Cursed and unpopular MDC faction leader and 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Arthur Remove Sanctions Mutambara singing out of tune with the rest of the nation on the need to lift or retain sanctions imposed on deviant Zanu PF leaders by the EU and US.
The terrible political curse on Professor Mutambara’s back has refused to loosen its grip on him.
As each day passes and he is paraded to the nation as a political leader he has managed to do more harm to himself and his group of tibalistic renegades.
Evidence of the political curse cast on him first emerged when disingenuously accepted to front an elitist grouping of Matabeleland based political malcontents who had found refuge in the MDC.
After misreading the national mood in relation to the need to dilute and dismantle Zanu PF political dominance he went on to take a swipe at Morgan Tsvangirai the adored leader of the MDC calling him an unstrategic political midget not worthy of his support.
That was before he realised the extent of the grassroots support the Zimbabwe Premier commands which only became evident to him a few weeks before the March 2008 harmonised elections.
Even then he did not believe that the MDC leader he was totally convinced to be an ignoramus was capable of standing on his own and he attempted to forge an electoral alliance with him wherein he hoped to secure no less than 30% of the Parliamentary seats the MDC would garner in Masvingo, Manicaland and the four Mashonaland provinces and 70% of the party’s seats in the Midlands and the three Matabeleland Provinces.
Tsvangirai saw through the absurdity of Professor Mutambara’s demands and declined the overtures and went into the election as his own man and walloped all who stood against him and his party causing alarm and despondency in Mutambara’s renegade faction of the MDC as well as tremors in Zanu PF and humility in MKD.
Professor Mutambara who had out of panic rallied his insignificant support behind Dr Makoni’s Zanu PF sponsored MKD was left tongue tied by the extent of Tsvangirai and his Party’s success in the election he was convinced they would gain nothing from.
When the Zimbabwe military establishment’s interfered with the democratic processes of choosing political leadership a humbled, confused and desperate Mutambara declared his support for the same Tsvangirai he had previously labelled a political midget.
The support was cynical in that he had realised that founding MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was the President elect of the country and political salvation of his walloped faction of renegades hinged on the faction being accommodated by the “unstrategic political midget” the arrogant Professor falsely claims he taught politics.
There was to be hue and cry throughout the country when the Military intervention turned violent electoral bloodbath and scuttled the illegal Presidential runoff election resulting in the illegal coronation of Zanu PF leader as Junta President of the country.
When the junta met with stiff international opposition and total rejection Mutambara’s renegade faction Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube used his tribal connections with the South African leadership and persuaded disgraced former South African President Thabo (Quite Diplomacy) Mbeki to revive the fledgling fortunes of the faction of MDC renegades.
He pleaded with the South Africa President for the faction to remain party to any SADC mediation efforts in the Zimbabwe political crisis and when that was granted Professor Mutambara who had a week earlier relieved Gabriel Chaibva of the spokesmanship role for the renegades for embarrassing the faction by attending Mugabe’s illegal and highly opposed coronation committed an even worse endorsement of Mugabe’s Presidency claim by leading his Party negotiators into a State House meeting with Mugabe.
Attempts to apportion blame for the gaffe to the deviancy of Morgan Tsvangirai did not wash and infuriated the nation instead of buying its sympathy.
The so called unstrategic political midget had read the national mood and decided to boycott the meeting with President Mbeki and the Zanu PF leader Robert Mugabe at State House where he had unilaterally and undemocratically ensconced himself.
How the self proclaimed political strategist that Mutambara claims to be had failed to see the negative political consequences of visiting the disputed President’s den and symbol of power – State House- left most of his scant supporters devastated and embarrassed.
They abandoned him in droves.
During the Sadc mediation talks debate raged on as to the justification of Mutambara’s faction involvement in negotiating a Presidential election impasse the faction had not contested with many commentators and observers agreeing it was an unjustified insult for the Zimbabwe electorate that had not only rejected the faction but had also rejected the Parliamentary bids of all the faction’s lead negotiators.
It was then argued and rightly that the inclusion of electoral rejects in determining the political course of the country provided the losers an opportunity to thumb their noses at the electorate and remain unaccountable to the people as their political life did not hinge on people support but rather SADC discretion.
The fears of the nation were confirmed when the talks concluded with an announcement that Professor Mutambara had been appointed 2nd Deputy Premier in the coalition Government to be formed between MDC-T, MDC-M and Zanu PF.
Despite his low rank in the government packing order the nation was forced to accept him as one of the three coalition government Principals.
The nation grumbled and moaned about the clearly disproportionate recognition of a faction leader who had lost a bid to become a Member of Parliament for the Zengeza East constituency garnering a paltry 1,322 votes.
The constituency was won by the candidate fielded by the MDC led by the so called unstrategic political midget Morgan Tsvangirai with 7,570 votes, followed by the ZANU-PF candidate, who won 3,042 votes and then Professor Mutambara with his paltry1, 322 votes.
Politicians with this level of poor support do not normally make it to Parliament let alone become Deputy Premiers and Government Principals but Thabo Mbeki and Mugabe connived to force Tsvangirai to accept this scandal and foist Mutambara against the will of the majority of our populace.
When the Prime Minister was holding back on signing the agreement to form the coalition government before the issues around Ministerial and Provincial Governorship allotments were agreed upon to his satisfaction, Professor Mutambara almost went berserk castigating Tsvangirai for insisting on trivia and declaring that the trivia would be addressed by the government once it was formed.
When the dispute was referred to SADC and a ruling made for the co-Ministering of the Home Affairs Ministry professor Mutambara endorsed the ruling as fair isolating Tsvangirai whom he accused of wanting to use the Ministry for retribution against Zanu PF.
An attempt to forge a dual entente with Zanu PF and snatch the Parliament Speakership and ultimately control of Parliament leading to the restoration of Zanu PF political supremacy boomeranged when the Zanu PF/ MDC-M candidate Paul Themba Nyathi lost the election to MDC-T’s Lovemore Moyo.
But the damage Professor Mutambara’s political over-ambitions had caused was immense and is fundamentally the basis upon which the outstanding Constitutional Amendment No 19 issues are premised.
In the haste to secure Parliament and the Senate for a Zanu PF/MDC-M coalition government Mugabe unprocedurally appointed 10 exclusively Zanu PF Provincial Governors to shore up his party’s numbers in the Senate to be assured of securing the Senate Presidency.
And with Professor Mutambara assuring him the backing of his faction if Zanu PF supported his faction’s fielding for Parliament Speaker President Mugabe had it sealed that he was at the verge of forming a minority coalition government at the expense of political nemesis Morgan Tsvangirai.
The defeat of the MDC-M Parliamentary Speakership candidate was a major setback that but preparatory appointments of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana in the realm of Unconstitutional appointments in the coalition government by President Mugabe and in like manner the appointment of the ten Provincial Governors.
The haste to form the coalition government was because of Professor Mutambara’s impatience and political naivety in supporting Mugabe’s strategic moves for reviving his scattered party.
While Mugabe has been intransigent in implementing coalition government constitutional provisions to the letter Professor Mutambara has not helped matters by his blind support for Mugabe’s initiatives and delaying tactics.
He and his party of renegades have been a major catalyst of the inconsistencies dogging the implementation of the coalition agreement commonly referred to as the Global Political Agreement (GPA) instead of its legalistic manifestation in CA No19.
It is no wonder there have been ongoing renegotiations of the GPA which are yielding nothing because they are a ruse by Zanu PF to delay implementation of CA No19.
Whatever the negotiators are talking about in their unwarranted revisit of the GPA will not be possible of implementation unless it is tabled before Parliament and Legislated as a Constitutional amendment.
We all know how long it took Mugabe to swear in the Premier and his Deputies arguing that he had no Constitutional powers to do so before passage of CA No 19 and we are all too familiar with the reasons why in gazetting CA No 19 Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa conveniently omitted to annex the GPA as a Constitutional Schedule that Parliament had passed.
Now Professor Mutambara has taken to the issue sanctions that are dear to Zanu PF like fish to water.
He claims that anything done to National leaders in the form of sanctions has a cascading effect on the generality of the populace because the State leadership is the gateway to international cooperation and or non cooperation.
But we all know that Professor Mutambara and his political formation is the least representative of parties in the coalition government.
The MDC-T which is the most popular of the three coalition partners has argued for phased relaxation of sanctions in tandem with progress in the implementation of agreed objectives of the coalition while Zanu PF the next wants sanctions removed unconditionally because its senior leadership is the most restricted by them.
The nation knows why the sanctions against Zanu PF leadership were imposed and is not convinced that Zanu PF has been tamed by the coalition government to deserve unconditional relief from the only tool that hurts it if it becomes wayward.
In effect most people believe Professor Mutambara’s presence in the Government is more a sanction to their match to freedom than the isolation of Zanu PF leaders from travelling to EU nations can ever be.
For the majority the reason why foreign direct investment into Zimbabwe is coming in trickles is because Professor Mutambara is not addressing the real issues that are scaring investors like the retention of Gideon Gono as RBZ Governor, the gazetting of Empowerment and Indigenisation laws that threaten foreign investment and the continued impunity in the never ending land reforms.
Most Zimbabweans feel the selective application of laws and the government hegemony on media as well as the negative publicity the government courts internationally through corruption and muzzling of private entrepreneurships like the Chiadzwa Diamonds debacle, the Public Servants strike the hate speech and rubble rousing in public media as well as public political statements vowing defiance of Constitutional provisions like the GPA are the issues that need addressing for them to realize improved quality of life and not the lifting of sanctions against some political leader to enable them to gallivant the globe at taxpayers’ expense.
But since Professor Mutambara represents the Minority it is understandable that he speaks on behalf of that minority but he needs to be reminded that the majority of us are not with him on the sanctions and their effect on us.
Professor Mutambara must also be under no illusion that his being a Professor entitles him to formulate our needs and wants and prescribe solutions for us.
We dare him reveal a single letter, e-mail or some such other documentary evidence from the ordinary populace that has been sent to him to represent us in calling for the lifting of sanctions and making it a priority national issue.
Professor Mutambara represents no one in this government and is a nauseating beneficiary of a flawed political system that he is fighting to prolong.
If he is with the people why does he not articulate about the true desires of people in the country like the dismissal of Gono and Tomana as well as the restitution of property looted during violent elections.
More importantly could the professor do us all a favour and stop the monkey business by his negotiators which have stalled negotiation progress on several occassions.
We will not forget to remind voters where his faction's priorities lie next time he and his cahoots seek our votes to retain political office. It will be a damning dossier the faction would not like people to be reminded of when choosing legislators.
No comments:
Post a Comment