The Heart of the Matter: MDC has 12 days to save Zimbabwe

Tanonoka Joseph Whande
Monday, March 4th, 2013

At the funeral of a 12-year-old son of an MDC official who was burned to ashes in their home, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said last Thursday that what had happened at that homestead “should be the last”.
He said that people should have peaceful nights because fear has no place in a democratic society.
Tsvangirai has lost touch with issues that existed before he joined Mugabe in government. Issues that were once dear to him and which used to fire him up are no longer of concern to him and his party leadership most of whom having slowly evolved into predators – just like Zanu-Pf Members of Parliament we continue to despise so deeply.
He now strikes me as one who is completely out of touch with realities on the ground. Clearly, he has forgotten that what used to happen to him continues to happen to the ordinary Zimbabwean.
From his statement at this boy’s funeral, I would ask Tsvangirai when there ever was a democratic society in Zimbabwe and when the last time Zimbabweans ever had peaceful nights. This is the kind of arrogance and insensitivity that makes me mad.
His partners in government are killing people and he stands up to pontificate over the ashes of an innocent 12-year-old, alluding to democracy and peaceful nights that he knows fully well Zimbabweans have never had.
Said Tsvangirai at that funeral: “I will not be part and parcel of an electoral process that will subvert the will of the people.”
I mean, is this man for real? He already is part and parcel of an electoral process that subverted the will of the people. He was in Gweru over the weekend, urging people to vote ‘yes’ for the draft constitution that people did not author. His party, in cohorts with Zanu-Pf, neglected people’s views and, instead, wrote a fake document for themselves and are now trying to make people think it is their product.
Douglas Mwonzora, a lawyer and one of the chief contributors to this bundle of rubbish, should be ashamed of himself for taking part in this charade and misleading people like Tsvangirai.
Violence against Tsvangirai’s supporters is steadily picking up.
“We have to put an end to this violence so that our people can vote freely,” said Tsvangirai at that burial.
As elections and time for people to take sides approach, the MDC still cannot see the pattern unfolding before their eyes. They are so wrapped up in winning posts in parliament that they are not aware of the violence that is slowly erupting around them. They are drunk with desire for power.
Tsvangirai said that Cabinet had resolved that police and the Joint Implementation and Monitoring Committee will carry out “a professional investigation and report their findings to the government”.
This is the same Cabinet that failed to investigate and produce a report over the mysterious death of General Solomon Mujuru, the man without whose accent Mugabe would never have become president.
Ironically, Mujuru perished in a still unexplained inferno at his farm.
Tsvangirai was also referring to the same officials who never fully investigated or produced a report over the death of his own wife, whose name he invoked at the little boy’s funeral by saying that he will not be intimidated away from realising his late wife Susan’s vision.
Declaring that no one should die in vain, Tsvangirai said that he will not believe “Mugabe’s words and calls for peace until Cabinet decisions are implemented”.
In the meantime, what is he doing? Working very well with Zanu-Pf.
And the MDC no longer has any choice. Bit by bit, they are now being shown that they jumped into bed with a devil and the product of that political intimacy is slowly being born, making its way into the world horns first.
It is now Showtime at Zanu-Pf as they show Tsvangirai and his party that they are novices who, indeed, wasted people’s time in this so-called Government of National Unity.
The damage has been done and the MDC is slowly being exposed.
Small children are being burnt in thatched huts because this government views the toddlers as a danger to the nation.
And the government is led by Mr Tsvangirai.
As always, Tsvangirai is ready to accept accolades for the few good things, if any, that come out of this government but will blame Zanu-Pf for all the negative things that we see littering the landscapes of our nation.
But we told Tsvangirai many times before not to be party to this unity government. We reminded them over and over again that the message and mandate they carry from the people are at total variance with what Zanu-Pf has done and what it continues to do.
They did not listen.
Now they are corralled and boxed in; it is too late to retreat; the people have been betrayed.
Still, the MDC is gullible enough as to move in step with Mugabe and campaign for a ‘yes’ vote, meaning the end of the demand for Mugabe to implement the required reforms before the elections. A ‘yes’ vote will liberate Mugabe from demands to implement any reforms.
Zanu-Pf was never trying to legislate itself out of power by agreeing to a constitution that will sideline them.
Slowly, incidences of violence are on the rise. Zanu-Pf is now making its move like the long distance runner who has caught sight of the finish line.
We have reached a point of no return and, thanks to the MDC, we might not even save ourselves even if we vote ‘no’ to this constitution.
Last week, we were all sobered up when Justice George Chiweshe simply declared that Mugabe’s pronouncements cannot be reviewed or deliberated upon by the courts. In other words: Mugabe is above the law; his word is final.
This is the same George Chiweshe who sat on the results of the elections in 2008, pushing the nation into a quandary from which we are still to escape.
I applaud Lovemore Madhuku for at least trying to stop Mugabe. What excuse does Tsvangirai have here? What has the MDC ever tried to do to stop Mugabe?
I mean really, what excuse does Tsvangirai have to mislead people like he has done? Now the nation is trapped.
They ignored the importance of the push for reforms proposed by SADC and are now knocking on SADC’s door for safeguards because, as predicted, violence is upon us again.
The MDC agreed to a date for the referendum before people had a chance to study the final draft constitution, now people are not being given time to look at the document and give their opinion.
Innocent Gonese, Tsvangirai’s House of Assembly chief whip, on Thursday said it was “important for the process to be wrapped up quickly to allow the committee set up to align the country’s laws to the proposed constitution to complete their work before the elections”.
Is he kidding?
Gonese said all laws that contradict the new constitution will be repealed and that those that are not in line with the new constitution will be amended. Why was this not done at the time of writing the draft?
With the referendum slated 12 days from today, when will this be done?
The MDC has more to lose than Zanu-Pf.
If the people vote ‘no’ after being encouraged to vote ‘yes’ by the MDC, what will happen to the MDC, particularly its leader?
If the people listen to the MDC and vote ‘yes’, Zanu-Pf will be born again and re-empowered.
And if the people boycott the referendum, Zanu-Pf will party for years because they will use a constitution that the Attorney-General’s Office last Friday said the High Court had no jurisdiction to preside over cases dealing with Mugabe’s pronouncements “even if Mugabe’s decisions infringe on citizens’ rights”.
The heart of the matter is that Zimbabweans have been betrayed and the MDC has less than 12 days to save the nation.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is not the way it should be today, Monday, March 4th, 2013.

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