Why Mugabe Wants Parliament To Drive Constitutional Process

Even as I write, the MDC-T technically holds no sway in parliament, despite having a speaker in the chair. Their majority, which Veritas warned a month ago was in jeopardy, is now under sustained attack with the complicity of the judiciary and law enforcement agents.

As always, MDC-T and Tsvangirai apologists are parroting the line of their discredited leader.

Having embraced the most evil dictator in contemporary African history, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, the Prime Minister and his people are now backing Mugabe's wishes for a new Constitution to be made through parliament and only parliament.

"People-driven does not mean Madhuku-driven," they say.

Leave them be, for they will be crying in frustration tomorrow, having been outwitted together with their leader by one The Solution.

Already, the process as it stands now is guided by parliament. That is a fait accompli that "the people" and Robert Mugabe have decided on and the MDC-T and Morgan Tsvangirai have given in to.

But WHY does Mugabe want this process to be driven by parliament?

It is simple, really.

The MDC-T majority in parliament now is non-existent. Several MDC MPs have been arrested and sentenced to jail terms longer than the six months after which the law says they automatically lose their seats.

Mugabe, at whose pleasure any by-election must be held, has also still not moved on calling by-elections in seats that are definitively vacant, such as the Matabeleland seat held previously by the speaker of parliament, Lovemore Moyo.

What is he waiting for?

He is waiting for the other seats to also fall definitely vacant, that's the first thing.

Second, Mugabe is also playing for time, trying by all means to frustrate the MDC-T into leaving government. He rejoices every time the MDC-T party expresses what the Prime Minister called "frustration" over the outstanding issues.

So, as the MDC's majority in parliament shrinks before our very eyes, Mugabe is keeping his fingers crossed that it disappears completely.

Technically it already has.

This is also linked to the Roy Bennett and Governors case.

Should the convictions of the MDC-T MPs stand and they are sent to jail, Mugabe plans to turn around to Tsvangirai and say that the basis upon which the calculations for Governors and ministries had been made no longer applied now.

The parties based their Gravy Train seats on the number of parliamentary seats they had.

So, the swearing in of Bennett and the governors will be delayed while by-elections are called. If the MDC-T is still in government and the GPA must be observed, Mugabe plans, in the words of one of his advisers, "to do an Ian Smith".

Independents will be fielded in those constituencies and plied with loads of cash with which to buy votes. The Ian Smith thing refers to Mugabe's strategy of fielding "Independent" White candidates for the 20 seats reserved for white voters in the five years after Independence.

Mugabe hopes to win back a majority of these seats falling vacant now, thereby gaining supremacy once again over the MDCs in parliament.

Whereupon the very basis upon which most of the demands of the MDC-T are based will have fallen away.

Then the real fun begins and you will see and hear so much gnashing of teeth from the MDC-T crowd that you will have no option but to feel pity for them.

Of course, these warning will not be taken on board at all, and the defence of the Prime Minister's flawed dealings with Mugabe will continue unabated.