MDC Dreaming, Say Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Officials

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Latest Photos from Zimbabwe: Here, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, flanked by Tendai Biti and the previously exiled Roy Bennet, announces his party's capitulation to Robert Mugabe's government

The latest news from Zimbabwe today is still about the capitulation of Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T to Mugabe's ZANU PF. 

A colleague who was speaking to his former workmates in the Zimbabwe Ministry of Foreign Affairs (he retired from Foreign Affairs in the mid-nineties)  got a shock from their reponses to the imminent GNU.

He says they told him that the MDC was dreaming if they thought they would get their hands on any substantive government files or even be allowed to conduct any real business.

"Hatimbovapa mafiles edu. Takatoaviga so," they told him. Translated into English for my international readers, the statements says, "We will never give them our files. We have already hidden them."

"Mapurisa, masoja, majudge - vese ndevedu. Vachatonga mhepo" - "The police, the soldiers, judges - they are all ours. They will rule the wind," my colleague was told.

You will recall that during the December 2008 ZANU PF Congress, Mugabe himself, in a widely publicised address to his Central Committee, said, "We will not tolerate any nonsense from our new partners in government. We are firmly in control."

He has also told his Politubro that the MDC is in government only for one purpose: "To clean up the mess they created in our economy by calling for sanctions. That is the only reason we are allowing them to come into government."

Mugabe believes that everyone has a price and claims that he has already read what the MDC price is. He will indeed concede and give away a few governorships and ambassadorial appointments. The idea is to create a legalistic impression that the MDC is in charge of something.

But we all know that the real power in this government still lies with the dictator. You will no doubt also recall an interview sometime last year in which he revealed his political tactics, telling his interviewer from the state broadcaster, "Mupolitics, unoruma, uchifuridzira, uchiruma, uchifuridzira." Translated, he said, "In politics, you tend to bite, and then kiss it better, bite again and kiss it better."

That is Mugabe's modus operandi. The massive crackdown on the MDC support base that we saw in the aftermath of the signing of the agreement, with MDC councillors arrested, activists abducted and charged with plotting banditry as a side business to their full-time jobs, the banning of MDC rallies etc, was the biting bit. He then kissed it better at the 26 January SADC Extraordinary Summit in Tshwane by agreeing to look again at the appointment of governors and coming up with a formula for reallocation of these posts.

The people of Zimbabwe can now judge the March 2008 propaganda for themselves.

To aid this judging, I ask the follwing: 

DO YOU NOW SEE WHO IT IS THAT HAS GIVEN YOUR VOTES TO MUGABE? 

DO YOU NOW REALISE WHO IT IS THAT WANTED TO HOODWINK YOU BY GETTING YOUR VOTES AND THEN HANDING THEM TO ZANU PF IN ORDER TO ALLOW MUGABE TO CONTINUE AS PRESIDENT?

DO YOU NOW REALISE WHO IT IS THAT HAS ENDORSED IMPUNITY?


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Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2009 at 5:15 PM

    Denford ungangodaro hako, asi zvema party zvinonetsa izvi. Dai uriwe Tsvangirai, wakadii? Ko iye Simba waunomira naye, sei akaisa muswe pakati pemakumbo ndokutiza sembwa yawanikwa ichiba nyama? I hate people who just criticise but have absolutely no practical solutions to offer - thats Mavambo. As i heard Simba say the other time, he indeed energised the election but all for the worse,with the benefit of hindsight. If he had continued from his 7% to mobilise etc, we would not be having this bickering as people of Zimbabwe would have had a clearly hopeful alternative. For now, we are better off with Tsvangirai, period.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The TeamFebruary 2, 2009 at 5:31 PM

    I wondered how long it would take for the cowardly "Anonymouses" to start justifying the MDC capitulation.

    Again, I see the example of Zimbabwe's myopic politics in your comments.

    We do have practical solutions. For starters, Tsvangirai messed up by rushing to sign a deal before he was satisfied with all the arrangements in it.

    He then tried to backtrack, but had locked himself into a position. No one forced him to sign that document, not even SADC.

    Once it was signed, SADC asked him to simply keep his word, which all of you "anonymouses" were against, saying it was better to die than go in with Mugabe and so on?

    THAT, MY FRIEND, IS WHAT TSVANGIRAI COULD HAVE DONE.

    Simply because has been methodical in forming the new party, you condemn him as having run away with his tail between his legs?

    The one who has his tail between his legs is your hero, Tsvangirai, who has now come back cowering to accept everything Mugabe dictated he should have.

    With none of his demands accepted, HE HAS COME BACK WITH HIS TAIL TO ACCEPT THE LITTLE BONE THAT MUGABE HAS THROWN HIM.

    MAVAMBO now has a clear path, with the end of this charade that has now culminated in the formation of a new party - MDC-PF.

    With all that behind us, you will now see the party launched before the end of this quarter and the people of Zimbabwe will have their hopeful alternative.

    THEY NOW KNOW WHO IT IS THAT HAS SOLD THEIR VOTES TO MUGABE.

    THEY NOW KNOW WHO IT IS THAT HAS NO PRINCIPLES TO STAND BY, WHO IT IS THAT WILL ABANDON THEM AT THE SLIGHTEST WHIFF OF MUGABE'S GRAVY TRAIN.

    SIMBA PROVED A BETTER MAN BECAUSE HE WALKED AWAY FROM THAT GRAVY TRAIN. EVEN WHEN HE WAS IN ZANU PF, HE NEVER TOOK PART IN IT.

    THAT IS WHY THE MDC IS SCARED OF HIM.

    THAT IS WHY YOU THINK THAT YOUR MDC CAN ONLY RISE BY DOING DOWN MAKONI.

    IN A FAIR CONTEST, PEOPLE KNOW WHO IS A BETTER LEADER.

    NOW THEY HAVE THEIR CHANCE OF DECIDING FAIRLY.

    UNLESS, OF COURSE, TSVANGIRAI JOINS MUGABE IN STIFLING OPPOSING VOICES AS YOU YOURSELF ARE ALREADY TRYING TO DO.

    MDC IS DEAD. LONG LIVE MAVAMBO.

    ReplyDelete

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