Is Anyone Interested In The Talks Anymore? (Zuma Says Something....)

That question was put to me today and is a bit misleading. It is not interest that people have lost, but hope.
Most people do not understad the intricacies of the arguments for or against the formation of a government.

So, as the talks drag on and on and as they die like flies from cholera and the unlogged effects of AIDS and other treatable afflictions (hospitals are closed), they despair that a solution will ever be found. They see the man who claims to be their "president" thumbing his nose at the world by humilating a group of eminent old people who wanted to come and see their suffering and nothing happens to that "president".

So, as all eyes rest on South Africa, where it is announced that the mediator, Thabo Mbeki, will meet the parties, the people of Zimbabwe do not expect much from it. The MDC has threatened to boycott the meeting. When the agreement was signed, my mother did not sleep that night at her home in the township because of the celebrations by MDC supporters. They danced, drove around in cars beeping their horns and celebrated for two days non-stop. It was understandable, even though most of them did not know what they were celebrating, they knew that they would at least see a temporary lessening of their acute pain.

This is the same agreement that they now rubbish. The reason is "equitable sharing of power." As Dr Makoni asked at his last press conference: what had they been negotiating about all along if they were not talking about these matters? Why did they sign the agreement before these things were agreed if they are so important that they are worth a few hundred dead Zimbabwean bodies?

The people, much as they want a solution, have decided now that the end to their suffering will not come from these two men, Robert Mugabe, who is fraudlently claiming to be president, and Morgan Tsvangirai, who we all have to pity as we watch Mugabe run rings around him.

The South Africans are unlikely to have any impact. Mugabe will do as he pleases and there is an end to the matter. He will not listen. Where then is King Solomon's "birth mother" in this sorry tale, who will say, "better to give up the baby than to have it cut in half"? Which of the two is going to be the "birth mother" of King Solomon's tale in all of this?

Yes, there are encouraging signs of impatience from the South Africans, (the latest being Zuma, whose statement today, says "Zimbabwe is out of control".

But Zimbabweans also think that's as far as it will ever go. They do not have any hope that Mbeki or Zuma or anybody else will be able to make Mugabe see sense. What they had hoped for was that, during these negotiations, the parties would give a bit ground each, with an eye permanently on how to rescue the people from the urgent catasprohe that faces them as they scrounge for edible wild fruit and clean running water. They hoped that both leaders would put the interest of the people of Zimbabwe first. This is now a matter of life and death.

This means weighing whether the position anyone calling himself a leader takes is worth letting any number of citizens die. We all know Mugabe's position: every Zimbabwean should be ready to die to keep ZANU PF in power, no matter what ZANU PF does.

What is Tsvangirai's? What, in terms of the cost (in human bodies) does No Deal Is Better Than A Bad Deal mean?