Zuma Tells Tsvangirai To Zip It


Jacob Zuma (above) thoroughly enjoying himself day before yesterday in Mozambique for the swearing-in ceremony of Mozambique's president Amando Guebuza for a second term. The SADc Troika also met in the Mozambique capital on the same day and issued a statement praising Zuma for his involvement in the Zimbabwe talks. Zuma now says Morgan Tsvangirai should compromise and forget about Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana, despite misleading local press reports last year that Zuma wanted Gono and Tomana to go.



Harare, Zimbabwe, 16 January 2010


President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has effectively told Morgan Tsvangirai to zip it,accept that Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana, the MDC-persecuting Attorney-General of Zimbabwe, are not going anywhere and concentrate on satisfying Mugabe's demands instead.


Zuma was speaking on South African radio when he advised Tsvangirai to "park" the disputed appointments that form part of the "outstanding issues" for the MDC.


Jacob Zuma was, according to MDC-T supporters, the man who was going to put Mugabe in his place, to jettison "quiet diplomacy" in favour of loud diplomacy. Some of you remember that famous "head to head" interview I had on SW Radio with the inimitable Lance Guma, when he pitted me against Glen Mpani, another analyst who is based in South Africa.


Glen was insisting that Zuma would crack the whip on Mugabe. He had fallen victim to the MDC supporters' self-serving delusion that Zuma would have to be tough with Mugabe in order to satisfy the Congress Of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which is nakedly opposed to Mugabe. COSATU is considered one of the organisations that ensured Zuma was elected president of the ANC and then South Africa. Not that Glen himself is delusional. But there is a tendency amongst MDC supporters to hoodwink themselves into believing that there is a knight in shining armour out there who will come and help their hapless leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, outwit Mugabe and hand the MDC State House.

Since before Zuma became president, I have consistently said that if he were to become president, he would follow Mbeki's approach.


The evidence has always been there, but of course, in the best tradition of MDC sympathisers, they chose to ignore the evidence and engage in fantasies. As I reported on October 5 2008 on this blog in the article No Sanctions On Mugabe, Says Jacob Zuma, the future SA president did not hide the fact he agrees with quiet diplomacy. The MDC people decided to tell each other that Zuma was just saying this and would change his tune when he became president. It is a sign of the desperation within the opposition party, like a rejected lover who still insists that their spouse loves them and will stay with them, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.


And the lack of shame means that these people, who were shouting and pouring personal insults on me for bringing this up back then, will not speak now. Instead, they have already started shouting at Zuma, saying he is a Mugabe supporter. "Napoleon is always right!"


The mysterious working of regional diplomacy.


But it is clear that the MDC-T cheerleaders will never learn, really.


Of course, the question will always be asked why I keep pointing these things out about the MDC-T. Why not concentrate on Mugabe instead, clueless MDC supporters ask.


They fail to understand that, by alerting them and their leaders to the reality on the ground, we are actually trying to help them. We are saying, "this is the true situation and if you are strategising, strategise on the basis of this reality and not the basis of the wishful thinking of your followers and yourselves."


It is not my job to give the MDC solutions because I do not work for them. They said and still say they can triumph against Mugabe and I say that they are incapable of it, only Simba Makoni can do that and he has proved it over and over again.


History also shows that, even if Morgan Tsvangirai is given advice, he ignores it and goes his own way. Ask Ian Khama of Botswana, who has plainly stated that there is no helping Tsvangirai because he believes he knows it all.


Ask that former American ambassador to Zimbabwe, who said he has now giving up on giving advice to Tsvangirai because the MDC leader believes that he knows it all and no one can tell him anything.


What we will not do then is keep quiet while Tsvangirai says he is the only person who can remove Mugabe but fails to do this over and over again for ten years. Yet he says leave me in the driving seat, I know what I doing and no one can tell me how to change the gears.


Remember that these sentiments expressed by Zuma are the same that he told his fellow SADC leaders in the SADC Troika last week in Maputo. The Troika and the SADC leaders actually issues a statement praising the South African leader for doing a sterling job on Zimbabwe.


That sterling job is ensuring Morgan Tsvangirai rolls over and plays dead for Mugabe.


But of course, MDC supporters and leaders know best. Zuma is their saviour. He is the one who will squeeze Mugabe (by asking Tsvangirai to compromise endlessly). If Tsvangirai had accepted that Zuma would not take his side when he became South African president, the MDC leader would have been able to come up with an alternative strategy that did not rely on folding hands and asking Zuma to kick Mugabe out of office on his behalf.


As it is, we are now stuffed, simply because the Prime Minister and his people would not accept and see the simple truth that mere analysts like myself saw clearly.

This is going to remain so for another ten years, as long as people insist that this MorganTsvangirai knows what he is doing, even though it is clear that he hasn't the foggiest.


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