Has Prof Mutambara gone insane?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gonda: Is that what you said?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mutambara: But remember Violet …

Gonda: Let me give you an example…

Mutambara: Remember Violet I said…

Gonda : Let me give…

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

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

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

Gonda: Professor Mutambara.

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

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

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

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

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

Gonda: No but…

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

Gonda: Professor…

Mutambara: Give me a next question.

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

Mutambara: Ask SADC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foolish African solutions for African fools’ problems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Retreat, No Surrender in Power Sharing negotiations

PIC: MDC President and Zimbabwe Prime Minister Designate Morgan Tsvangirai



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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Patrick Chinamasa and George Charamba offside

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


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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It does not wash.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zimbabweans must draw inspiration from Obama’s election as USA President

Pic: USA President and Vice President elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the acceptance celebration in Chicago on 5 November 2008

Barack Obama has been elected American President. The first ever descendant of the injustices of Western imperialism and slavery to make it to the most powerful position in the land of the once oppressors of his generations.

I could not help but shed a tear of joy at such a monumental milestone in world history.

Amid all these emotionally compelling developments I could not help but reflect back to my beloved Zimbabwe.



I listened to the hitherto vile McCain conceding defeat an imploring his supporters to o likewise in the most dignified manner I never thought he was capable of articulating.
He turned the supporters boos into instant applause. The greatness of America was restored in an instant. Democracy had once again been upheld and demonstrated.

I watched USA President elects Barack Obama deliver an electrifying unifying speech where he reminded the nation that the change they yearn for was theirs to drive under his leadership.

I looked back to 29 March 2008 when my country went through a similar process of choosing our national leadership and my tears of joy for Obama suddenly turned into streams of sorrow and anger and revulsion.

Mugabe was defeated by Tsvangirai in that election. He would not concede and plunged the nation into 32 days of uncertainty as he and his surrogates devised shameful schemes to deny the people he fought for so hard to liberate from colonialism the right to choose their leadership in no different ways to how the colonists used to deny the same people to choose their leadership.

I wondered what would have happened had McCain and his ruling Republicans had refused to announce the Presidential results in the USA election as happened in Zimbabwe.

Then it dawned to me that developments in the USA could just be the tonic needed to resolve the Zimbabwe political impasse.

Not that I have any expectation that Mugabe would learn anything from the USA electoral process but because change had proved to be unstoppable when the people think it was time for change as is the case in Zimbabwe.

In electing Obama the Americans have shown that their might is not just in gun totting and force but a conviction in the power of change and its benefits.

At a time when Mugabe clings to power on the spurious allegation that his removal from office would result in the colonists from America and Britain and their EU friends recolonising the country, the Americans are opting for none White leadership for their country.

How ironic? If the Americans are choosing a President of Kenyan and African descent, where would they get the leadership to mastermind recolonisation of Africa and more specifically Zimbabwe when among them they are finding it difficult to find a leader capable of leading them to prosperity and global leadership they have become accustomed to?

Because Americans have held their elections and smoothly effected regime change their country is going to focus on social, political and economic challenges facing their nation and stand a enhanced change of prevailing using fresh ideas than relying on tried policies that had failed them in the past and created many enemies for them worldwide.

Meanwhile because Mugabe refuses to accept change yearned by the people and uses brutal force to deny people the chance to realise benefits of regime change our country has been plunged into the abyss of economic catastrophe, humanitarian abuse and political turmoil.

If this is the price Zimbabweans have to pay for Mugabe participating in liberating them from British and American colonialism, it may be necessary for Zimbabweans to consider fighting him and stripping him of the leadership mantle he has bestowed upon himself.

There is a serious need to revise the strategy of dealing with Mugabe’s resistance to change and it can be overcome as has happened in America.
Can we do it? Yes we can, to borrow inspiration from Barack Obama’s rallying cry to his nation.

There will be obstacles and loss of life but nothing near the sacrifices we are making to keep Mugabe at the helm.

The sooner Zimbabweans wake up to this reality the faster we will realise the change we yearn for.

George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru a Cash and Forex baron

Pic. Zanu PF supporters josling for grain handouts at Mupandawana Growth Point People's shop


Forget his recent attack on Zanu PF leadership paralysis and indifference being a realisation that change is now imperative George Charamba is on a self enrichment advertising campaign couched in deceptive political backstabbing and ingratiation with boss Robert Mugabe.




Hentac Investments trading as Global Agricultural Services is an obscure company that has emerged in Zimbabwe with the noble objective of providing farming solutions in impoverished Zimbabwe whose backbone Agro Industry is reeling from the aftermath of the chaotic land reforms of 2000 by the Zanu PF regime.

With offices perched in the 2nd Floor of ZFU Building situated at 102 Fife Avenue the hazy company owned by George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru, the Information and Publicity Permanent Secretary who doubles as Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson, the company is one of the many private enterprises of Zanu PF conduits to access funding from the fiscus and benefit Zanu PF apologists.

Operations Manager, Isdore Charamba a brother of the Information and Publicity Secretary is the Key man of the enterprise.

He made some startling revelations about the strategy of the company and its operations.

“We are the only company in the country at present with maize seed stocks stashed throughout the country including at locked Harare Agricultural Show Society exhibition halls in the Harare Show grounds.

Our market intelligence surveys have shown that Farm and City, Seedco and Mashco as well as other established Agro Industry warehousing and distribution enterprises are reeling from forex shortages and at the verge of collapse and we want to meet them on their way down as we shoot up to become the dominant Agro Industry distributor in the country,” he bragged.

Asked how the new enterprise had been selectively sparred the debilitating forex crunch that is threatening established players he disclosed that the established entities are paying the price of bureaucracy and delayed response to fast changing economic conditions that demand on the spot decision making impossible to make in large organisation heavily regulated by policies and procedures.

Asked how bureaucracy inhibited decision making in large and established enterprise to earn forex, Charamba’s brother described in detail how his hazy company earns its forex.

“We have lived for six months without a substantive government and developed strategies to cope without Government support. For some of us what Government does or does not do to regulate trade is no longer of material consequence.

We maintain a balanced mix of our investments between the Zim dollar and Forex because the Zim dollar and other liquid assets are no longer current assets but current liabilities.

What we do is when we need Zim dollars we have a network of individual and company depositors with billions they cannot access in cash and through banned RTGS transfers but can move through cheques.

These healthy Zim dollar account holders desperately need to convert their funds into the more stable forex denomination and give us unbelievable rates for Zim dollar cheque to US dollar.

While many selling a US dollar at a street cash value of ZW$20000,00 we opt for the cheque exchange rate of US$1.00: ZW$7 000 000.00. We then purchase high demand agricultural and other products in short supply using bank certified cheques and immediately sell them on the street at lower than retail prices obtaining in formal retail outlets for cash.

We use that cash to purchase forex at US $1: ZW$20000.00. For argument’s sake if I have US$100.00 I could get a cheque of ZW$700 000 000.00 and within 4 days in place of ZW$2 000 000.00 I would get if I opt for Black Market street cash rate.

There is no wayZW$700 000 000.00 will reduce to ZW$2 000 000.00 in four days or a month for that matter even in our hyper inflationary environment.

Because we are established in this game we have outlets we use cheques to purchase our leisure and daily needs so we get better value for our forex then we would if we were to purchase goods from forex shops priced at US$1:$20 000.00 regardless of how highly priced they are in Zim,” he paused.

So you do not create any value but just circulate money to increase you luxury level in all this because all you have said is you use the same US$100.00 but can acquire ZW$700 000 000.00 worth of goods instead of ZW$2 000 000.00 and thus will have a ZW$698 000 000.00 surplus ZW$ outlay at your disposal, where do you think the goods to support this surplus value at your disposal will come from I enquired.

The answer I got was even more startling.

“We do not baulk from challenges and become refugees like many have done. We simply behave situational and actively participate in the in thing while it last. This is a pyramid type mop up of forex which the haves are better placed to execute than the have-nots and we are only making hay while the sun shines.

By the time the loophole is closed we will have accumulated enough to cushion us against any changes whoever contemplates while we design other methods to cope with the new development however long it takes.

We will not wait for political demagogues to determine our fate during the bickering that has been going on and we will be better placed whatever the outcome of their power bickering games will be,” he added emphatically.

What happens if you get a dud cheque from your connections I asked?
“The risk of a dud cheque is minimal. The cheques we get are written by Bank managers on behalf of their high value clients who have authorised them to engage in this side trading for a commission. As such the cheques are only issued when it has been verified that there are adequate funds in the account of the forex purchaser to meet the cheque.

However if one issues a dud cheque, they will be penalised ZW$100 000 000.00 and we will follow them up and demand cash restitution at the cheque rate agreed at the time of entering the initial transaction and so far we have not had to resort to that action,” he reassured.

All this was being discussed publicly. That is what “burning money” is all about. By accepting a cheque in place of cash one stands to yield an astronomical 34990% increase in ZW$ value at the stroke of a pen and after two days would if he manages transform personal wealth of US$100.00 into personal wealth of US$ 22 413.05 at the official exchange rate of US$1:ZW$312.32 or US$350. 00 at the black Market cash rate of US1: ZW$20 000.00.

The wealthiest formally employed people in Zimbabwe at present are Reserve Bank Employees and Private Bank Managers.

They access large quantities of restricted supplies of ZW dollars by issuing cheques which they channel to hazy traders like Charamba’s Hentac Investments to purchase forex on the street cash Black Market for a fee. They again commission Charamba to trade the purchase US dollars for the Bank controlled cheque rate and on receipt deposit the cheques in their accounts.

Once the cheques are cleared and payment honoured they repeat the process all over making even more enhanced profits from the illicit trade.

That is why any forex in Zimbabwe devalues even where its international value has not altered. Zimbabweans talk of money in thousands upwards regardless of the denomination of the currency they hold.

Charamba will talk of US$100.00 as being worth US$ 22 413.00 to him because as soon as he lays his hands on US$100.00 he has access to the Reserve Bank employees and other Bank Managers who can buy the forex from the Central Bank at US$1: ZW$312.32 after spending the ZW$ 2 000 000.00 on the street market.

That this illicit forex pyramid trade adventure is unsustainable in the long term is not oblivious to Charamba and his foot soldiers but while it lasts nothing can beat its returns. But money does not grow on trees for it to be “burnt” into useful energy or to increase its value to anyone.

It is in that vein that Charamba sought to belittle his Zanu PF associates for being stymied by the current negotiations instead on concentrating on the core business of looting the fiscus in the name of promoting Agro Industry revival when infact all he is doing is enriching himself through this front by mopping up scarce forex on the streets using other people’s funds.

Charamba has not been a change agent neither will he be one in future. The only change he believes in is that which directly enriches Zanu PF acolytes by whatever means at National expense.

When all has been said and done the seed maize he has hoarded and stored in various parts of the country will be for the benefit of Zanu PF apologists financed by taxpayers.

He must be stopped on his economy damaging trails forthwith. His newly found focus on agriculture revival devolves from the failed Reserve Bank driven Bacosi and People’s Shops concept whose operation the writer witnessed firsthand at Mupandawana Growth Point.

Hordes of Zanu PF apologists were captured receiving scarce maize bags from the Mupandawana People’s Shop opposite CABS building Society and behind the Main Post office at the Growth point while thousands of impoverished non Zanu PF supporters were hassling in queues to access restricted cash withdrawals from the nearby CABS, POSB and ZB Banking halls.

On asking an acquaintance how I could also benefit from the proceeds I was asked to produce a letter from the War Veterans Organisation or the Zanu PF party card both of which I did not have at the time.

But a half a kilometre drive to the main Gutu/Bhasera junction with the outlet from the Growth point I was offered a 50kg bag of the same maize a recipient had benefi ted if I carried his loot of five bags to Mushayavanhu some 10-15 kilometres from Mupandawana.

It was tempting but the small and battered car I was driving had no capacity for such a large load so I lost out.

SADC should stop pretending Zimbabwe Agreement is on course

pic. Morgan Tsvangirai and Ian Makone in the mix at Goromonzi




The absence of Zimbabwe Prime Minister Designate Morgan Tsvangirai at the SADC Troika meeting in Mbabane Swaziland today will serve to define the seriousness with which Zanu PF and its despotic leader must approach the formation of the inclusive government or lose the lease of legitimacy the agreement to form such a government had conferred on him.


After two months of playing truant and procrastination in implementing key elements of the agreement left within his ambit to conclude by SADC mediator and former RSA President Mbeki, the message is on the wall and bare for all to read that the inclusive Government in the country is about to be suffer a still birth.

Since 15 September 2008 when he put pen to paper to the agreement strenuously cobbled by Thabo Mbeki against all odds, Mugabe has reneged on implementing the key aspects of the agreement and created an untenable negotiating climate characterised by intransigence and political mischief on his part in an unacceptable flexing of his muscles after securing undue recognition as head of State.

His arrogance that knows no boundaries like his unwelcome overstay in power has been allowed to prevail for longer than is necessary and it is encouraging to see the MDC leader who was legitimately elected president but settled for less to save lives starting to throw mud back at Mugabe and his party of insolent geriatrics.

For six months Tsvangirai has been under an unannounced Zanu PF and Mugabe travel embargo through denial of a Passport for the man the country accepts as its true and authentic leader since 29 March 2008.

He sent clear warning to Mugabe and company that they were not helping the negotiating climate by refusing him the basic travel document and yet expecting him to legitimise their stolen positions in government when on 15 August he nearly failed to attend the critical SADC heads o State Meeting in South Africa because Immigration Officers in Harare had not renewed his emergency travel documents.

Later that month the MDC had to go to Court to have Tendai Biti’s passport released to allow him to attend to negotiations to form the inclusive Government that ultimately legitimised Mugabe’s Presidency of the country after losing elections and resorting to brutal military force to retain office.

When President Mugabe agreed to form the inclusive government he must have consulted with his party and was given the green light to lead the party into the necessary negotiations. It is an indictment on the chaos that characterises his rule and Party organisation that he has at every turn sought time out from the negotiations to consult with his party.

For all we know Mugabe has never been guided by anyone when it came to Zanu PF strategies and modus operandi. All these excuses he has been making were time buying exercises in futility that one day he might live to regret.

Tsvangirai has nothing to beg from Mugabe. He has already been denied occupancy of the position every sane Zimbabwean knows he won free and square on 29 March 2008.
He had been hitherto extraordinarily politically generous to step back and legitimise Mugabe’s claim to the same office out of concern for the plight of toiling Zimbabweans under Mugabe’s rule.

Mugabe being the thick head he has always been took that to mean political weakness of not only Tsvangirai but the entire nation that supports him and SADC, AU and UN organs that supported the undemocratic process he forced in the country after losing in a democratic election.

Instead of formalising the agreement that legitimises him by confirming Tsvangirai, Mutambara and Khupe as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers respectively he found it appropriate to deny Tsvangirai a passport and appoint the hopeless Mujuru and Msika as Vice Presidents.

Nothing has changed for the better as a consequence of those cynical appointments which he made to deal with succession strife4 in his faction torn Party.

By filling the VP posts with the dead wood that Msika and Mujuru have proven to be during their tenure of office at the same level Mugabe was sending a strong signal to Emmerson Mnangagwa that his Presidential ambitions were no nearer fulfilment than they were after the infamous Tsholotsho declaration.

For resolution those petty intra-Party squabbles to take precedence over National issues like forming an agreed Government is indicative of the spite with which Mugabe holds Zimbabweans.

Mugabe does not need any reminding that his legitimacy devolves from signatures appended on the inclusive Government formation agreement and not Zanu PF.

Of those four signatures the one that carries the most weight is that of Morgan Tsvangirai and the minute he disowns the agreement for whatever reason it will cease to carry the weight it now holds.

It is most embarrassing that a president who agreed to enter into an inclusive government before the same organisation now calling parties to mediation over disputes emerging from the agreement they witnessed being signed would find it proper to travel to the important meeting with George Charamba and a coterie of Zanu PF losers in tow at the taxpayer’s expense leaving behind the crucial Party leader with whom he is intended to be reconciled.

Now that he has categorically stated that he will not enter into negotiations aimed at legitimising Mugabe when the same Mugabe who yearns for the legitimacy behaves with scorn and unwarranted political machismo what next?

Surely Chinamasa and Charamba will not be of much use if they can’t help him convince SADC to proceed with the mediation talks and legitimise his Presidency.

For Charamba to then spew the garbage that he has let him become used to writing in the Herald that Prime Minister Designate Tsvangirai is playing hard to get and will come on an emergency travel document while travelling on state business is the height of irresponsibility that in any other democracy would end earn him summary dismissal.

How many other passports have been issued to other Zimbabweans with lesser National responsibility than Tsvangirai since the purported sanctions that deny issuance of a passport to Tsvangirai were imposed?

If SADC seriously wants to salvage the troubled inclusive government formation in the country they should start with insisting that Mugabe fires the registrar General and the Secretary for information and publicity as a confidence building measure.

Thereafter they should insist that before any talk of Cabinet portfolio sharing is entertained Mugabe must reverse all political appointments he made after the agreement was signed including that of Provincial Governors and Councillors appointed by the illegitimate Minister of Local Government Dr Ignatious Chombo.

That done Mugabe must then and by proclamation in the Government Gazette announce the appointment of Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe in the positions they were agreed to hold in the inclusive Government.

That done Sadc must insist that Mugabe can proceed to meet with the Premier do discuss which portfolio each of the 31 persons the parties to the agreement will have nominated to be in the Cabinet and National Council of Ministers will be best suited to effectively and efficiently deliver for the inclusive Government based on their qualifications and capabilities.

Should there arise a disagreement that the president and Prime Minister cannot resolve over that exercise, it should be referred to the envisaged implementation evaluation committees in the agreement and the two will be guided by recommendations there from.

Should disagreement still prevail then and only then should the matter be referred to SADC for mediation.

All this can be achieved within two weeks if strict deadlines are set for the relevant authorities to finalise the agreement implementation.

In the meantime Tsvangirai is better off without actively propping up Mugabe and let him fight his legitimacy wars as best he knows how.

MDC must refuse all Cabinet allotments before PM's Appointment is Legitimised

The MDC must refuse to be rushed into regularising Cabinet allotments ahead of the Premiership department being legitimised in terms of the agreement for to do so would be the dangerous political brinkmanship of putting the cart ahead of the horse. It’s a calculated Zanu PF trap.

As the inclusive government formation talks are escalated to the SADC Troika for possible finalisation it is most fundamental that the dispute be understood for what it is rather than what it has been sold out to be by the compromised State media in the country.


Ever since the agreement was signed, State Media went into overdrive to influence public opinion into the belief that the agreement legitimised President Mugabe to exercise the same powers he held as Executive President prior to the signing of the agreement.

Led by Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru the State media has at every opportunity published opinions that falsely imply that the MDC formations came into this agreement out of desperation and settled for less than what is in the agreement.

Whereas the current dispute was pre-empted by Article XX of the agreement and procedures of dealing with it set out in the agreement, Zanu PF has fallen back into its lethargic sacrosanct belief that it is in charge and what it says goes.

Even the reminder from its very own geriatric and despotic leader that the reason why he is in the embarrassing position of having to negotiate for his own and the Party’s legitimacy in government was because they lost elections on 29 March 2008, has failed to wake up the Party’s faithful from this deep slumber they have been in for the past 20 years.

Zanu PF has always and is still of the belief that it can get away with any form of political suicide in Zimbabwe so long it pretends to accommodate democratic change but remains autocratic in practice.

There is no political will in the party to embrace change and move out of the cocoon that it is ensconced because leading personalities in the party are stained with past murders, corruption, money laundering and pillaging of State Assets.

The current impasse is not about allocation of key Ministries to formations that signed the inclusive government agreement but rather the failure by President Mugabe and his Party to live by the spirit and letter of the agreement from the date when it was signed to date.

Whereas ARTICLE XX of the agreement to form an inclusive Government tacitly sets out the agreed and accepted principles, philosophy and commitment necessary to support successful formation of the inclusive Government, Zanu PF has so far acted contrary to the spirit and letter of that Article in the agreement triggering the impasse that obtains.

Therein parties acknowledged that they had an obligation to establish a framework of working together in an inclusive government; that the formation of such a government will have to be approached with great sensitivity, flexibility and willingness to compromise; and that the formation of such a Government would demonstrate the respect of the Parties for the deeply-felt and immediate hopes and aspirations of the millions of Zimbabweans whom they termed “our people”.

They expressed determination to carry out sustained work to create the conditions for returning our country to stability and prosperity.

In doing so they acknowledged the need for gender parity, particularly the need to appoint women to strategic Cabinet posts.

In tandem with those underlying principles they then proceeded to agree on where Executive Powers and Authority of the Inclusive Government shall vest.

They agreed that Executive Power and Authority shall vest in and will be shared among the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, as provided for in this Constitution and legislation.

They further agreed that the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister of the Republic and the Cabinet of the Republic shall exercise executive authority subject to the Constitution and the law.

In the exercise of executive authority, it was agreed, the President, Vice Presidents, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers must have regard to the principles and spirit underlying the formation of the Inclusive Government and accordingly act in a manner that seeks to promote cohesion both inside and outside government.

What has happened so far is that only the President has continued to exercise executive authority and outside the spirit and letter of the agreement for that matter.

That is why the negotiations on Ministerial allotments have stalled.
First President Mugabe delivered a nauseating speech at the signing ceremony wherein he failed to acknowledge the Vice Presidents, the Prime Minister and his Deputies, the Speaker of Parliament and President of the Senate and the Mayor who were there present.

Secondly President Mugabe chose to attend the UN Security Council meeting in New York with a massive delegation of Zanu PF hangers on instead of attending to the implementation of the volatile inclusive Government agreement he had just signed.
On his return he went ahead to announce an inclusive Government Cabinet line up he had not discussed and agreed with parties to the agreement forming such a Government.
Dr Ignatious Chombo continued to illegally appoint electorally rejected former Zanu PF Councillors and Commissioners into Local Councils where Zanu PF had been walloped to restore the rejected Party’s relevance in those Local Authorities.

Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono continued to implement his Print Money and Regulate Financial markets as if he has been guaranteed yet another five year tenure of office by the agreement.

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri continued to issue orders for Police to harass and detain WOZA/MOZA peaceful demonstrators demanding the inclusive Government to focus on the debilitating humanitarian catastrophe facing the Nation.

State controlled media continued to spew vitriol and hurt messages against the MDC and the agreement.

But what is it in the spirit and letter of the agreement that manifests as the current impasse on Cabinet post allocation?

The answers are in the agreement that the parties signed. Not what they have done about clauses therein but rather what has not been done deliberately or by omission it is neither here nor there.

Fact remains that what has not been done which was agreed would be done is so material unless it is done the impasse will continue and the SADC Troika meeting will not yield anything to the contrary.

The initial cause of the political impasse was the disputed “re-election” of President Mugabe in a one man sham of a runoff Presidential poll on 27 June 2008.

The agreement to form an inclusive Government regularised that and restored President Mugabe’s legitimacy not just in letter but in deed when the SADC Mediator crowned him immediately before the signing of the agreement and tasked him to do the same for his Vice Presidents, Prime Minister, and Deputy Prime Ministers designate in terms of Agreement on his role.

“The President shall, pursuant to this Agreement, appoint the Prime Minister pending the enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment no.19 as agreed by the Parties;formally appoints Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers in accordance with this agreement,” reads the agreement in part of his role.

He has not adhered to that and infact hinted he was not about to do that when he, at the signing ceremony pleaded with anyone who dared listen that now the agreement was in place nobody should seek assistance about its implementation from then President Mbeki whom he reckoned deserved a rest after the protracted and acrimonious negotiations that preceded the agreement.

What he implied was that now that he had been legitimised he was in sole charge of the implementation process of the agreement and any attempt to recall SADC mediation where his decisions were not acceptable to partners in the agreement should not be contemplated as he was now a legitimate dictator.

That is the single and most critical factor that has led to the current impasse. The Troika can break the impasse within minutes by demanding that President Mugabe lives up to the spirit and letter of the agreement in a chronological and rational sequence.

How?

First President Mugabe must formally announce the appointment of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers Designate as agreed and notwithstanding that the envisaged Constitutional Amendment No 19 is yet to be enacted.

That way he will pave the way to move forward with Cabinet appointments and formation of the National Council of Ministers.

If Cabinet is formed before the formalisation of the Appointment of the Premier and his deputies what would stop President Mugabe to forge ahead with a government without the premiership arguing that the matter of the appointment of the Premier and his deputies required Parliamentary ratification and at the same time using his Parliamentarians to block passage of Constitutional Amendment No 19 until such time he has consolidated his grip on the inclusive Cabinet and poisoned it with unworkable Zanu PF mantra.

The MDC must refuse to be stampeded into agreeing a Cabinet before their Premier is legitimised. If they do they will commit regrettable political suicide only Zanu PF has in the past been capable of defying.

After the Premier’s Department has been legitimised by advance appointment of the President in terms of the agreement blockage of the passage of Constitutional Amendment No 19 in the Legislative Assemblies will be rendered an academic exercise in futility.

That is the confidence that the SADC Troika meeting needs to instil in the negotiation process to nudge Zanu PF and President Mugabe to concede Cabinet positions in dispute because it would not serve the Party’s agenda to dig in when clearly the Prime minister will supervise day to day government operations and has Constitutional powers to relieve incompetent Ministers of their duties in consultation with the President.

Alternatively the SADC Troika must propose that in the aftermath of Cabinet allotment all Zanu PF held key cabinet portfolios report directly to the Prime Minister and those deemed key portfolios allotted to the MDC report directly to the President.

That way the Zanu PF key man President Mugabe will ensure his party is not rendered irrelevant and likewise the MDC key man Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai would monitor any attempts by Zanu PF to use Cabinet Ministers to torpedo his Party.

The premature Appointments of Provincial Governors and Resident Ministers must also be visited at this juncture and agreed with those that are deemed necessary to be allotted to the MDC being declared vacant and open to be filled by the appropriate party forthwith.

If that is not done, sooner rather than later SADC will find itself burdened by the need to mediate on that as well. The spirit and letter characterising allotment of Provincial Governorship among the parties must cascade down to Provincial Officers, diplomatic agents, consular officers, independent Commissions in terms of the Constitution and service/executive Commissions in terms of the Constitution.

Only then will it be possible for SADC and its Principals to step back and allow the inclusive government an opportunity to function while monitoring from a distance.

It must never be lost to the Troika that President Mugabe had planned to stay in office till 2010 as undisputed Head of State and has not changed those plans at all.
All his procrastination in implementing the agreed principles in the inclusive Government have everything to do with that time frame.