Mugabe 1: Tsvangirai: 0


Soon after Morgan Tsvangirai "nullified" the appointment of Permanent Secretaries, I told you on this very blog of the meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai at which the dictator informed the Prime Minister that he was not going to fire Gono or the Attorney General, that Tomana guy.

I was right, my detractors were wrong.

Yesterday, Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti ate humble pie.

Because, yesterday, Tendai Biti was forced to hold a press conference at which he declared that he was best friends with the Reserve Bank governor. Online newspapers, Tendai Biti said, were "awash with falsehoods about my relationship with the Central Bank Governor".

The truth of the matter is what I told you on this blog. You will recall that I did inform you that Mugabe had told Tsvangirai that there was no reason for the government to fire Gideon Gono. I also informed you that Mugabe had said the two men must first work together and, if Gono was found to be insubordinate, then, and only then, would Mugabe think about firing the RBZ governor.

The press conference yesterday was evidence of the truth of that story I gave you here. The two men are now "starting on a clean slate". Gideon Gono is not going anywhere.

Mugabe wins again, is what this means.

In the same story I am talking about, I also informed you that the Attorney General was not gonna go anywhere. Sure enough, a couple of days later, the AG was sworn in on the same day as the Prime Minister was sworn in as a non-constituency member of Parliament.

Effectively, then, the issue of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana is dead. Mugabe has triumphed. All the complaints we have been hearing from Morgan Tsvangirai about the need to "revisit" the appointments of the two men have now come to exactly nought.

At the press conference yesterday, Gideon Gono was careful to say that Tendai Biti was his boss. Which falls in line with Mugabe's position to Tsvangirai that the only grounds on which the Governor could be fired would be if he proved insubordinate. 

So he signalled yesterday that he would not go down that route and give Biti and Tsvangirai reason to demand his head from Mugabe.

It is important here to note that Biti and Tsvangirai objected to Gono on the basis of his past actions. Biti publicly called for Gono to be "put before a firing squad" during the election campaign of March 2008.

The MDC-T have always said that Gono used public funds to tilt the playing field in favour of ZANU PF, that he funded the horrific violence that surrounded the ill-fated presidential run-off election from which Tsvangirai eventually withdrew.

Of course, we don't need to be reminded that, from day one, Morgan Tsvangirai has said that the "outstanding issues" in this government included the appointments of Gideon Gono and Tomana, the Attorney General. He was demanding that these appointments, made by Mugabe before Tsvangirai was sworn in, should be withdrawn.

Nothing of the sort is about to happen.

In other words, the scoreboard in that stand-off at the moment reads: 

Mugabe: 1, Tsvangirai:0.

Soon, we will get public confirmation of the fact the Attorney General is also not going anywhere and that Mugabe's "unilateral"  appointment of him stands and that the MDC has also climbed down on that one.

So, for those western countries that met last week and demanded that a "credible team" be put at the Reserve Bank, they got their answer yesterday, the team that is at the RBZ stays and the donors and the MDC will have to live with that.

The MDC, through the presence of Biti at that press conference yesterday, has signalled that it will indeed live with this.

Which is, I guess, a slap in the face for the MDC's supposed allies in the west.

The true impact of this is yet to be realised. But it is quite clear that the aid and donor money that Tsvangirai's government is looking for will certainly not be coming. Tsvangirai has signalled to the donors that he stands with Mugabe. Now it is up to the donors to announce whether they are happy with this and will help their man, Morgan Tsvangirai, who claimed during the March 2008 elections that he holds the keys to the unlocking of aid to Zimbabwe.

Where are those keys now?

Or have his western landlords changed the locks on him?

We'll see.


***************************

And another thing, Mugabe told his ZANU PF Central Committee yesterday that he wants the MDC-T to be more vocal in calling for the lifting of sanctions. He is quoted in today's Herald as saying:

"We want the voices of all against the sanctions, we want the voices of the MDC-T to be heard much more loudly against the sanctions."

So Mugabe is certainly making Tsvangirai jump through hoops of fire. The PM has already called for the lifting of "restrictive measures" against Zimbabwe. But Mugabe now says this is not enough. The PM must do more.

And he will. He has no choice now. As Mugabe said during his last address to his ZANU PF Central Committee:

"We are firmly in the driving seat and we will not tolerate any nonsense from our new partners in government."

And there's an end to it.

Comments

  1. The problem is with Zimbabweans in general; either we are dumb people or extremely sadistic. Manomano evaroyi kunyepera kutya dzvinyu takasungirira nyoka muchiuno. For almost a decade it was us Zimbabweans who were at the forefront of denying that sanctions exist until this year when the likes of McGhee started openly referring to them as such. When Morgan was playing golf with the ambassador, did he even ask or point out who they were affecting?

    The then US Assistant Secretary of State on African Affairs Chester Crocker testified to the US Senate in pushing for the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act that: "To separate the Zimbabwean people from Zanu-PF we are going to have to make their economy scream, and I hope you, Senators, have the stomach for what you have to do."

    Yet we were documenting the suffering of Zimbabwean people at every opportunity and not even one time was anyone able to stand up and point out that the so called “targeted sanctions” were hurting the ordinary people more than their targets. The same people who still had Mandela on a terrorist list up until last year! If the same people knew all along that the sanctions would hurt the people more, what does it mean when they are refusing to remove them? And why do we keep “hoping” like a cat watching someone eating?

    The truth commission needs to zoom in on the effects of sanctions and part played by the MDC to make the Zimbabweans economy “scream”.

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  2. I knew it and have said it before,President Mugabe will not fire Dr Gono or Attorney general Tomana, those two guys can only go before the end of their terms if they on their own accord feels uncomfortable with the environment they are working in and resigns. President Mugabe will never pressure them to resign nor succumb to MDC pressure.He mean what he says.
    On the other hand the MDC do not have reasonable legal basis to challenge the appointments.There is also confusion in the MDC, Tendai Kukiya-kiya Biti appeared to have been arguing against the appointment on the basis of the governors past performance record, that is his ability and yet Giles Mutsekwa tells us that it was not the person of Gono they are against, but the procedure followed in re-appointing him, the President should have consulted the then Prime minister designate before the appointment.In other words they still could have agreed on Dr Gono if the consultation with the PM was done, but Biti seem to be of a different view, which is that it is the person of GONO they do not like,.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very interesting, Zimbabwe has a dictator President and a saboteur Prime minister, may those reporting on the blogs make emphasis of this.

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  4. @Thokozile
    I think we are all missing the point. This should not be about Tomana, Gono, Biti and or whoever is out there dangling utopia for us. I will be the first to agree that Gono needs to go, but I am against the reasons why this has to be done. Who will choose the next central bank chief, what is the criteria and most importantly how do we stop the next person from doing the same thing we are accusing Gono of? Maybe not for Mugabe but what if the same guy does it for the MDC.

    These positions together with Perm Secs and heads of Parastatals should be about abilities and we should do away with politicizing them. We need to come up with solutions that suit us and have longer lasting and stabilizing effects for us. We need to make sure that position can not be abused first before putting someone else there! At what point do we stop? We fire Gono today, putting some loyal MDC guy who will very soon know he has to prop up Tsvangirai and then start the cycle again when the MDC gets booted out? We keep hiding behind the excuse of aid to sweep all the challenges facing us under the rag. Everything is now we can’t do this or that because donors will not fund us! Lord have mercy on us!

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  5. @Nyatsimba Mutota,
    The MDC's political life was dependent on the suffering of the people, so the sanctions and their effect were playing a vital role in sustaining the MDC. The MDC's primary, secondary and overall objective was to get into power by whatever means, regardless of any consequences. Now they are there, you see them now doing exactly what they were criticising Zanu Pf gvt for.
    The Prime Minister used to boast that he holds the keys to the unlocking of Aid to Zim, surely can one draw comfort on holding keys to a house that is not yours,firstly the locks can be changed by the owner of the house, and secondly you can just be denied access even to the gate of the house and finally you can be ordered to return those keys.
    Now that the Prime Minister is being told that he is not speaking loud enough against the economic sanctions, we ain't seen nothing yet.I foresee the sanctions issue draging to election period, and it is likely going to be a reason for deferring future elections, until the sanctions are lifted.
    This kind of set up which is a quasi-one party state is exactly what President Mugabe would prefer, than to have to fight an opposition party supported by very evil, selfish and powerful western nations.The lifespan of the inclusive government is likely to be extended until they all in government start singing from the same hymn.The sanctions issue is going to be as controversial as the Land issue.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Nyatsimba Mutota,
    I think you misinterpreted my position on the Gono, Tomana, Biti issue.I wasn't approving or disapproving anything. I was given my view of what I see as the position that President Mugabe would take, whether right or wrong.
    I was also bringing forward the confusion amongst MDC Ministers Biti and Mutsekwa regarding the Gono - Tomana issue.
    If I am to tell you my personal position regarding Gono, I will be the first one to disagree that he has to go, because there is no convincing reason given for him to go. The only reason has been the RBZ's quasi- fiscal operations, but they haven't told us what any other Governor would have done given the situation Zim found itself in.Zim was left to crush and burn had Dr Gono not taken such extra-ordinary measures.
    For me to think otherwise, we should be told what the alternative was.

    ReplyDelete

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