MDC-T decision to participate in GNU starts returning juicy political fruits

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The frightening evidence of swelling MDC-T support and the vocal disrespect of Zanu PF officials at rallies in rural Zimbabwe are a telling sign of the benefits accruing to the party as a consequence of its presence in the coalition government.
 
The political acumen of the MDC-T leadership in deciding to participate in the flawed coalition government is beginning to yield healthy political returns for the party in rural Zimbabwe if events in Bikita, March 19, 2010 are anything to go by.

The party came under heavy criticism from mainly exiled Zimbabweans for accepting a junior role to Zanu PF in the coalition government when it became evident that Zanu PF had retained its stranglehold on power despite the cosmetic changes that emerged from economic stabilization and social improvements.

President Robert Mugabe’s unilaterally appointed Zanu PF Political Commissar in Masvingo Titus Maluleke who is disguised as a Provincial Governor and Resident Minister for the Masvingo province came face to face with political reality at Rozva business Centre near Nyika Growth point when he was sent on a damage control of the magnetic political attraction the MDC-T President and Zimbabwe Premier has throughout the country.

Maluleke had accompanied the Premier on his food security assessment forays in the Province and reported back to his Zanu PF handlers the contagion effect the Premier’s visit had on the rural populace in the Province whereupon he was told to counter the effects as demanded of him by his esteemed yet undeserved position he was given on the platter by President Mugabe.

He decided the best way was to retrace the Premier’s trails and inoculate the electorate with the hitherto effective MDC-T antidote that Zanu PF has used in the past to win rural electorate support –food handouts from President Mugabe and his Zanu PF Party.

The mission was to discredit the premier as an emissary of the President in his show of concern by visiting the rural electorate to assess their food security concerns.

The Masvingo Provincial Governor got more than he had bargained for as what used to be a political stroll in the park turned out to be an insurmountable climb out of a political ravine for the ill prepared Zanu PF Provincial Commissar mission he had embarked on.


''Yes the Prime Minister was here last week to assess the food situation but the food he promised is not going to come from his efforts alone but from the efforts of the government that is led by President Mugabe, so the PM was just an emissary send by the President who will look for the food,'' he informed the “captive” audience at Rozva business centre and paused expecting the usual Zanu PF adulation of ululations from the women accompanied by choreographed clapping of hands from the audience in bursts of appreciation for the generosity of the Party’s Supreme leader as President Mugabe is regarded by Zanu PF.

To his utter dismay there were no such adulations from the crowd who surprised him by demanding him to leave the podium and stop patronizing them with blatant lies intended to place a wedge in their faith and trust in the Premier’s political honesty care and integrity.

''Sit down you are lying to us. Mugabe is a liar who has been lying to us for the past 30 years. We know Save –Tsvangirai as he is adoringly known to his supporters by totem- will deliver the food to us he is the people's leader not you sit down. Sit down you stooge. We do not need your food we know Save (PM Tsvangirai) will give us the food as he promised. There is nothing new can you tell us now when you have been lying to us for the past 30 years,'' jeered the villagers spontaneously.

The reaction was unexpected and continued intermittently until the bemused and clearly puzzled Zanu PF imposed Provincial Governor gave up his speech and with his tail firmly tucked under his legs took his seat.

A Chief from the Rozva area who was present at the embarrassing meeting had no kind words for Maluleke’s obvious political backbiting mission on behalf of Zanu PF.

''I really do not understand you some of you in our leadership. Last week you came
here and introduced Tsvangirai to us. Why have you returned unaccompanied today to tell us that only the President can feed us? Is Tsvangirai also not part of your
government?'' he quizzed the Provincial Governor.

Answers were not easy to come out of the dry mouth of Maluleke who had obviously come to the villagers with the usual arrogance of a power deluded Zanu PF functionary unused to political challenges from lowly villagers.

Clearly the days when Zanu PF used to abuse government powers to further its political interest are gone and will never return thanks to the MDC-T participation in the coalition government which has opened highways into the rural electorate that hitherto was preserved for undiluted Zanu PF propaganda.

It is from these events that for all his failings and inabilities to read into the National mood 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Mutambara has become convinced that an election now will produce only one result.

An 88% to 22% anahilation of President Mugabe’s Zanu PF Party at the hands of the MDC-T.

Amazingly Professor Mutambara believes that such an electoral outcome will plunge the country back into the pre- June 28 2008 anarchy that characterized the campaign to restore President Mugabe back into office following his defeat in the March elections by Premier Tsvangirai.

To avoid that the 2nd Deputy Premier favours the continuation of the coalition government until 2013 in the hope that his party of renegades will make up for lost ground to MDC-T and Zanu PF.

The unfortunate folly of that miscalculation is that with each day that passes and the MDC-T remains in the coalition government, it is gaining rather than losing sympathy and affection from both rural and urban voters alike and notwithstanding efforts of other parties to demonise it.

If elections are delayed the MDC will consolidate its growing support base and win all Parliamentary seats and archive a one Party State without planning and campaigning for it.

That is a more frightening prospect than the fear of a Zanu PF electoral failure causing violence as there will be no one to use in the violence by the demoniac party.

Misdirected Zanu PF sanctions protest march

Zanu PF youths have learned nothing from the abuse they have been subjected to by their leadership if their recent march to threaten the Premier to denounce sanctions or face dire consequences is anything to go by.

After a year of accessing affordable and plentiful goods and services that had become extinct in Zanu PF Junta ruled Zimbabwe- thanks to MDC-T’s magnanimity in accepting to join the flawed SADC mediated coalition government- the party of geriatrics renowned for its penchant for unbridled violence against citizens is at it again.

This time it has mobilised the Zimbabwe youths it has been feeding a dosage of toxic propaganda in Border Gezi torture training camps under the guise of National Service Training to march in the capital’s streets demanding that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe must call for the lifting of EU and US imposed sanctions against its geriatric party leadership or face unspecified dire consequences.

And they were provided with free food, transport and logistical support from the Zimbabwe Republic Police to commit their treasonous act which threatens the continued existence of the coalition government by threatening one of its key players.

Not that it is anything new that the party of the past has always harboured bad intentions for the wellbeing of the adored premier but the manner the threat was marshalled using scant State resources and that the national president found it appropriate to grace the march and address the marchers deserves nothing short of total condemnation by all well meaning Zimbabwean citizens.

For a Party that has orchestrated infinite persecutions of citizens for airing their genuine grievances against misrule by the same party’s successive governments over the past decade over trumped up treason charges against the Head of State and Government to openly be associated with a treasonous march against the sitting leader of Government is instructive of the lawlessness it represents among us.

Zanu PF has over the past three decades systematically impoverished and pauperised the entire Zimbabwe citizenry except for the few in its top echelons and their close underlings who benefited immensely from riches they looted from the country’s natural resources and victimised poor citizens including the lot it paraded in its unholy march to petition and cajole the Premier to call for the immediate lifting of sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leadership.

A year ago this month the same leaders they are marching for heartlessly winded all their wealth in Zimbabwe dollar terms to zero, zilch, nil just in case their amnesia has got the better of them.

This is the same leadership that had fooled them into believing that they were millionaires by printing fake money and availing it to the indoctrinated young citizens in unrestrained quantities after using them in vicious onslaughts against the social political and economic fabric that held the country together.

And for their efforts and religious praise singing of a rogue regime they were handsomely rewarded with valueless currency that catapulted them to paper millionaires but kept them firmly stuck in the thick glue of poverty that today instructs them to march for the uplifting of sanctions against their wealthy leadership in the vain hope that the riches will devolve down to their generality.

The reality though is that the lifting of sanctions if ever it will happen will only open a window that has been deterring them from going abroad to enjoy the loot they have siphoned from the State coffers over three decades of unaccountable management of the country.

None of their riches will devolve to the youths that are being abused to protest the sanctions to the Premier who as they have now seen has tremendous influence over the nations that imposed them.

Instead of threatening him over the sanctions issue the youths must demand an honest explanation from the old guard in Zanu PF as to why the goods and services that had disappeared a year ago have become in plentiful abundance albeit that they require immense effort to attain but nevertheless are there for the taking for all willing to work towards their attainment which was not the case under monolithic misrule by them geriatrics.

They will discover that sanctions they have been indoctrinated to believe are the source of their hardships has absolutely nothing to do with their economic malaise but rather the same old leadership using them in the sanctions wars have everything to do with their unsavoury economic plight.

Before the current war against the sanctions the same group of indoctrinated youths must ask what became of their efforts in the land redistribution war and the price wars they were used to prosecute with such success but nothing for them to show for their effort

They must ask themselves what became of their revered party’s brag about making them multi millionaires, trillionaires and quadrilionaires for them to be penniless a year after rearrangement of the government structures from monolithic Zanu PF rule to cooperative rule by the three political formations now in government.

They must critically question what became of the slogans they were led to chant in the not too distant past that “the land is the economy and the economy is the land” a decade after they successfully repossessed the land?

They must inquire into why when they are in full and direct ownership of the land the sanctions are now a detrimental economic issue when hitherto the lack of land ownership was put to them as the reason for their poverty and failed economic progression.

They must ask themselves if the wars they waged against prices were worth their effort and if they have delivered the desired outcomes of affordable goods and services to their tables.

They will discover that there is no single solution to their economic problems and a holistic approach to economic management of the country is the critical ingredient necessary for them to move out of their economic quagmire.

Lifting of sanctions will not deliver the desired economic respite they are chasing after and the Premier they accuse of stalling the lifting of the sanctions will not be in a position to deliver the economic prosperity they like all other citizens yearn for unless there is a paradigm shift in the manner their party approaches national management of the country’s resources and their distribution to citizens.

As long as the distribution process of the country’s resources is skewed on political patronage and violence is used as a tool to compel subjugation and compliance the critical economic factors that underpin individual prosperity like productivity will not support individual economic empowerment of the majority of them and they will forever remain open to political abuse as they rely on their party leadership to sustain their living.

This business of blindly taking to party sloganeering and internalising the slogans as the gospel truth is not healthy for our nation’s future leadership.

We need open minded youth capacitated by the system of governance to think wide and varied and innovate their own solutions to economic and sociological challenges they face rather than blinkered youths that pander to the whims of the old and tired leadership at the helm of political formations.

Only when we have such an enlightened youths will the future progression of our country to dizzy heights of economic prosperity be guaranteed for all and sundry
Threatening a Premier with dire consequences over an issue that will not yield a difference to their lives like the lifting of sanctions is a sign of the level of blinkered thinking that threatens the country’s future economic progression.

The country has more foreign manufactured goods retailing than those locally produced.

That is where the economic malaise of today’s youth in our country is scripted. As long as the country does not innovate production strategies that enable it to produce in excess of its citizens’ consumptive demands it is unlikely to come out of economic sanctions gripping it.

The real sanctions on the country are not those imposed on Zanu PF leadership by the US and the EU but the failure by the leadership to create a political environment that attracts and encourages investment and entrepreneurship by serious business minded people globally.

The failure to attract and stimulate such investment within the international community coupled with the encouragement the youths are getting to impound assets of investors and expropriate them for personal aggrandisement as opposed to them being encouraged to innovate Greenfield investment projects of their own is the major sanctioning scourge that Zanu PF has been promoting for decades without moving the country forward.

In many instances the party has reversed economic progress and the current threat to the Premier over sanctions that are of no consequence is a case in point.

If MDC youths had staged such an obnoxious march against the President and the premier had graced the occasion by delivering a solidarity address to the marchers we are in no doubt as to what the consequences would be not just to the marchers but also to the Premier.

The Courts would by now be clogged with cases of Treason slapped on the march organisers yet because the treasonous act was directed at the Premier it is condoned and even receives Presidential solidarity.

Civil servants’ strike exposes Zanu PF weaknesses

RBZ Governor Gideon Gono: The Bush Economist who impoverished the national working class is the one Civil servants must confront head on with demands for pay increments as he knows where the national wealth was stashed by Zanu PF and not the Premier as demanded by the striking Civil Servants. Investor confidence is low because foreign investors mistrust Gono and are holding back their cash meanwhile Gono is living pretty on much more than the US $7000 falsely claimed to be paid to staff in the Premier's office

“THE Public Service Commission has declared the ongoing civil servants’ strike illegal and ordered all State employees to report for duty or face the legal consequences,” reported the Herald a few days ago.

The illegality of the strike was declared by none other than staunch Zanu PF apologist and PSC chairman Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah.

But the Herald went on to disclose that “Dr Nzuwah’s statement came as unionists described Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s remarks that civil servants should not complain about the salaries they are getting as "irresponsible" and the utterances of a "heartless politician".

We now have it on record that the utterances against the Premier were by Zanu PF aligned unionists in the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) and Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ)chief executive officer Manuel Nyawo.

Nyawo in particular accused Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of running a parallel government whose workers are alleged to be earning a hefty $7 000 compared to low wages of between $122 and $236 being offered by government to other civil servants.

“PM Tsvangirai should redirect money being spent on parallel government staff to genuine civil servants. The Prime Minister should divert money running the alleged parallel government to treasury as he was creating divisions among civil servants.” bleated Nyawo.

For the first time the TUZ has closed ranks with the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe to mount a united challenge to the government over “poor salaries” paid to teachers.

Hitherto and during the monolithic government of the country by the Zanu PF party and its Junta alliance, the TUZ was reputed for opposing any collective job action by the Teachers and teaming up with Zanu PF youth militia to not only beat up striking teachers but also flog them to the PSC to ensure they were dismissed from Public service as their motives in striking were political and in support of the MDC regime change agenda.

The same teachers he was dissuading from participating in collective job action against the government were earning no more than 50 US cents per month denominated in trillions of worthless Zimbabwe currency expressly printed by the Reserve Bank under the stewardship of bush economist Dr Gideon Gono.

The trillions of Zimbabwe currency they were being paid could not be drawn from their accounts in cash and worse when one managed to lay hands on them there was nothing in retail shops that they could buy forcing them to resort to a thriving black market run by connected Zanu PF zealots like Nyawo.

Now that the same teachers are earning no less than US$150.00 per month and can walk into any retail outlet and complete a monthly shopping errand in one place and still remain with some cash for transport, municipal services and energy bills for those working in urban centres as well as save for periodic payments such as school fees and provisions, Nyawo urges them to strike for even more.

He rallied striking Civil servants to press on with their strike action around a familiar and dishonest accusation that the Premier was running parallel government structures in his office that must be dismantled as they were benefiting incumbents of positions therein to the tune of US$7000 per month when all other Civil Servants were receiving a paltry US$122 to US$ 236 for the same month’s work.

Nyawo did not produce a shred of evidence to back his accusations against the Premier nor did he explain which government the Premier’s office was running parallel structures to as for all we know there is one government in the country led by the same Premier whom Nyawo is up in arms against.

The Office tasked with looking after the affairs of the Civil servants Nyawo claims to be leading in strike action is the PSC chaired by Nzuwah and not Premier Tsvangirai.

If government is failing to pay its employees adequately the blame must lie squarely on Nzuwah’s shoulders and he must secure adequate funds for them from Cabinet and not the Premier or President’s Office.

If he is failing to deliver that then we must advise Nyawo and those who believe in his cause to call for the resignation of Nzuwah and his replacement by someone capable of sourcing adequate funds for their satisfactory remuneration if there is ever such a thing.

But Nzuwah has already made his position clear leaving Nyawo and those of his ilk quacking in their pants and seeking out the Premier for a weakling they can vent their anger on because of his tolerance and soft heart for workers.

Dr Nzuwah said: "In terms of the law, and by their admission, there is no deadlock between the employer and the public service employees.

"Accordingly, any strike or industrial action by civil servants is premature and illegal in terms of the law.

"In light of the foregoing, the Public Service Commission notifies members of the public service who are not reporting for duty that they are doing so in violation of the standing regulations and statutes.

"Any member of the public service who does not report for duty should be prepared to face the consequences of his or her actions."

That is what Nyawo and friends must confront and not the foolish politicking about parallel government structures in the Premier’s office that he has no shred of evidence exist.

Even if the Premier was paying his office staff the exorbitant amounts claimed by Nyawo which is highly unlikely, if he were to disband his entire staff that does not exceed 100 employees and all the money is given to Gideon Gono how much percentage wise will it benefit the entire Public Service for salary increment purposes?

That is the problem TUZ members must ask their leader to clarify before joining him in a fallacious job action that will yield nothing for them.
All along the TUZ has collaborated with the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association, Pubic Service Association the ZFTU and Zanu PF youth militia in supporting government’s onslaught against Civil Servants incomes and is more to blame for the current poor levels of remuneration obtaining for Public servants than the Premier and his so called parallel government structures if its membership needs our honest assessment of their grievances.

Attacking the Premier for the decadence in government is ill advised and ill not improve the plight of public servants by an iota.

What is needed is an understanding that is obviously lacking and has always been lacking in these Zanunised unions that supporting unaccountable governments will have negative consequences for them and the sooner they come to terms with what the coalition government is trying to achieve and is being frustrated from achieving the better.

Their best shot at improving their incomes lies more in them closing their political divisions and becoming focused on delivering services to the nation that encourage foreign direct investment and not crafting legislation that dissuades same as is evident from the Indigenisation and Empowerment rules that were recently gazetted by the government.

As Raymond Majongwe of PTUZ succinctly put it;

"Some of our comrades are bringing in unnecessary accusations against personalities in government.

"It would be a tragedy to continue blaming people whom we know are not ultimately responsible. There has been accusations on the Prime Minister for allegedly running a parallel government whose workers are paid handsomely. Some of the ascensions have not been substantiated at all,"

And we may add that there is absolutely no reason why the Premier’s office or any other for that matter must be paying its staff as all Civil Servants must draw income from the Treasury via the Salary Service Bureau.

All the staff required by the Premier must be assimilated in the PSC establishment and put on the government payroll but if the PSC cannot perform such a small and straightforward staffing matter as creating a new establishment for the premier’s office a year after the Department was constitutionally Approved then let the blame fall on the PSC for failing to staff the office and the Premier must be congratulated for staffing his office and paying them without resorting to taxpayer funds from the treasury.

Without the staff the Premier would not be able to function and that is not desirable for anyone other than his political foes.

Reality check time for Zimbabwe diasporans

The villagers at Chisheche Township near Gutu Mission can now afford to sit around bar counters and watch TV together while drowning their sorrows in the famous brown bottles of lager


It is no exaggeration that many displaced Zimbabweans of the past two decades will need shock therapy when eventually they decide to return to their home country.

There is incongruence between the hopes and aspirations of the diasporans and those that remained and bore the wrath of Zanu PF impunity that the displaced must come to terms with.

Zimbabwe today is a totally different country from what it was in January this year going back to 2000.

This reality is lost to most of the diasporans whose expectations have been pegged way above what can be achieved by the coalition government.

No wonder there are reverberating echoes of discontent from writings of those in the diaspora.


The diasporans expected the entry of the MDC into government to yield positive and fundamental changes to the manner in which the government operates in specific areas that caused them to gap it which have not materialized.

On the contrary the people who remained in the country had high expectations that the entry of the MDC into the coalition would halt the plummeting living conditions they were subjected to and they have not been disappointed.

Zimbabwe diasporans left the country to seek refuge against economic hardships and political vandalism they were subjected to by a ruthless Zanu PF regime and they found immediate comfort for both wherever they settled and much more.

The plummeting economic conditions in the country placed diasporans at such an economic advantage over their remaining counterparts in that the forex remittances they were making fetched astronomical monetary value from a Zimbabwe currency in free fall.

They could afford to buy properties that they would never imagine owning in a lifetime working in Zimbabwe.

Due to hyperinflation a mortgage loan on any property within Zimbabwe would reduce to a Diasporan’s quarter monthly income within a period of 18 to 24 months and many who had a vision to return back to their home country whenever the political situation improved exploited that window and invested heavily in lavish properties.

The problem many faced was finding reliable relatives to identify the opportunities and manage the investments and many lost vast sums they intended to be invested for their future comfort on returning to their home country.

Even the reputed financial institutions in the country were no longer reliable to manage the remittances of diasporans and they misappropriated the funds to fund Zanu PF’s political lifeline at the expense of the very people the party had haunted out of the country.

Despite these investments many diasporans are still reluctant to return to their home country notwithstanding the political developments that have ushered the coalition government and by and large halted the economic morass by the multicurrency use intervention.

Increasingly the diasporans who had become used to remitting less than a tenth of their incomes to sustain the economic needs for entire Clans’ of relatives in the country are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain the lifestyles they had become reputed for sustaining by relatives.

The arrest on inflation by the coalition government that they now have to meet the same obligations they had taken on with real currencies and that is not easy for them to manage.

While the economic stabilization has brought relief and hope within the country it has brought misery and increased diasporans’ financial obligations to a point where they now have to trim down their beneficiaries in Zimbabwe to the closest family and risk alienating that nucleus family unit from the Clan that used to benefit from it.

But for diasporans the most disappointing development or non development in the country is to do with the rule of law.

There are too many reports of Zanu PF aligned officials and committing serious crimes against perceived or real MDC-T officials and supporters alike.

The diasporans blame continued impunity on the MDC because they had hoped that its entry into government would translate into an immediate stop of Zanu PF impunity.

The commercial farmers are still being evicted by continued invasions and Court actions ironically by a government supposedly headed by the MDC Prime Minister and deputies and they do not understand why that should be tolerated.

MDC-T Ministers, MP’s and activists are still being abducted by state security agents, detained without charge, tortured, denied opportunities to enjoy bail conditions whenever the courts intervene and grant them bail and then acquitted when they are eventually brought to trial over alleged offences for which they were violated in this manner.

Diasporans do not take kindly to the MDC co Home Affairs Minister and the MDC Prime Ministered government allowing itself to be compromised by being made accessories to the prosecution and persecution its core supporters and seemingly doing nothing to distance itself from the abhorrent actions than claim that the union is working well only to announce partial disengagements and re-engagements all in one breath.

For diasporans the MDC-T in particular appears to have been compromised by its involvement in the coalition government to a point where it has completely lost its head.

They argue that the policy shift and inconsistencies in the party behaviour are indicative of the party’s lack of vision and a workable alternative way of democratizing the country’s governance.

On the contrary Zimbabweans within the country are resolutely behind the same party diasporans view as having sold out to Zanu PF and are urging the MDC-T leadership to hang in the coalition government and slug it out with Zanu PF despite the negatives all appreciate are in place and working against the party.

The reason is not difficult to see as they are weighing the benefits they have derived against the deprivations that are resulting from the resistance in the coalition government and finding them to outweigh the deprivations.

The opposite is exactly true for diasporans whose disadvantages far outweigh benefits derived from the coalition government.

The problem the diasporans face in attempting to address the unpalatable aspects of the coalition government is that they are not well organized and courageous enough to confront the system head on.

Their only hope was to do so through MDC-T which for all intends and purposes appear to have abandoned them and are pursuing agendas the diasporans do not value and or understand.

The MDC-T on its part feels let down by diasporans who do not seem to appreciate what it is doing to consolidate the gains of its electoral victories in March 2008.

The MDC wants to resolve the plight of diasporans and its locally based grassroots via a holistic programme of action that is anchored in the positions it bargained for in the GPA.

Simply put the MDC –T is not unduly concerned with sporadic and uncoordinated criticism from exiled Zimbabweans ahead of the needs of its locally based grassroots supporters.

The belief is that if it addresses the plight of locals the diasporans will find it more lucrative to return home than stay in exile.

The party expects its sympathizers in the diaspora to lead the economic turnaround project by organizing themselves into viable investment syndicates to create employment in their home country but the diasporans many of whom have been abused into menial tasks have no clue what to do to compliment the internal efforts in their home country.

Most want the MDC-T led coalition government to create employment opportunities for them that will guarantee their incomes at the same level they are currently enjoying wherever they are which absolutely stupid.

Diasporans who want to return to their country of origin must take advantage of the low salaries and set up costs currently obtaining to start small enterprises that will create employment and generate wealth for the country rather than expect a bankrupt government creating employment opportunities for them.

Those that lack business acumen and want to be Civil servants must be prepared to drastically lower their salary expectations and use their expertise to facilitate economic turnaround in the country to realise improved incomes.

The Huni echo

Sunday Mail Political Editor Munyaradzi Huni echoed Herald counterpart Caesar Zvayi Pic courtsey www.zimdaily.com



THE political howling from the Zanu PF propagandists would not be complete without the familiar voices of the Sunday Mail duo being added to the discordant sanctions mantra.

Munyaradzi Huni who shares the ignominy of State journalists on the EU travel restrictions with the distraught Zvayi because of their involvement in promoting hate speech had to chip in on the subject so close to his heart and personal circumstances.

Disguised under the header “The Politics of aid,” Huni went to town lecturing the MDC government on the pros and cons of reliance on donor funding. The coalition government is in Huni’s world an MDC interim government of beggars rather than a government in which his beloved Zanu PF is key component.
For Huni the trendy politics of the day is announcement of aid packages for Zimbabwe by the international donor community when it should really be the most loathed development in any sovereign state.

Unlike his counterpart at the Herald who would like us to believe that most aid currently sustaining the country is coming from Sadc, Huni acknowledges that aid is coming from the loathed Westerners by picking the example of the US$10 million donation by Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development, Mr. Erik Solheim.

He however took issue with the Minister’s prescription of the United Nations, the World Bank and some unnamed non-governmental organisations as the fund managers.
“President Mugabe has on many occasions said the country welcomes aid that has no strings attached to it and so, from the surface, Norway seems to have played ball. But hold on! Don’t they say the devil is always in the detail? What exactly is the meaning of what Mr. Solheim said?”

Because the dear leader has said aid with strings attached is unwelcome any aid has strings attached and is thus bad for Zimbabwe, in Huni’s considered opinion.

That Mr. Solheim said the US$10 million is for the country’s health and education sectors was indicative of the strings attached to the aid package he announced.

Notwithstanding the desperate need for capital injection in the sectors singled out the donation must be objected to because it allowed the donor to make a political statement.

The choice of beneficiary Ministries that are under ministers from the MDC appears to be at the centre of Huni’s concerns.

“The talk is that aid, such as the one coming from Norway, is meant to spruce up the image of the MDC in preparation for a post-inclusive Government election. This decision was taken after the MDC-T managed to negotiate for the majority of social services ministries in Government,” lamented Huni.

But on closer analysis it is not exactly the issue. Rather it is the fact that Zanu PF lost Social services ministries to the MDC which are now proving to be more popular with the electorate as they are making a difference in the lives of the hitherto oppressed general public.

“Why is Norway choosing the distributors of the funds on behalf of the Government? Yes, this is Norwegian money, but what will stop Norway from pushing the regime change agenda via these chosen channels? While the UN and the WB may be used as cover-ups, the real deal is with the NGOs.”

Therein lies the fears driving Huni. By funding ministries held by Ministers from the MDC the donors are seen as pursuing not a social improvement agenda but rather a political agenda that favours the MDC.

Huni would derive pleasure if the donation was made to the government without specifications of its intended use or if the specification was to equip the security ministries headed by Ministers from Zanu PF for use in purchasing of repression ammunition to be used against civilians.

How that would improve the welfare of the ordinary Zimbabwean remains a mystery only Huni and Zanu Pf can explain.

Huni still yearns for the good old days when the ‘war cabinet’ and the so called ‘development cabinet’ which destroyed all developed infrastructure used to plunder and pillage the economy for his and Zanu PF’s benefit without anyone questioning the impunity.

We are now being told that donations are debts and debts are political problems rather than financial problems.

This is rather weird because debts are by their nature financial transactions which fall in the economic rather than political science sphere. Bad politicking forces governments to incur bad debts to finance unproductive political agendas and when that happens it does not mean debts have suddenly transformed into political science.

The fact that creditors and debtors can use financial transactions to achieve a political objective is neither here nor there as any organised activity requires participants to make choices about how they want the project funded and in the absence of own financial resources borrowing becomes the finance option of first choice but if grants and donations can be secured surely they would be the cheaper and more sensible option to fall back on.

No wonder why the RBZ stole from depositor funds to finance Zanu PF political initiatives. It was this kind of extraterrestrial economic advice from Zanu PF morons that the bank relied on to justify theft.

“What is Norway’s motive in providing the US$10 million aid package? What is the motive of all the European countries that suddenly want to play the "good Samaritan" by providing salaries for civil servants?”Huni asks.

But Norway did not volunteer the aid but rather the Zimbabwe Junta government fronted by non other than current coalition government President Mugabe sent an international SOS after the country was plagued with a Cholera pandemic the government was ill prepared to contain.

So much about baseless accusations against the west for suddenly realising that there is a word called generosity.

The averment to studies showing there is no collaration between aid and national growth and stability is most unfortunate coming from a Zimbabwean in a position supposed to be occupied by the enlightened who can advise others on economic matters.

Does Huni expect us to believe that Zimbabwe as a pariah state between 2000 and 2008 performed better economically than it did as a member of the commonwealth and qualifying member of the global fund?

All statistical data at hand points to the contrary and thus disproves the under researched topic and conclusions reached by Dr Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian economist Huni relies on who appears to be of questionable qualifications.

If 37 of the 47 least developed countries globally are the highest beneficiaries of aid that does not mean their poverty is ascribed to their reliance on aid but rather their failure to apply received aid to productive enterprise due to corruption.

Of all the "begging experts" in the inclusive Government none come bigger than President Mugabe whose regime has left the country saddled with a US$10 billion foreign debt and US$ 59 billion domestic debt.

“No one doubts the intelligence of some ministers in the inclusive Government, but if they remain stuck in yesteryear promises that aid will flow ad infinitum into Government coffers, and then all the brains will be put to waste,” pontificated Mr Huni.

Huni can do the country a lot of favour by staying as far away from acting as the government’s economic adviser because he simply does not have the basic know how in that area.

Zanu PF listened to his advice and borrowed billions through printing worthless Zim dollars now we are paying through reliance on donor funding and global borrowing to bridge the economic ravine created by successive Zanu PF regimes since 1980.

Zanu PF media double standards

Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba and Attorney General Johannes Tomana unashamed to give interviews to media houses they banished into exile.

When it comes to media paranoia Zanu PF is probably unmatched by any other organised political entity other than those in China and the Democratic Republic of Korea.

Since coming to power President Mugabe has banished foreign based reporters from reporting from the country that includes the BBC, ABC, CNN and many others too numerous to enumerate.

Within the country the former ruling party has waged a relentless and vicious fight with media personnel and media houses outside its sphere of editorial control.

Joy TV, The Daily News, The Daily Mirror, SW Radio Africa, VOA News to mention but a few prominent local media houses the Zanu PF regime has banished from its airwaves have all attempted to infiltrate Zimbabwe airwaves and dilute State propaganda churned through the State controlled Zimpapers and Zimbabwe Broadcasting holdings media house and fallen prey of the vicious campaign against their existence by the Zanu PF mismanaged State.

Scores of qualified Zimbabwean Journalists have been arrested and charged under the notorious AIPPA legislation crafted by former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo who now ranks among the most loathed Zimbabwean politicians of all time along with President Mugabe, Professor Welshman Ncube, Professor Arthur Mutambara and lately Dr Simba Makoni.

Many have sought and secured refuge throughout the diaspora to escape the relentless persecution from successive Zanu PF regimes since 1980.

Zanu PF intolerance of media that allows airing of multiplicity of political social and economic reviews that are at variance with its own views degenerated into paranoia as it attracted more and more dissention from Zimbabweans negatively affected by the economic malaise caused by a combination of corrupt governance, misguided military and political arrogance and disrespect of national and international covenants on human rights and good governance.

By the time negotiations were undertaken to mitigate the vacuum caused by a failed electoral process the media double standards by Zanu PF had sunk so low that they were considered important enough to warrant special attention in clauses to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that yielded the current coalition government now at the helm of the country’s management.

Although it was agreed between the parties in the GPA that government should free the media industry to free competition and encourage exiled media houses to return to the country through setting up a media friendly environment that encourages freedom of expression in the country, it is taking longer than expected by the restive population in the country and abroad.

While the venom that was being spewed by the monopolistic State owned and controlled media has been drastically toned down the monopoly still remains intact and the institutional framework to spearhead implementation of the desired competitive environment remains elusive and is generating intense and worrisome conflict.

Meanwhile the media houses that Zanu PF zealots once so hated as to bomb and banish into exile have become the most useful defence tools at the disposal of the truant Zanu PF leaders now under the microscope over past political and leadership misconduct.

Under fire Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono is not just relying on State controlled media to promote his cause in the struggle to retain a position he said he did not need in August 2008 and would only keep for no longer than a minute if his principal was not happy.

Having splashed millions in bribes to State media scribes and buying up media houses weakened by the relentless State onslaught privately owned media houses, to project him favourably as a side project of the quasi-fiscal approach to economic management that allowed him to create parallel government structures at the Central bank’s establishment, your Governor also planted substantial amounts in online publications.

New Zimbabwe .com and Talkzimbawe.com websites received substantial working capital from the governor whose source of income is so vast he afforded to work at the central bank for nearly two years without drawing a single cent of his hefty salary from the institution.

It turns out he was helping himself to institutional and individual forex deposits in Banks he raided and doled out like confetti to anyone who was willing to sing Gono psalms.

The only local privately owned stable that survived the State repression was the Trevor Ncube weeklies the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard.

The reason for survival was a combination of the owner being largely resident in neighbouring South Africa and yes you guessed right your Governor dishing out BACCOSI forex loans to the media house and later following the loaned funds through the backdoor as dividends on “his invested loans.”

Now that your Governor as Gono prefers to call himself is in deep mud it is payback time from those that are in the information and publicity sector whom he lavishly sponsored when his stars at the central bank were shinning.

Pity his chief beneficiary was kicked out of Al-Jazeera foreign correspondence team in Zimbabwe after filing biased reports in favour of Mugabe during the vicious runoff campaign and was replaced by the more sober Haru Mutasa and at Talkzimbabwe the editor in Chief jumped off the ship after he was exposed for biased reportage that qualified him for travel sanctions from the UK government where he was spewing propaganda from.

But still there are strategic implants at The Independent, The Herald, The Chronicle, The Manica Post and the Financial Gazette he owns to do his bidding against all odds.

Then there is Zanu PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo who is a fixed correspondent at the banished VOA News Studio 7 radio News broadcast at 19.00 hrs GMT.

He is not even ashamed that it was his party that exiled the radio station to the USA that he is now exploiting to explain ZANU PF political mischief to the world.

And former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo who masterminded the demise of the popular Daily News publication and the banishment of its editor in Chief Geoff Nyarota as well as The Zimbabwean Editor in Chief Wilf Mbanga has been distributing numerous articles for publication in the online media whose owners are frightened stiff at the prospect of returning to Zimbabwe before the AIPPA and POSA legislation he proudly spearheaded legislation of are repealed or amended.

Now that MDC and Zanu PF are in a coalition Government that is overlooking his reputed talent in the communication and media field he has found solace in drowning his sorrows by publishing unedited drivel against the coalition government and instituting legal proceedings against anyone who appears to be gaining political mileage from the coalition.

Sadly he has very few believers if any at all but he is widely read as people do not want to miss reading into his agony and political loneliness.

The irony of it all is that Professor Moyo does not realise that private media offering him acres of space to expose his lack of principle have long concluded that he is a harmless demagogue with little if anything constructive to offer the nation.

The question is why do the Zanu PF architects fail to see the irony between banishing media experts to hostile countries and then following them up to react to damaging reports they are now publishing without fear of repression from the security functionaries in Zimbabwe?

Take for instance the interview Attorney General gave to VOA News recently wherein he boasted he had instructed prosecutors country wide to prosecute and evict White Commercial Farmers refusing to vacate farms they not only bought but have a SADC Court order in their favour to retain and farm on without hindrance from anyone including the arrogant Attorney General and his prosecutors.

It automatically placed him in the same ignorance bracket with Bright Matonga, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Jonathan Moyo, George Charamba, Patrick Chinamasa, Didymus Mutasa and yes Tofataona Mahoso.

Let not the academic certificates they hold fool anyone, Joseph Chinotimba’s interview on the same station made more sense than what these deluded Zanu PF academics said given similar opportunities to explain themselves and their party agenda for the country.

But it is George Charamba’s interview with Violet Gonda that wins the trophy for Zanu PF media double standards in Zimbabwe.

It will take some doing to beat in the future.

A little bit of honesty won’t harm you Professor Ncube

JOMIC co-chairman Professor Welshman Ncube has lost his bearings a long time ago

When the MDC-M reincarnated from the graveyard of the 2008 harmonised elections also runs to become a critical factor in shaping our country’s misgivings I wrote expressing misgivings at Thabo Mbeki’s decision to invite electoral rejects from the faction to determine the fate of the vote of the electorate that had rejected the same people.

Then I argued as I still do now, that it rendered electoral democracy a meaningless concept and empowered the rejects to thumb their noses at a hapless electorate confused why their hard won one man one vote is no longer a means for them to exercise power to determine their destinies.

I further advanced that Zimbabweans will hold SADC and Thabo Mbeki in particular accountable for negative outcomes likely to come out of the flawed process he had instituted in Zimbabwe unless the outcomes of the mediation process met or exceeded national expectations.
The minimum national expectation was and still is that Zanu PF political hegemony and impunity had to be ended forthwith and the restoration of the impartial rule of law that upholds fundamental Human Rights enshrined in our laws and respected individual property rights would be vigorously pursued and applied by the government that would be agreed upon in tandem with the people’s wishes as epitomised by the March electoral outcomes.

The outcome of mediated political settlement is now in place and the verdict is unanimous that it falls way short of ordinary electorate expectations at the same time it is an improvement on the political status quo that preceded the settlement.
President Mugabe, Premier Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Tsvangirai are unanimous that they appended their signatures on a flawed political settlement but are still committed to panel beat it and make it workable.

The general populace concurs and has been patient with the government as it struggles to find its feet in the pitfall infested political environment the government is operating.

Saddled with a bankrupted fiscus, dilapidated economic and social infrastructure, a human resource that has lost the work ethic, a discontented and militarised industrial and public service, a pervasive terminally corrupt system of doing business, a sceptical international community and economically handicapped sympathetic and empathetic SADC neighbourhood, the government is struggling to meet heightened expectations in the country.

Numerous breaches of implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) have not worked in favour of the noble cause of the coalition government principals to transform imperfections in the agreement into benefits for the Nation.

The 10 Provincial Governors appointed by President Mugabe from his Zanu PF Party to boost his chances of winning the Senate Presidential elections which were delicately poised after his party had “won” equal seats to those won by his opponents in Senatorial elections remain defacto in office despite the matter having been deferred to JOMIC for finalisation as a precondition for consummation of the coalition government on 13 February 2008.

JOMIC is yet to disclose its resolution on the matter to the Nation.

Cabinet initially agreed to be limited to 31 Ministries and 10 Provincial Governorships has been dramatically expanded to 38 Ministers and 10 Provincial Governors without explanation from the internal implementation watchdog of the GPA Joint Implementation Committee (JOMIC) that has three month to month rotational co-chairmen.

The initially agreed 15 Deputy Ministerial positions have suddenly increased to 19 again without explanation from JOMIC.

A Deputy Minister nominee from the MDC-T party remains the only party nominee to have been refused and or deferred swearing in by President Mugabe without explanation from JOMIC.

The agreed land audit to address suspected multiple farm ownerships by a few elite beneficiaries and stop commercial farming disruptions and reversal of the land reforms that had taken place prior to the signing of the GPA is yet to commence.

Meanwhile there are sporadic eruptions of commercial farm invasions by people claiming to have been allocated the farms some 2 to 4 years before the GPA was signed but had not taken occupation for one reason and another and no action has been taken by JOMIC to ensure these disruptions, justified or not, are stopped pending findings of the agreed land audit.

Political and Civic activists who were abducted and detained incommunicado for months after the signing of the GPA on allegations of committing acts of banditry and or recruitment of bandits are still being prosecuted notwithstanding cessation of political hostilities implied in Article VII of the GPA to allow for National healing and JOMIC has not ruled on the legality or otherwise of such persecutions.

President Mugabe has unilaterally renewed and extended the employment contract of discredited Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and promoted self confessed Zanu PF member Johannes Tomana to the vacant position of Attorney general that has been vacant for over two years.

JOMIC has not commented on the legality or otherwise of such actions by a party to the GPA which clearly stipulates that appointments in this category must be made after consultations have taken place between the coalition government principals.

In tandem with that development the President has unilaterally announced the appointment and reassignment of Permanent Secretaries to head the coalition Ministries all of them with links to Zanu PF and the Premier has in all instances denied ever being consulted on the appointments yet JOMIC has not moved in to make peace and define the power limitations on principals of the coalition government in regard to appointments of Senior Civil Servants.

Three months after the consummation of the coalition government not a single one of its Ambassadors has been recalled for debriefing on the new order at the country’s affairs to find out their suitability in representing the new government and its image given their past association with a discredited regime. JOMIC has not moved in to force principals to cascade inclusivity to these levels of governance in compliance with the GPA provisions.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development has been unilaterally reconfigured by President Mugabe to become the Ministry of Transport Communication and Infrastructure Development.

The GPA has agreed upon a Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, a Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity and a Ministry Information Communication Technology.

It was tacitly agreed to share these Ministries between the MDC and Zanu PF in the coalition government with the first and second being headed by Ministers nominated by Zanu PF and the third by an MDC-T Minister.

It is this third Ministry’s Communications responsibility that President Mugabe raided and reassigned to a Minister nominated by his party without explanation.

JOMIC has not found it proper to comment on the legality or otherwise of the Presidential move to reconfigure Ministries outside of agreed parameters in the GPA.

The reasoning appears to be that government business must be dealt with in government offices and the public need not be informed of what is going on in those offices.

But those offices are public offices and the GPA is a political settlement that supplanted electoral settlements. Whenever there are variations to the original agreement they should be made transparently and officially available to the general populace and there is no institution better placed and officially mandated to do so than JOMIC.

Instead we have a JOMIC co-chairmen abdicating this responsibility and informing us that sanctions must be lifted as a precondition to the government delivering on its mandate.

“Absolutely. As an inclusive government we are unequivocal and we agreed to it in the Global Agreement that the sanctions will be lifted as soon as an inclusive government is in place. It is in place and in our view yes, there are issues, there are issues on human rights, there are issues on governance but you will not help the inclusive government address those issues, work together with speed to correct those anomalies, to have a greater respect for human rights, get greater respect for the rule of law, to be effective in stopping farm invasions, a government which has no resources to actually get the police to move around.

A government with no resources to monitor the Ministry of Lands, to monitor what is happening, is unable at the end of the day to deliver on the promises of the GPA. Which is why we are saying yes these things are there but let us work together - with the international community assisting us to address them. Without that assistance it will be that much more difficult to address those issues,”JOMIC co-chairmen Ncube declared the institution’s conviction that sanctions lifting was a precondition to government with the issues.

But it is the same government without resources that has police officers and Lands officers leading hooligans invading commercial farms throughout the country and abducting and driving their abductees to every nook and cradle of the country in torture missions that says it has no resources to stop the malpractices reported countrywide.

It is the same government that has issued each of the 48 Ministers brand new top of the range Mercedes Benz vehicles costing approximately US$78000 each enough to buy 4 top of the range Nissan Note vehicles at US$17000 each.

Imagine what the government could have done with savings of 75% on Ministerial cars. It could have secured the brand new cars for the MP’s and still remained with enough change to buy at least a truck for each district Police Station.

So Professor Moyo a little self introspection will help you become a bit honest with yourself and the electorate you have imposed yourself to serve.

You asked how on earth you can; “restore the rule of law when you need the police to restore the rule of law and they’ve no capacity to go to the farms to see what is happening?

How do you restore the rule of law if the Minister of Lands is unable to get to the farms to determine what is happening?” and further went on to say that, “I absolutely agree with you that if there are farm invasions then they must stop. But I do not think, I do not think that it is right for those who it is within their power to assist us to ask us to do things which if we have no assistance we cannot do. It is pretty much like a sponsor in a soccer match saying I want you to go and play; I want you to be in the top of your log before I sponsor you.

So you have a team without a uniform, without soccer boots, who have no capacity to train and say they must first win the soccer league before you can sponsor them. It just does not make sense.”

Surely you cannot have been trapped in power to this extent.

The responsibility for law and order and the safety and security of the Nation is a function the State cannot outsource to anyone let alone foreign sponsors.

While we agree with you that you may have inherited a culture of impunity from your predecessors we cannot exonerate you for failing to stop the culture without lumping you with those you accuse of having nurtured the culture.

The reason why people voted as they did in March 2008 was because they had become fed up of lame excuses of the nature you are now regurgitating without shame.

Did you get on board to stop the impunity using donor funds or available resources? Is the impunity externally sponsored or is it internally motivated?

We are convinced that the problems are internally motivated and sponsored by people you know and are afraid to confront and chide.

Personally I believe that the reason why you imposed yourself in Government was to open doors for foreign aid to flow to your control and share in the gravy train.

Stop the impunity, restore human rights and dignity, tolerate opposing views and uphold democratic principles of governance that have zero tolerance on corruption and is totally committed to upholding individual property rights and you will not spend a cent more than you are spending in programmes to consolidate power through borrowed funds that are not forthcoming anywhere.

Those we elected know why we elected them and it was certainly not to have sanctions lifted but rather to restore our equality and dignity before the law.

Those like you who feel they can only deliver that if they are sponsored with lavish donations from whoever have no place in our leadership.

There is no difference between what you are now doing and what Dr Gono did to our currency and fiscus.

Sanctions and easier re-branding of Zimbabwe

Unelected DPM Prof Mutambara: re- branding means unelected do not become DPM's and Ministers

At one of the schools I passed through there was a highly qualified English teacher who introduced each of his lessons with an attention grabber.

One morning he came and wrote on the blackboard that in the lesson he was presenting he would not entertain any questions from anyone which was odd given that his lessons were always very participatory and he would take time to explain any new concept to the satisfaction of the slowest leaner in the class.

He threw in a few jawbreakers that left us mesmerised as he was going on about. Half the class had their hands in the air by the time he was making his third sentence including mine because I had not understood a thing about what he was saying and it had no relevance whatsoever to the subject matter of prepositions he had explained was the lesson of the day.

He ignored the hands in the air and continued as if nothing was happening in the class. To add insult to injury he stated from nowhere that whenever he wanted to keep a secret from us he either put it on the notice board or wrote it on the blackboard as we were too illiterate to understand anything he wrote.

The incident came back to my memory following on goings in the Zimbabwe coalition government over the past two weeks.

Zimbabwe is struggling to unshackle itself from the debilitating effects of 28 years of misrule by successive Zanu PF governments.

In terms of the Global Political Agreement that resulted in the unilateral coalition government no ordinary Zimbabwean ever voted for, the AU and SADC underwrote to assist the government of their choice in Zimbabwe in turning around the economy and overcoming political differences that had polarised the once prosperous nation and were threatening to implode into Civil strife.

For the AU and SADC formation of an inclusive coalition government involving two major political parties and a renegade faction of one of the parties was the panacea to resolution of the long running political impasse that was threatening not just Zimbabwe but the Southern African region.

It was tacitly included in the 15 September GPA that SADC and the AU would underwrite the coalition Government initiative in Zimbabwe to guarantee its success.
“22.6 The implementation of this agreement shall be guaranteed and underwritten by the Facilitator, SADC and the AU.

22.7 The Parties and the new Government shall seek the support and assistance of SADC and the AU in mobilizing the international community to support the new Government's economic recovery plans and programmes together with the lifting of sanctions taken against Zimbabwe and some of its leaders.

23.2 The Parties will continually review the effectiveness and any other matter relating to the functioning of the Inclusive Government established by the Constitution in consultation with the Guarantors.”

In pursuance of the above clauses in the agreement, the Coalition Government has approached the guarantours of the GPA with a staggering short term request for US$8.5billion to halt the economic malaise in the country and return the country back to some modicum of economic normalcy.

The required bailout funds could not be raised by SADC and the regional political and economic bloc decided that it was time to bring on board the international community to assist with the funding of the country’s turnaround programmes.

Meanwhile the international donor and lending community has insisted that for them to consider buying into the plea for help from Zimbabwe the country must first drastically reform its governance practices to at least meet minimum standards expected internationally.

At the centre of International donor and lending agencies’ concerns are issues concerning;

- the restoration of the rule of law;
- economic stabilization and growth;
- commitment to the democratic process;
- respect for human rights;
- and full access to humanitarian assistance.

In particular the international donor and lending community is unanimous that there is need to see substantial and irreversible commitment on the part of the Zimbabwe coalition government towards in particular;

- the immediate release of all political prisoners;
- the end of farm disruptions;
- the cessation of politically motivated violence;
- the establishment of a credible and transparent Reserve Bank team;
- an end to harassment and intimidation of the media;
- and a commitment of all stakeholders to holding credible elections in a timely manner.

These demands are not new at all but instead of addressing them for some reason or another the coalition government appears to have settled for a line of attack that seeks to have economic sanctions the alleged imposers prefer to call targeted sanctions against individuals that have helped the Zimbabwe government to undermine people in the manner highlighted by the concerns.

The initiative is spearheaded by SADC as part of its obligation to underwrite the GPA. It however appears to have failed to persuade the International donor and lending institutions to release funds to the government as of now at least.

The frightening aspect is that the international donor and lending community in the rich Western countries appear to be as unconvinced by the progress in addressing the concerns by the coalition government as they were by the Zanu PF regimes.

They have been forced to once again reiterate the concerns that were first highlighted when they imposed travel restrictions on President Mugabe and his cabal of advisers and aides within Zanu PF.

But no matter how many times the donors and lenders have tacitly put their reservations about dealing with an intransigent Zimbabwe government; SADC and the successive Zimbabwe governments seem to believe that they can extract aid from them after making meaningless cosmetic changes in the composition of the government and the rhetoric it uses.

Professor Mutambara in particular believes that aid can be secured through the lifting of sanctions and re-branding of the country.

We agree with professor Mutambara that for the country to qualify for aid and credit lines it must re-brand but we are not sure if we share the same meaning of rebranding with him.

In our view the re-branding that would automatically qualify Zimbabwe for both international and donor aid is a change in its autocratic misgovernance to the consultative model currently being tried by some Ministers in the coalition government.

By some coincidence it is those ministers who are in Government after winning elections to become Parliamentarians and or Senators that are leading the consultative government model.

From his own faction of the MDC Senator David Coltart has won most of the plaudits in the early successes of the coalition in the manner he managed to get schools to reopen.

He also is reported to have refused allotment of the luxury Mercedes Benz preferring rather to be allotted an all terrain 4X4 that would enable him to access remotely located rural schools.

For some reason or another he is now being reported as the only Minister with people’s interests at heart because he refused to accept the Mercedes Benz luxury vehicle all other ministers accepted without care about the poverty gripping the people whose taxes bought the cars.

How the press has missed that he only opted for an equally expensive perk amazes. Is it because it was written rather than announced verbally, that it is being praised as the example of considerate leadership?

Senator Coltart also brought on board leaders of the teaching trade unions as Education Board members to advise him along with retired former educationists. The only gripe I have with his selection of Board members is that he seemed to choose them from the elitists that partronise his and the Mavambo political formations but did not find it appropriate to appoint a peasant representative to represent the interests of the ordinary parents.

Because of the trend he has set we can resign to seeing more and more elitists being appointed to other boards at the expense of the poor consumers.

For the country to rebrand completely Professor Mutambara must lead the initiative to address donor and lending community concerns at the same time he condemns those like him and the majority he has chosen to be in Cabinet who were rejected at the polls imposing themselves into leadership.

As long as the country remains under the control of election losers like him it can not rebrand into the democratic state that qualifies for donor aid and credit lines because those who can expropriate political power are equal capable of abusing aid. Donors and money lenders are alert to that possibility and it is the single most critical reservation they have in helping the current Zimbabwe government.

If the country is led by a President, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Minister and several unelected Cabinet Ministers appointed by unelected principals who are not accountable to the electorate what would prevent such a crop of self imposed leaders stealing money when they have openly stolen leadership positions at the expense of the electorate?

Finally for rebranding to be meaningful it must address the international and national electorate concerns about specified areas of misgovernance and that is unlikely to happen when the unelected are in charge.

My English teacher was right. To keep a secret in Zimbabwe publish the secret and it will be ignored just as we ignored the written instruction not to ask him questions and the coalition government is refusing and or failing to address international misgovernance concerns before the country can be extended credit lines and or aid.

The meaning of the new political dispensation in Zimbabwe

Professor Jonathan Moyo bottom left; Tendai Biti Zimbabwe Finance Minister centre and David Coltart Education Minister

By Professor Jonathan Moyo

NewZimbabwe.com

Wednesday, February 18:

WHAT is the meaning of the new political dispensation in Zimbabwe made possible by the formation of the inclusive government?

Just in case my conclusion gets lost in my argument, let me point out now that there are seven considerations that define the meaning of the new political dispensation which are, therefore, the conclusion of my presentation.
In the first place, the new political dispensation means that President Robert Mugabe has rather shrewdly managed to win back political legitimacy which he lost on March 29, 2008, and failed to get in the controversial presidential runoff election on June 27, 2008.

Prior to this, President Mugabe only had legal legitimacy which was in danger of being overpowered by his political illegitimacy which arose from the fact that he came second to Morgan Tsvangirai on March 29, 2008, and that the results of the June 27, 2008, presidential runoff election were widely condemned as politically illegitimate whatever its legal merits.

Now, thanks to the new political dispensation, Mugabe is sitting pretty as both head of State and head of government.

Second, the new political dispensation means that the “sellout” or “puppet” stigma attached to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC since 1999 will now fall away. Already, some elements of the public media who used to routinely label Tsvangirai a British puppet and a sell-out are now calling him “Comrade Tsvangirai”. Times have indeed changed.

This serves to remind all of us of the anthropological truth that it is unwise to judge the promise of a child by the prejudice or stupidity of its parents. As such, while British and American parenting of the MDC cannot be objectively denied, the new political dispensation gives the MDC a golden opportunity to outgrow that awful parentage by becoming truly nationalist.

Third, the new political dispensation means that Zimbabwe now has three ruling parties, although one of the three — MDC M — is not really a party in the traditional or strict sense.

This development has the potential to enhance multiparty politics and mutual tolerance in the country as there is no chance in heaven of having the three parties in government merging to become one party. The fact that the three ruling parties in the inclusive government have no chance of merging means that the political landscape in the country is likely to see major political realignments including the emergence of a credible alternative political movement which will embrace progressive elements from across the political divide.

Fourth, the new political dispensation means that the polarisation that has characterised our country’s national politics in recent years will significantly subside with the real possibility of disappearing altogether. The polarisation had contributed to the underdevelopment of public discourse and the impoverishment of public policies. Now there is new space for real discussion and real debate of real issues at local, provincial and national levels.

Fifth, the new political dispensation means that the Anglo-American led international consensus that had solidly developed against Zimbabwe will most likely collapse. In any event, there will now be significant divisions in the international community over Zimbabwe and those divisions are going to benefit the inclusive government.

SADC, and in particular South Africa, will emerge as the leading international voice on Zimbabwe with Britain and America taking backseats from which they would still be able to make mischief but not in the megaphone manner of the past.

Sixth, the new political dispensation means that while the historic 2000 land reform process is now firmly irreversible, as affirmed by the September 15, 2008, Interparty Agreement that led to the formation of the inclusive government, there is now a real danger that the new black political and economic elite, the majority of whom are in the MDC, will use the excuse of underutilised land on the back of the ongoing economic liberalisation to dispossess peasants and the urban poor who are now on the land but who are struggling to fully or even partially utilise it due to economic factors beyond their control.

In other words, the new political dispensation means that we should brace ourselves up for new land invasions initially against the remaining white farmers, as is already happening, and later against the newly resettled farmers who will be opportunistically accused of not utilising the land allocated to them during the height of the Third Chimurenga.

Seventh, the new political dispensation means that either Zanu PF — which still holds the levers of power — has outfoxed the MDC which is now in Zanu PF’s mouth ready to go down its stomach, or that the MDC-T is now poised to destroy Zanu PF from within the government given that the strength of Zanu PF over the last decade or so has moved away from its long dead party structures to government departments and ministries. The fact that government ministries and departments are now shared by Zanu PF and the two MDC factions spells looming doom for Zanu PF which was already suffering from growing civil service defiance.

Given the above conclusion of my presentation, let me now proffer the argument. In order to appreciate the full meaning of the new political dispensation, we must distinguish between the September 15, 2008, “Global” Interparty Agreement and the inclusive government formed on the fateful day of Friday, February 13, 2009.

The Interparty Agreement was without doubt a good thing for Zimbabwe as there was really no better alternative. As such, the Interparty Agreement was, as it still is, inherently good.

However, the same cannot be said about the inclusive government without qualification. We have to judge the inclusive government on two accounts: First as to whether the Cabinet choices made by the three “principal leaders” were sound to the point of inspiring confidence and second, in terms of how the new Cabinet will work or perform.

In all fairness we can begin to make lasting conclusions about the work or performance of the new Cabinet only after 100 days even though we know it does not have that much time. The country is in dire straits and the public expects well thought-out and decisive action as a matter of urgency.

This means that the only judgement we can confidently pass now is about the soundness of the choices made in the selection of the Cabinet members for the inclusive government.

In this regard, it is important to note that the implementation of the September 15, 2008, Interparty Agreement has thus far been a contest for positions in government. Initially, before the signing of the September 15 deal, the battle was over which party would get which ministries. After the deal, the battle shifted to a contest over which individual would get which ministry. Throughout this whole process, there has been no contest of ideas, no contest of ideology and no contest over policy.
In a word, the whole affair has thus far been about jobs for the boys or girls.

Indeed, it is striking to observe that all of the negotiators in the Interparty Dialogue basically negotiated and assured high ranking positions for themselves and even when some of them are clearly not suitable or qualified for the positions they grabbed. This does not inspire national confidence, rather, it breeds cynicism against the inclusive government.

The highlight of this contest has been the Cabinet choices. Although there are some notable exceptions, the vast majority of the choices by the leaders of the three ruling parties are poor and misplaced not least because they have been driven by considerations of patronage and cheap politics than anything else important or relevant.

Let us briefly consider each of the three cases beginning with the Cabinet choices made by MDC-M.

If we were to judge MDC M by its cabinet choices, and if we were to do so without any prejudice, then we would have to conclude that this is a pretentious party that has never existed in point of fact on the ground. It’s a stillborn party run by upstarts who are either ignorant of or confused by politics.

This party has no chance of ever coming into political life not least because its leaders used or even abused the Interparty negotiations to secure themselves high ranking positions in government via the backdoor as they have no electoral mandate of their own. Politics is never about oneself. It is always about the people.

As such, and given the fragile sensitivities of the leaders of the MDC-M, the little said about their hopeless cabinet deployments the better, save to marvel at the fact that David Coltart, who is otherwise a good man, was allocated a portfolio that is way above his technical and cultural competence, let alone his relevant experience.

How about Zanu PF? When the former sole ruling party is judged by its latest cabinet deployments, and the rather comical manner in which those deployments were made, then it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is now a dead party just waiting to be buried. I believe that burial will be at the next polls whenever they are held. In the meantime, Zanu PF will remain dead in our midst.

Zanu PF’s cabinet choices leave it with a problem of relevance: with no new blood injected into the inclusive govt, where will the renewal of the party come from given that the little that remained of the party’s influence was government based which government is now inclusive of the two MDC factions?

President Mugabe’s Cabinet choices disappointed many in and outside Zanu PF who expected a better panel. On August 26, 2008, at a luncheon given by the Ministry of Local Government following the opening of the first session of the seventh Parliament, President Mugabe described his last Cabinet as “the worst in history”.

If the leader of a ruling party says, “My Cabinet is the worst in history”, then you judge his next Cabinet choices rationally you would expect that leader to get rid of that worst cabinet without even thinking twice about it. But not if that leader is Mugabe. He seems to have a fixation with mediocrity which he never hesitates to reward at every opportunity.

President Mugabe’s Cabinet choices in the inclusive government are drawn from the same deadwood which made up his last cabinet which he said was the worst in history. At least seven of his 15 Cabinet ministers have been returned to their previous portfolios. While President Mugabe has the right to make his choices, the one fact that cries out loud is that his choices are very disappointing and they never ever seem to serve any useful part or national purpose beside the President’s self-preservation.

Zimbabwe is in desperate need for institutional renewal. But, alas, President Mugabe does not seem to have understood after all his years in office that one effective way of renewing national institutions is by giving them new and energetic leadership. At every point in national affairs, the old must be mixed with the young or the new.

If there is anyone in Zanu PF who believes that Mugabe’s Cabinet choices in the inclusive government have a capacity to swallow the MDC-T, then they are joking because deadwood cannot swallow anything. Why put deadwood at the deep end of things at this critical time in the life of our nation?

I have a serious problem with President Mugabe’s Cabinet deployments because I thought its interest is renewal and Mugabe had an opportunity to signal not only to Zanu PF rank and file but also to the nation that it has a future and not to continue presenting its tired and now irrelevant past.

Then we have the MDC-T’s Cabinet choices. If we judge Tsvangirai’s Cabinet selection, how his choices were made, then the inevitable conclusion is that Tsvangirai’s MDC is now a terminally wounded party waiting to die and its death might very well be pronounced at the next poll, but I am unable to say at the moment when its burial might occur.

MDC-T’s cabinet choices have left it with a number of very serious problems. The choices have clearly been driven by considerations of patronage just like is done in Zanu PF and this has blunted the MDC-T’s criticism of Zanu PF patronage. People expected change from Tsvangirai but his Cabinet choices sent a very clear message that he is cut from the same cloth with Mugabe.

There has been a rather unnecessary dimension of the MDC T’s cabinet deployments that smacks of provocation by bringing back Rhodesians or people with Rhodesian connections into the government.

In a situation such as we have in Zimbabwe today, leaders have to make hard choices taking into account the country’s sensitivities. Indeed, in politics you don’t just do things to spite people especially when you are dealing with volatile interests of a historical nature. You use the opportunity to calm nerves and not to stir up trouble.

If you look at what is happening to Roy Bennett, starting with his appointment as deputy minister of agriculture and going into his subsequent arrest, it invites a lot of questions as to why. Is this a legal issue? Or is it a political matter? If it is political, what could be provoking it?

On my part, I would not have expected any political leader 29 years after our independence to provoke a situation by appointing someone who served in the Rhodesian army or British South Africa Police to the Cabinet. That is rather bizarre. Yes, you can appoint a white person but not one who was in the Rhodesian army or police. That’s bad politics and it does not indicate the emergence of a new Zimbabwe but takes us right into the dark past and brings back horrible memories.

Then there is Tsvangirai’s deployment of Tendai Biti to the Ministry of Finance which is very cynical and even dangerous. While we should give Biti the benefit of the doubt, he certainly is the wrong person for the job. Biti belongs to a trio of financial ministers who should not have been -- and these include Enos Nkala and Samuel Mumbengegwi with Biti at the bottom of that terrible trio. Each time we have had these kinds of misplaced and inappropriate deployments of ministers of finance, the results have been utterly disastrous.

For example, Biti’s decree last week, made at a press conference, directing commercial banks to convert savings accounts into forex accounts was very shocking and it signalled the kind of unacceptable finance minister he will be. Banks are not managed by the Minister of Finance but there is no reason to expect Biti to know that, just as there is no reason to expect him to know that he does not manage public servants and yet he saw no problem announcing procedures of how civil servants were to be paid in the absence of the public service commission or the minister responsible for the public service.

The video of Biti’s first press conference as minister of finance needs to be studied and used by future ministers of finance as an example of what not to do. After announcing that they had the money to pay civil servants 100 US dollars monthly allowances in cash, Biti was asked by the media where the forex was coming from given that the government is technically bankrupt.

His answer was shocking and unbefitting of a serious minister of finance. He said “Takiya-kiya (we have played around)”. Honestly, how opaque can one get? The new minister of finance should not be surprised if henceforth he finds himself called Tendai “Takiyakiya” Biti. In the meantime, the finance minister needs to know that the nation still wants to know where the money came from and how it being accounted for.

For the avoidance of doubt, the issue is not about Biti personally. It is about whether he is qualified to be Minister of Finance. Do people know and appreciate that he is a senior member of the MDC-T leadership? Yes. Does he deserve a senior position in the inclusive government? Yes. Is that position the Ministry of Finance? No. It’s a loud No, No! No yesterday, no today and no tomorrow.

Putting the Biti issue aside, the MDC-T’s cabinet deployment left it with a very serious “Zezuru” problem as it does not have ministers representing any constituency in Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East. This is a whole region with a huge concentration of national voters. How does Tsvangirai expect to rule Zimbabwe without it?

Then, as if this is not enough, there is the Matabeleland question. The MDC T has only two cabinet ministers (if you discount Gorden Moyo who is a minister of state in the Prime Minister’s office with no budget of his own) from there and yet that is the region that was supposed to give the MDC-T a “South-South” foundation.

Zanu PF used to do far better than this even when it did not enjoy support in Matabeleland. The manner in which Tsvangirai made the Matabeleland appointments, such as first appointing and then dropping Eddie Cross and Abednico Bhebhe, made a bad situation worse. It showed that Tsvangirai does not have the necessary political spine to stand by his decisions. He is given to collapsing under pressure.

Attempts to justify MDC T’s Matabeleland deployments on grounds that Speaker Lovermore Moyo and Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe come from the region have not held much water because, unlike Cabinet ministers who have national budgets and work across the country, the two occupy roles that are largely ceremonial and do not have much of anything to do with the allocation and distribution of resources.

The widespread feeling in Matabeleland is that the region is tired of ceremonial politicians who have nothing to do with how the limited Zimbabwean national cake is divided.

If the truth can be told about the MDC-T cabinet deployments without fear or favour, it is that they are disproportionately dominated by one ethnic group in a manner that is detrimental to national cohesion and balance.

Now, given the foregoing, will a government with these origins succeed? I think that is indeed possible, although its success will depend on whether the Government will be able to inspire national and international confidence. The ability of the government to inspire that confidence will depend on how it will handle six toxic issues:

¶ Transforming Cabinet into an interparty caucus whose decisions will be binding on the respective party causes in Parliament in a manner that would strengthen and ensure collective responsibility.

¶ The need to move away from making populist directives to making and implementing considered policies. There is an urgent need for Cabinet to become a policy making institution as opposed to a directives issuing body. Statements like “Cabinet has directed this or that” need to be a thing of the past and yet this will not be easy to achieve let alone do as the three parties and their ministers try to outdo each in a hopeless competition for public attention.

¶ Turning around the Zimbabwean economy without burdening the cost of that recovery on peasants and the urban poor who have been battered beyond coping with the economic meltdown.

Judging by the provisions of the recent budget and the reforms arising from the latest monetary policy statement, there is a real and present danger that the new government might purse the now roundly discredited IMF and World Bank policies in the hope of being seen as “reasonable” by some international and even local interests still stuck in the costly past.

¶ The removal of illegal economic sanctions within 100 days of the life of the inclusive government. So far, the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti, have refrained from calling for the removal of these devastating sanctions which have been falsely presented as targeted at some individuals when they are actually against Zimbabwe itself.

The fact that the British government just announced an 18 month programme to get its remaining senior citizens to leave Zimbabwe raises very serious doubts about whether the illegal sanctions will be removed. If the sanctions are not lifted, it is hard to see how the inclusive government will survive.

¶ Bringing political finality to Zimbabwe’s now irreversible land tenure system: This issue will not be resolved unless and until former white farmers now off the land are fairly and adequately compensated for their losses.

¶ The question whether the new constitution that should be enacted as part of the September 15 Interparty Agreement will be a participatory and people-driven process or whether it will be driven by the three parties in the inclusive government.

Unless the Interparty Agreement collapses prematurely well ahead of the life of the seventh Parliament, the next national election will be a referendum on the new constitution. The three parties will either take one unified position in support of the draft new constitution (the so called Kariba draft) or they will take different positions on the draft and campaign against each other in the referendum as happened between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga in Kenya.

Whatever the case, the next real opposition in Zimbabwe is likely to emerge from the process of the making of the new constitution and will mature from the referendum to the general election.

Otherwise the real question is whether the inclusive government will survive or succeed and for how long. Now that they are in, it will be difficult if not impossible for any of the three ruling parties to pullout of the inclusive government without suffering fatal consequences. They’ve all taken the poison and they are damned if they are in and damned if they are out.

What emerged from all this is that the MDC-M dreams that the inclusive government will give it an opportunity for a rebirth as a way out of its stillborn status while Zanu PF hopes that the inclusive government will enable it to do a Lazarus and rise from the dead in the next election to rule Zimbabwe again and alone. On its part the MDC-T imagines that the inclusive government will heal its otherwise terminal wound and empower it to “dribble” Zanu PF out of power.

As such, the three ruling parties do not see failure of the inclusive government as an option. Yet success will be very difficult to achieve because of the six toxic issues outlined above which will be tricky to manage.