Tsvangirai Now Reduced To Begging Mugabe

There is a good reason why Robert "The Solution" Mugabe is looking smug and self-satisfied these days. Morgan Tsvangirai has now managed the unique feat of turning victory into defeat. Now on the back foot, he is having to play Mugabe's game, leaving him with no upper hand at all. The more insists that Mugabe's deviant behaviour will not result in him walking away from this deal, the more firmly impales himself on the horns of a dilemma.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 August 2009

It emerged this morning that Morgan Tsvangirai is now definitely on the back foot in dealings with Mugabe, as the dictator gains more and more confidence.

Morgan Tsvangirai, two Mondays ago, was reduced to begging Mugabe to give him breathing room, citing pressure from "hardliners" within the MDC, whom he told Mugabe were pressuring him to quit the Coalition.

The biggest bargaining chip Mugabe now hold is that of by-elections and two Mondays ago, Tsvangirai brought up the subject in his weekly meetings with Mugabe, where sanctions were also discussed.

He requested from the dictator that they get together to subvert the democratic process and hold off holding by-elections for the seats that are falling vacant as MDC-T MP and MDC-T MP falls by the wayside, victims of a well-crafted and evil strategy by Mugabe to whittle the MDC majority in parliament down.

With September 15 now on the horizon and no by-election yet called, it is now almost certain that ZANU PF will be contesting against MDC-T in those by-elections, because the agreement not to stand against each other in by-elections falls away on September 15 this year.

Tsvangirai has not learnt anything from his dealings with Mugabe, it would appear, because Mugabe is demanding that the issue of Roy Bennett and that of governors be set aside and forgotten if ZANU PF is to agree to waive its right to contest MDC-T seats after September 15.

It is now also alleged from within ZANU PF that this is the main reason why MDC-T ambassadors have not been posted to their stations yet.

It is amazing that this tinpot dictator, who could not even form a government all of last year because Tsvangirai had him on the back foot, has managed to turn the tables so stunningly against the man who should be president of Zimbabwe if he had all his wits about him- Morgan Tsvangirai.

Here, then is what you will happening in the next few weeks:

In return for promises to give him his governorships and post his ambassadors, Tsvangirai is going to agree to Mugabe's demands that he drop all claims against Gideon Gono and the Attorney General. Mugabe will also insist that the issue of Roy Bennett be shelved.

He has already asked Tsvangirai to find an alternative, saying the appointment of Bennett was being viewed as confrontational humiliation of the president and his Land Reform programme.

It is likely that Tsvangirai will agree to all this, since he is now in appeasement mode, playing quiet diplomacy with Mugabe while his supporters look on clueless, defending the indefensible.

I say the Prime Minister still has not learnt anything from his dealings with Mugabe because, once he agrees to these demands, what guarantee does he have that Mugabe will then uphold his end of the bargain.

Meantime, Mugabe and ZANU PF continue to gain confidence as it dawns on them that they are dealings with amateurs and political moonlighters in the MDC-T, with Didymus Mutasa, a long-standing but discredited crony of Mugabe telling the media this week that "The MDC must grow up, they are behaving like babies."

He twisted the knife further: "There will be no negotiations on those appointments (of Reserve Bank Governor and Attorney General."

Meantime, ZANU PF continues to run riot in the country, now freed from the burden of policy formulation and implementation which, as the Prime Minister never tires of telling us, is now his "mandate".

Like I said a few days ago, it will be a long and sweltering summer!!