blame for the causes of debilitating economic hardships in the country to anyone else other than the real cause Zanu PF and his swaggered foul mouthed adulation for its unworkable policies.

Since coming to power Zanu PF has pursued self enrichment policies that have diminished productivity, encouraged corruption, disenfranchised citizens and reduced them to paupers.

With each election they stole, Zanu PF perfected a patronage system that discouraged the work ethic it inherited and condemned the majority into a dependency syndrome on Government handouts to survive.

The motive was to keep the poor, poor or make them poorer and subservient to the rich. That way Zanu PF would ensure they remained loyal to its scorched earth national management policies and should they decide to demand self reliance, Zanu PF would simply threaten them with withdrawal of Government handouts to coerce compliance.

Charamba does concedes that the Zanu PF Government has cultivated and religiously pursued the dependency syndrome in people for decades when he boasts;

“How do the two disputants cause hunger? How do they resolve it once they have recovered amity? This is not the first time we have faced a cereal deficit as a country. We have had it from 1982, soon after our Independence. As now, the cereal deficit has always played itself out in circumstances of political differences. And even war between 1982 and 1987. Yet Zimbabwe has never been this desperate. Why now? Why these politics? Why this hunger?”

For a Presidential spokesperson to brag about the Government he serves in at a very senior level having failed to guarantee cereal self sufficiency for the country and survived sanction from the citizens it claims to serve for such a prolonged period and question why desperation has now reached untenable proportions is the height of stupidity by anyone, worse so a Presidential spokesman.

How on earth does a Presidential spokesman fail to see that Government food handouts over decades to citizens well capable of producing their own food requirements diminished their productive capacity and carved a deep hole on the fiscus whose cumulative effect has reached maximum elasticity and has snapped because outgo was not replenished by production when demand has ever been on the rise?

The absurdity does not end there for Charamba. He does not seem to see the connection that the poor and the Zanu PF fat cats who have been “victims” of the poor by being served the obnoxious Mahanya (Hacha porridge) at their funeral wakes have all seen that the government he serves and belongs to has outlived its usefulness in terms of guaranteeing sustained food security in their country.

Al l that is bothering him is that these impoverished citizens are now a scourge for his rich fat-cat colleagues in Zanu PF. They now as he puts it, “have broken into the barricaded world of the rich, past the high, serrated Dura-walls,” in search of the wealth the rich have stolen from them and are extravagantly parading when they are in desperation of near starvation.

The opulence of Zanu PF fat-cats in lavish housing, luxurious cars and modern electronic gadgets amidst an impoverished peasantry has driven people nuts and they have turned to theft of anything, water taps, electricity cabling, power station engine oil, mobile phones, perfume, toothpaste, leftover food, electronic gadgets etal.

The days of a tranquil night are well and truly over for the rich who now must stay awake to guard their stolen wealth or pay exorbitantly for security watch lest they lose the accrued wealth to nightly raids on their properties by the people they have impoverished.

It is therefore time for the Zanu PF fat-cats who have amassed amazing wealth that is not commensurate with their official incomes to seek protection from the hungry poor and what better way than to empathise with the plight of the poor and lay the blame for their plight on the MDC and its Western masters.

It does not wash.

“What only matches their daily soaring prices is the poor’s needs, always unmet. Only those operating below the labour or wage counter begin to afford them. Such as those who have mastered the art of "burning". Yet live we all must, and in fact do, rich and poor. Which means daily we live and have to live below the counter, beneath legality, to become the systematic criminals we have all become: rich and mostly poor: the former from vapid greed; the latter from burning need,” revealed Charamba in resignation.

Indeed being a leading “Cash burner,” Charamba knows not what cash deficit means to the majority in Zimbabwe. He and all his overfed and stupendous Zanu PF colleagues only see the sanctions barring them from taking excursion into the Western world to enjoy their ill gotten wealth as the cause of the hunger stoking the Zimbabweans.

By his admission all the rich fat cats in Zimbabwe are cash burning criminals out of sheer greed while the poor are needy criminals.

But he assigns same moral blameworthiness to all and implores them to unite against sanctions so that he can get reprieve to go abroad and squander his ill-gotten wealth away from the gaze of the impoverished eyes of the people he and his colleagues have stolen from.

He wants them to abandon their quest for regime change to install a responsible government that may follow up the wealth stolen from the fiscus by corrupt Zanu PF leading hands and restore it to the common fund to fight the hunger and starvation of the poor because that would not support his vantage position.

Any wonder then why he does not see the formation of a transparent Government being instrumental in restoring more permanent food security for the impoverished and stimulate the work ethic he has fervently worked to destroy and replace with laziness, dependency and insecurity that renders the disadvantaged incapable of standing by their convictions for fear of deprivation of donations from the rich.

“Our NGO experts have become prophets who work for the realisation and passage of own prophecies, seers who project and exteriorise their misdeeds as agents for those seeking "democratic change", a.k.a. regime change,” whinged Charamba.

The truth is in Zanu PF there is an inherent belief that all Zimbabweans are perpetually grateful for their dependency on Zanu PF food handouts and need nothing more than that.

Regime change is taboo in Zanu PF vocabulary and must be punished with denial of access to food self sufficiency and or support if it remains a national agenda.
That is why NGO’s are subject of intense focus, banishment and over-regulation by the Zanu PF regime. They should never be seen to be the real suppliers of the food that sustained the poor over decades when Zanu PF was claiming to be the generous donor.

Neither should they teach Councillors on how best to execute their functions to empower people in their local authorities to be self sustaining as that sort of empowerment will unleash them from political food bondage and allow them to choose the leader most capable of leading them to their desired destiny.

Such leaders are rare species in Zanu PF and thus the party of patronising geriatrics will go extinct and that must be avoided at any cost including entering into falsified unity government arrangements the party has no intention whatsoever to live by but are useful longevity initiatives for a failed regime.

The best way to fight sanctions would be to include those that are deemed to be the instigators of the sanctions in the government and let them be subjected to the sanctions or call for their removal.

Why Zanu PF would like to hold onto power yet the power is not enjoyable in its exercise because of sanctions is a marvel.

No Mr Charamba the hunger you see and is nauseating and causing you sleepless nights in the comfy of your ill gotten walled and electric gated mansions when the majority cannot afford a single brick on your wall let alone your breakfast as a meal for their entire families is not connected to sanctions.

Rather it is connected to your Party and its successive regimes expediency and corruption that has emptied the fiscus and alienated itself from previous helpers leaving itself isolated and vulnerable to the ire of hungry former beneficiaries of a patronage system that can no longer sustain the expectations in people it raised based on never ending donations.

An accountable government is what people want and they elected one in March but the criminals in Zanu PF denied them their wish using brutal force.

The people want that addressed through peaceful means of which the transitional inclusive government where main political players hold equal power to determine the fate of the country is an acceptable starting point towards recovery from the ravaging hunger stoking them.

Sanctions will automatically be eased when the inclusive government starts upholding human rights, applies the law equally, guarantees property rights, desists from political brutality and thuggery and generally governs by consent.

We will never join you in calling for the relaxation of sanctions against your associates and self travel restrictions unless you have accounted for your wealth and the reason why our fiscus is empty when the regimes you served under inherited a surplus position.

To do so we need the people we elected in March to have access to audit how you have been utilising our taxes and if need be prosecute whoever was responsible for condemning us to surviving on foul smelling Hacha meals instead of our staple Sadza and relish.

Surely you should be able to see why there is a connection between our hunger and starvation with your desperate clinging to power when we have decided it’s time for overdue regime change in our country.

The there is Patrick Chinamasa who at one time used his foul mouth to insult Roy Pachedu Bennett and was shoved to the ground after charging at the then MDC MP four times stronger and thousands of times more productive than him and coming a cropper.

We would have thought that he learned some lessons from that unfortunate incident that provocation invites equal force from objects of such kind of unjustified insults.

He appears not to have learnt anything from that episode nor has he learned anything from his crushing defeat at the hands of a novice MDC fielding in a Constituency election in the area he claims is his place of birth.

Having been handsomely rewarded with a Senatorial appointment and elevation to Zanu PF Chief Negotiator in fraudulent initiatives to legitimise Mugabe and Zanu PF after their defeat at the polls in March, Chinamasa has assumed an exaggerated sense of self importance that is totally unacceptable.

It is for that reason that we have chosen to devote some space to chide him and remind him of his place.

He was and still is a miserable electoral failure that has never won in a single democratic election process and owes his Government position to Zanu PF patronage politics. We thus understand it if he has to sing in tune every time and he opens his mouth and talks about Zanu PF to retain the confidence of his handlers therein.
For him that is where his political relevance should be confined.

Of recent however he has been persuaded by whoever to champion issues we doubt he is conversant with.

On two occasions now he has been quoted by State media alleging that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is a reincarnation of the late Angolan dissident leader Jonas Savimbi who was killed by Angolan forces after unleashing armed mayhem in the country using abducted child soldiers who committed heinous crimes against civilians in their fight against the Government forces.

He has been building up to this by pushing for Parties to sign up to a joint statement denouncing involvement in political violence by their supporters during the run up to the charade 27 June 2008 “presidential runoff election” that no rational sane person has endorsed in terms of its processes and outcome.

We must remind Chinamasa that his straying into these unfounded accusations against Morgan Tsvangirai who leads the most critical Party in resolving the political impasse in the country that will legitimise Mugabe and his own appointment by the said Mugabe is most disingenuous on his part.

If the transitional government he has been tasked to negotiate for and painstakingly cobbled a Global Agreement for its formation should be repudiated on the grounds of his foul mouth and forgery in deleting and or altering certain agreements reached in negotiations, the greatest looser will be the most beneficiaries of that agreement.

It is no exaggeration to say at the moment, Robert Mugabe, Joseph Msika, Prof Arthur Mutambara, and himself are the greatest beneficiaries of the agreement to form a transitional inclusive government.

It is therefore outright stupid and politically suicidal for him to err into murky political waters of accusing the leader of the Party that has by entering into the Global Agreement with his defeated party of serious unfounded allegations of the nature of equating that leader with a renowned brutal, murderous rapist and terrorist of Savimbi’s repute.

The only organisation that has in recent years exceeded Savimbi’s terror is the Interahamwe in Rwanda and Zanu PF.

It is repugnant for Chinamasa who belongs to a party with similar credentials to Savimbi’s terrorist UNITA organisation to label the leader of a Party who has been vandalised by his party on uncountable occasions of inclination to his party’s renowned terror methods.

When considered in the context of the time when the false accusations are made and the manner the accuser has tempered with critical documents that could lead to some form of political accommodation that could ease political tensions in the country caused by recent vandalism Chinamasa spearheaded the accusation becomes a grave concern.

That the MDC like many other reasonable Zimbabweans do not take Chinamasa seriously does not license him to incite violence by making false and unsubstantiated accusations that many Zimbabweans without recourse to alternative sources of information than the State media Chinamasa abuses.

The gravity of his comments can be measured by the fact that the Editorial of the Herald has reinforced his fallacy by making the false accusation the subject of its editorial comment.

The meaning is that Zanu PF is scapegoating and was never in the Global Agreement whole heartedly but simply to use it as a means of gaining Mugabe’s international recognition as President of the country.

To the extent that Zanu PF is insincere about its desire to practically form the inclusive government as evidenced by the numerous times its spokespersons and key figure have been caught offside in the implementation of the agreement it is appropriate for the MDC to exercise extreme caution with what they agree to when the parties appear before SADC Heads of State in Pretoria on Sunday 9 November 2008.

Chances are Zanu PF will concede to the demands of the MDC to see off the meeting but come back home to ignore the agreement completely to buy time for the illegal regime.

If Zanu PF refuses to concede to a paired ministry sharing model, inauguration of the Prime Minister designate ahead of Constitutional Amendment No 19, dismissal of the 6 Governors Mugabe appointed to provinces his Party lost, allowing MDC to recommend its Permanent Secretaries, Ambassadors, Provincial Administrators and other Constitutional appointees proportionate to its Ministerial share, it may be time to consider putting the negotiations on ice and pushing the political agenda denouncing Mugabe’s Presidency.

Internationally supervised Elections must be vigorously demanded in place of the time wasting negotiations currently being pursued by the parties.

We all know who will lose in those elections don’t we?