Daggers Drawn For Tsvangirai

Morgan Tsvangirai meeting with Hilary Clinton earlier today at the State Department in Washington. They spoke against a background of the Zimbabwe flag and the US flag. Tsvangirai said in Washington (speaking about the reluctance of the world to give Zimbabwe aid and only give humanitarian assistance: “It's insufficient, what you need is to move away from humanitarian support which is largely to deal with food, health, education. What we need are lines of credit to our businesses, some injection into the recovery budget so that the government is able to execute those priority programmes that directly benefit Zimbabweans.” Meantime, back home JOC has decided they will take the gloves off in relation dealing with the MDC-T, whom they accuse of "not holding up their end of the bargain."

On Wednesday this week, (yesterday), JOC met in Harare and the resolutions they came up with are disturbing.

I really do feel pity for Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, who Mugabe said he "sent" on a mission to being back aid and get sanctions lifted.

While The Prime Minister fights a forlon and hopeless battle to try and do Mugabe's bidding, The Solution and his party have decided that gloves will now come off.

In essence, the resolutions by JOC yesterday can be summed upin one sentence: "No more concessions".

The idea is to now proceed as if the MDC is not in government at all.

This decision was apparently reached as it became clearer that sanctions and travel bans are not to be lifted.

This comes at it was also revealed to me yesterday that the the president, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, has said to Tsvangirai the future of this government is "quid pro quo". He has told the Prime Minister that the swearing-in of Roy Bennet and the Governors as well as the Ambassadors that they agreed to is dependant on what Tsvangirai can bring to the table for the government.

Yesterday, there was agreement in JOC that there had been nothing forthcoming from the MDC-T.

More disturbing was the consensus that ermerged from the JOC meeting. This body believes that Morgan Tsvangirai is "on a different mission to what was agreed in cabinet". One of the JOC members is quoted as saying Tsvangirai is "looking for money for his NGOs" instead of money for government.

It appears this feeling is universal within that body.

They are certain that the Prime Minister is privately telling his hosts not to give any assistance to the Inclusive government so that he can achieve what Mugabe still calls "regime change". The belief within ZANU PF now is that Tsvangirai wants that aid witheld so that he strengthens his argument for the removal of Gono and Tomana.

The bottom line, though is this:

JOC has decided that

• Bennet and the Governors will not be sworn in ("because the MDC have failed to live up to their end of the bargain")
• Should a constitution be drafted and passed by parliament, the president will refuse to sign it and implement it, ensuring the next elections will be held under the current constitution ("there is nothing they can do to us that theyhave not already done," was the sentiment I heard yesterday)
• The MDC and its officials will be locked out of public media in a much more explicit manner. (This is rather moot, in my opinion, because, as you are well aware, the state media has completely ignored Tsvangirai's trip overseas. The only article that appeared on the front page of The Herald was celebrating the fact that Tsvangirai had been refused aid by the Dutch)
• ZANU PF will activate its hordes in the rural areas and ensure that the MDC_t is not allowed free reign there

Apart from this, we already know that Gono and the Attorney General are not going anywhere and that the Permanent Secretaries that Mugabe put in place will stay put and stay ZANU PF.

Because the MDC-T has vowed it will not get out of government, the official position of JOC now is to use every available opportunity to humiliate and demean the Prime Minister, thereby diminishing his political capital in the eyes of the electorate.

It is pitiful, really, to watch the MDC-T in government now, as ZANU PF laughs and says "alll they wanted was to be called "Honourable" and that is it."

Rather pitiful to see the Prime Minster fighting a lone, fruitless battle against this tide.

The Prime Minister, who meets President Obama inFriday in Washington D.C., now has a dagger drawn for him and his party back home. Like I have been saying for so long, there is no hope that he will bring anything back from this trip.

His last hope is Barak Obama, whom he meets tomorrow (Friday) at the White House. Don't hold your breath, though.