"Zimbabwe Inclusive Government Has Outlived Its Life" - Mugabe

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's dictator, whom Morgan Tsvangirai says "is the solution" to Zimbabwe's problems, did not sound like a solution as he defiantly addressed his party's Congress in Harare yesterday (above). He made it clear that he is sick and tired of the arrangement with Morgan Tsvangirai and that it can not end soon enough for him

Harare, Zimbabwe, 13 December 2009

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe yesterday revealed his revulsion at the arrangement he has with Morgan Tsvangirai, which led to the formation of Zimbabwe's current coalition government.

It can not end soon enough for him because it irks him greatly that he has had to make this arrangement. Like I said before, the impression created in the minds of Zimbabweans now is that it is Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC who are desperate to have this coalition last, especially since it is Morgan Tsvangirai who has spoken publicly about the possibility of the current arrangement lasting five years "because some of our MPs would like to serve out like their full terms."

Speaking of the Inclusive Government, Mugabe told delegates to the ZANU PF Congress: "Perhaps it has outlived its life."

He explained: "Elections are not very far off. The Inclusive Government was given a short life - 18 months to 24 months, and then it goes."

This statement by Mugabe explains the violence and intimidation that we now see in the countryside of Zimbabwe. As I have said before, despite some people refusing to believe it, Mugabe is essentially in campaign mode and has caught the MDC off-guard, which, in its arrogance, has always led itself to believe that Mugabe needs the Inclucive Government more than the MDC.

No.

Mugabe would like to go back to the situation where he runs the country by himself. Hence the intimidation campaign, which he knows works and which failed last year only because Simba Makoni was a candidate for president.

This is why Mugabe is not afraid of the MDC walking out of government. He knows what he has done in the rural areas to prepare for a snap election, and he also knows that there is nothing anyone can do to him if he refused to bring in United Nations observers. As for the SADC ones, he knows that he can rely on them to paper over the cracks as long as his campaign is not as violent as the that for the June run-off last year.

This is why the intimidation is starting now, so that by the time the elections start and observers are actually arriving in the country, the job would already have been done, the people would have been told exactly what waits for them should they choose another party.

The only man who can paralyse and throw confusion into ZANU PF is Simba Makoni, as he demonstrated in March 2008. That election was characterised even by the MDC as being essentially free and fair because the hierarchy of ZANU PF was thrown into disarray by Makoni's emergence.

Take Makoni out of the equation and you get the June run-off sort of "campaign."

It is also important to note that, constitution or no constitution, Mugabe is so sick of making concessions and sharing power that he is determined to bring matters to a head.

He is itching to get back to a situation where he rules the roost by himself (the bantam in Mugabe's party's symbol, after all.)

Mugabe also took a dig at Tendai Biti yet again in the closing speech to the ZANU PF Congress in Harare, saying that he had been told "yesterday" that "there will be money, but it is not there. There are people in this Inclusive Government who are seeking to sabotage the Land Reform Program this way. The (farming) inputs are nowhere to be seen."

Mugabe remains bitter that Tendai Biti "dithered" over the IMF funds even as farmers cried out for intervention so that they could get seed and fertiliser.

The president and dictator of Zimbabwe also mounted a naked attack on Morgan Tsvangirai's claim that the Inclusive Government had brought economic stability to Zimbabwe, saying:

"We are the authors of the present "economic" turnaround through the pre-Inclusive Government budget which ushered in multiple currency. We thought about the multiple currency system before the Inclusive Government and when it came, it merely took up the ideas."

It was a campaign speech, no doubt about it.

What remains to be seen is how far he will take his brinkmanship, how far he is wiling to push the MDC-T to fall into his trap of pulling out of the Inclusive Government before any meaningful reforms are made so that he runs again under conditions that he is familiar with, using tactics that he has used before and got away with.

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