Tanonoka Joseph Whande: Tsvangirai is a more dangerous leader than Mugabe

According to Whande Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai right is a more dangerous leader than the Iranian President And President Mugabe

Exiled former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation news reporter Joseph Tanonoka Whande is relishing every minute of his asylum in neighbouring Botswana to demonstrate the skills he learned as a Zanu PF spin doctor to apportion blame for everything that is not going right for him on the MDC-T.

From 1984 to 1988 Whande and the ZBC news crew of Zanu PF apologists Judith Makwanya, Reuben Barwe, Makhosini Hlongwane and Supa Mandiwanzira to name but a few fell over each other in a stampede to demonstrate their adulation of Zanu PF and its octogenarian ruler Robert Mugabe.

In response to this hero worshipping by his loyal subjects President Mugabe embarked on a road to the destruction of our country and as his name implies Tanonoka belatedly decided to leave the praise singing choir at ZBC and join the privately owned print media houses in Zimbabwe.

Aware of the negative consequences the skills Whande had acquired at the State owned Broadcaster had to discredit the government propaganda through his publications in privately owned media, the State wasted no time in haunting him out of Zimbabwe.

Aware of his weaknesses all the state did was send word to Whande through his nephew that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was on his trails.

And when he ignored the threat and wrote that Mugabe was no better than Joshua Nkomo as a political leader the CIO pounced on him, interrogated him for 5hours and released him with the threat that should he ever compare President Mugabe or his wife Grace to any other leader in his writings they would take him in for treason.

Whande chickened out of the struggle and beat a hasty retreat into exile in Botswana where he has remained to date having endured the ordeal of staying in a Botswana refugee holding camp at Francistown for 6 months while his application for refugee status was being considered.

From the ordeal at the hands of CIO interrogators Whande decided to use his journalistic talents to get back at Zanu PF and the Zimbabwe government that had harassed him into seeking refugee status after his country had claimed liberation from colonial rule.

When the MDC came on the political turf in September 1999 and partnered by the ZCTU and NCA managed to lead the defeat of the 2000 Constitutional referendum and performed exceptionally well in the 2000 elections Whande was quick to identify with the party’s ideals in his writings against the Zanu PF regimes.

He continued to do so and made unsuspecting Zimbabweans think he was a true democrat and MDC activist until in 2009 when he officially announced he had become disillusioned by the MDC-T’s decision to take up a seat in a coalition government with Zanu PF and MDC-M.

Like many other Zimbabweans who expected a complete handover of power from Zanu PF to the MDC-T following the defeat of Zanu PF at the March 2008 harmonised polls he could not come to terms with the fact that the unplanned for coalition government had left Zanu PF with a significant and in many instances overriding power in government.

He decided it was time for him to turn the dagger against the MDC-T and not the underwriters and guarantours of the coalition government.
His latest installment on SW Radio Africa’s Heart of the matter is a case in point where Whande is abusing journalistic privilege and abundance of media space he enjoys to whip emotions against the MDC-T.

The sad thing is that SW Radio Africa did not find it proper to balance Whande’s noxious propaganda with views from the MDC-T information department and published the misleading views expressed by Whande as if they were fact when they are nothing but an attempt by Whande to get back at the party he believes to have failed him by joining the coalition government in Zimbabwe.

“The MDC invited mosquitoes to cure malaria,” he ranted using the spin skills he learned at ZBC to turn around an effective phrase the party had used in defining the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent official visit to Zimbabwe.
“Even if I were to believe that what the MDC did last year was for the good of the nation’- which of course Whande has said he did not believe- ‘current events on the ground prove that joining Mugabe and hoping to rule democracy with him was a big mistake,” he concluded with finality of authority on the matter.

But his conclusion is at variance with the majority opinion pervading the country which suggests that the decision by the MDC to join the coalition government provided a welcome respite to political vandalism and has dramatically improved economic and social well-being of most common citizens.

“The MDC is busy making their seats in government as cosy as possible; they are in it for the long run,” he continued without providing a shred of evidence as to how they are doing so and contrary to persistent demands by the MDC that the GPA be fully implemented and followed by elections early next year.

These are issues that needed to be balanced but sadly were let to pass as fact by SW Radio Africa.

Whande’s view that the MD’s failure to realise that they have pulled a wet blanket over its supporters and none supporters alike who are all suffering a bad cold is nothing short of ignoramus political mischief.

On the contrary most people in Zimbabwe are feeling a lot warmer under the wet coalition government blanket the MDC has pulled as a buffer between the rocky earth and glazier Zanu PF had thrown them.

Equally misinformed on the part of Mr. Whande is the belief that MDC joined the coalition government with Zanu in the erroneous belief that by joining President Mugabe after his onslaught on democracy they could reform him into a democrat.

Nothing can be further from the truth than that. The MDC-T has never minced its words about its displeasure at the supplanting of its 2008 harmonised electoral victory with a negotiated political settlement that the GNU was, is and will forever be.

The MDC President was recently on record telling the nation how difficult it was for his party to arrive at the decision and even thereafter defend it. Whande is either ignorant about that or is simply being mischievous by suggesting that the MDC had it easy in deciding to join the government because of as he puts it “the MDC’s greed and desire to be in government.”

What was evident was that after winning all segments of the 2008 harmonised elections the Zimbabwe Military connived with Zanu PF and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to unilaterally dismiss the victory and the unarmed MDC grassroots had no answer to the military might that Zanu PF unleashed on them to abandon their claim to victory.

The MDC leadership realised this shortcoming on the part of their political formation and lobbied the international community for support but the best they could get from that getaway was the compulsion to enter into a Sadc mediated negotiated settlement or be completely dumped into political irrelevance by the military might that had intervened in support of the defeated Zanu PF party.

Whande and his “bright” yet purely academic ideas that were unpragmatic against military intervention was nowhere in sight to advise the MDC on what to do to counter the Zanu PF military strategy and the MDC leadership rightfully settled for the negotiated settlement to salvage whatever little could be salvaged of its electoral victory that had been nullified by the militancy.

Surely that cannot be termed greed or erroneous belief by any measure of a reasonable person.

MDC joined the coalition government to consolidate its electoral gains and work out a peaceful strategy of asserting itself as the people’s choice for a ruling party without subjecting the very same people to Zanu PF scripted physical, psychological and economic brutality.

Whether or not the strategy has worked or will eventually work in the party’s favour remains to be seen when we come to the planned foreclosure of the coalition government through the holding of the agreed to elections following the constitutional reform initiative that the coalition agreed to.

What is evident to the party at present is that it is gaining political ground over Zanu PF strategies that hitherto prevented it to ascent to power.

Whande might not like the pace at which the coalition decision is helping the party realise its objective of wrestling power from and certainly not reforming Zanu PF and its leader but what does it matter because he has never really helped the party attain any of its objectives anywhere as first he was a Zanu PF and Mugabe propagandist at ZBC and when he tried to turn against the party he did not stand courageously in defence of his convictions but cowardly skipped into exile.

The very issues that Whande considers are peripheral to the nation’s urgent needs are core political issues that will enable the government to focus on national needs in unison but Whande being the armature armchair political analyst he has portrayed himself to be does not see that and must be pardoned for that.

If there is political squabbling in the coalition government and there is no unity of purpose as he accurately observes what then justifies Whande’s irrational accusation on the MDC as having invited the mosquito to treat malaria?

It is not true that Prime Minister Tsvangirai invited Manfred Nowak to study human rights in Zimbabwe but rather that the premier had no objection to a United nations request to visit the country to assess the human rights environment prevailing following his Western nations visit to open dialogue aimed at mending the country’s broken ties with the Western Nations.

The UN request was made to President Mugabe as Head of State and he initially consented as he wanted to use the occasion to push for the lifting of targeted sanctions against his party stalwarts but when it became evident that the UN emissary would not miss the numerous violations of human rights that were perpetuating Mugabe made a volte face and cancelled the mission when the UN envoy was already in transit and in South Africa to be exact,

The envoy made frantic efforts to be allowed to complete his mission and one such effort was to contact the Premier’s office which reiterated that it had no objection to his visit.

When he arrived at Harare Airport the UN envoy was detained and deported at the behest of the Head of State who had rescinded his earlier consent for the visit and not the Premier.

The point here is that it is not helpful for Whande to spin the unfortunate event to emphasise a point he intends to sell that the Premier is powerless when it is clear that the Premier is not the Head of State and has never claimed to be one but is a key figure in advising the Head of State on what to do to restore the country into the international fold and if the President refuses the advice the desired objective may fail to materialize as happened after the failed Nowak visit.

Indeed President Mugabe invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to open the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair without consulting other coalition government principals as agreed in Constitutional Amendment No 19.

The MDC-T responded by not only boycotting the Iranian President’s official itenary but by also highlighting its folly and possible side effects to the country’s initiative towards mending broken bridges with Western countries who are at loggerheads with Iran.

To reduce the importance of the MDC-T’s political stance in defense of a nationally agreed international re-integration initiative to a “lover’s spat” as Whande did is o show how naïve he is.

It is not the MDC-T alone that wants relations with the Western nations to be revived but the entire nation and more particularly President Mugabe and his sanctioned Zanu PF leadership.

That is why the loudest demands and cries for the lifting are from Zanu PF. If the Western countries are at loggerheads with Iran and they realise that Iran can access their economies through its friendship with Zimbabwe how likely are they to warm up to Zimbabwe’s gestures for revival of broken ties with the?

Oblivious of these possible negative consequences of the country’s association with Iran simpleton proposal by Whande are to accuse the MDC0f obscene deceit.

“The MDC is in bed with a dictator called Mugabe and when Mugabe jumps into bed with another dictator, the MDC is so jealousy they call it a colossal scandal.
This is obscene and deceitful. The MDC is more in cohorts with Mugabe, not the Iranian president,” ranted Whande

But how likely is Tsvangirai’s party “hobnobbing with dubious political leaders” to “confirm stereotypes that we are a banana republic”.

Whande’s answer is;
“Well, aren’t we a banana republic, and all thanks to the MDC?
It is the MDC that is hobnobbing with dubious political leaders like Mugabe.”

What a naïve appreciation of the consequences to national priorities by one who accuses others of wasting time squabbling on peripheral issues!

The trivia that followed about Tsvangirai failing to remain in the country to make his point confirms that it is not fair to allow some views by Whande and those of his ilk to pass without counterbalancing opinions of others from the parties they criticize.

Tsvangirai has made his point and left President Mugabe to entertain his guest without restraint and when the time comes for the government to answer for its association with Iran the Premier has his alibi.

The attendance by some MDC officials in Government to government ceremonies presided by the President that require their endorsement must be separated from principled political stands in support of agreed to national initiatives that could be put at risk by careless political grandstanding like the act of inviting Iranian President to Zimbabwe at a time the country is seeking the hand of friendship from Iran’s sworn enemies.

If indeed it is only Mugabe who has power as Whande suggest then why bother and fume about the boycott by nonentities as he does?

The truth is that people like Whande are loudmouthed weaklings who think the MDC is some other people other than them who must stand up to Mugabe and Zanu PF’s tyranny.
The myopic views they hold instruct them to conclude albeit wrongfully that if MDC were to pull out of the coalition government the solution to real problems they face will somehow materialize.

They ask silly questions like;
“What are they doing in Mugabe’s government? What justification do they have in criticizing government policy debated and agreed to in Cabinet? And, if no such agreements exist in Cabinet, what is the MDC doing in both cabinet and government?”

The answer is that the MDC is in government to ensure that the country restores democracy without unnecessary bloodshed so that when next people are asked to choose their leaders they do so freely and hopefully their choices will be allowed to govern with the support of Zimbabwean citizens and the international community.

To do so they do not need Mugabe or Zanu PF support but rather the support of the critical mass of the Zimbabwean grassroots which is ever swelling in the party’s favour and oiling its impetus and resolve to win the struggle it has embarked on 10 years ago.

If there was no approval of the course of action the party has embarked on it would have long ago aborted or redefined its roadmap as it has done whenever the party was confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

If the in his opinion MDC is now playing more dangerous games than Zanu PF Whande has two options namely to form his party or join others that are not dangerous for him.

Alternatively he can stick to his current course of blaming the MDC for whatever has gone wrong to the country or to his own person in the safety of Botswana enclaves using whatever media space he gets and spoil or delay the relentless march towards a change in government in the country.

The choice is his alone to make.