Heart of the Matter
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By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
9 April 2008

The people can scream all they want, the Movement for Democratic Change is never coming back to them ever again. The MDC is gone and, should it return to the people who nurtured it, it will be a totally different, unrecognisable MDC more bent on accommodating ZANU-PF than one championing the people’s wishes.

The MDC was dragged into this unity government kicking and screaming. They had very unkind words for Thabo Mbeki for suggesting this monstrosity. And they told the world that they were joining the unity government under protest.

The MDC went on “a diplomatic offensive” to drum up support as they positioned themselves for resistance. They picked up support to
resist from, among others, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and, of course, Botswana. It is a different story today.

The MDC has walked in the corridors of power now. It is now the MDC’s duty to fan Mugabe with feather dusters. Mugabe has let the MDC put a foot in the door and suddenly Mugabe has become someone they can work with “for the sake of our country”.

Bit by bit, piece by piece, the MDC’s criticism of Mugabe and ZANU-PF is dwindling while a lot of promises are being heaped on us to wet our appetites. Hundred-day road map, my foot!

Law and order now! The government must stop breaking the law now!
Release the detainees now! Remove repressive media laws now!
Free the people now!

Why should all these abnormalities be put through a 100-day process while new Mercedes Benz cars are delivered to the MDC ministers NOW!
Why is the government spending more than US $1.5 million to pay ZANU-PF youth militia today? How much are MDC youths getting?

Whatever happened to Roy Bennett or the MDC thinks he is no longer an issue? Or did Bennett communicate to the MDC that he did not want the Benz cars they are falling over each other to drive home, complete with a “bodyguard” and driver?

Like the notorious war veterans, the MDC is already rewarding itself for what they feel they have done up to this point. And, like ZANU-PF at independence, they are saying they are doing it all for the people, for the sake of our country but not for themselves.

Yes, we have been through all this before. We have experienced this euphoria before and we have urged ourselves that we should give them enough time to get things done.

Almost thirty years down the line, Robert Mugabe has organised enough graves to attract anti-genocide enthusiasts. I blame us and we are about to slip on the same banana twice.

Yes, we have been through this before and we let them do a little of this and a little of that until we were totally worthless in their eyes.

However we look at it, the so-called retreat at Victoria Falls was a totally insensitive display of misplaced priorities.
Change does not come this way.

Someone had the audacity to write to me and called me ignorant but, surprisingly, conceding that it made no sense to have a retreat like this one they just gave themselves.

“It was paid for by the donors, who are willing to pay for such things and not give the money to Tsvangirai and Co to help save Zimbabwe.”
If money can be raised using people’s name, it should be used for the people. Besides, we are supposed to be in this together and use as little resources on individuals as possible.

The trend is slowly taking shape. From trendy Mercedes Benz cars now driven by MDC ministers alongside their ZANU-PF counterparts to availing themselves retreats at exclusive resorts. All it amounts to is that it is now MDC’s supper time and it is time to draw the curtains and close the doors. No stray cats allowed.

Alarm bells sounded long before Tendai Biti gave us his version of the MDC’s justification to accept the Benz cars. “We either had to leave them to rot or sell them, and get half their value. It was cheaper to keep them. It was a matter of practicality.”

For Biti, it was cheaper for the nation and for them to keep those cars and, in his case, not to use them as he doesn’t like his Mercedes and uses his truck. Really?

Economics works in strange ways in Zimbabwe. What Biti and his rookie cabinet ministers must know is that where they are now was planned a long time ago. All Mugabe did was wait and, as we can see, he caught them all in his net. They have been snared alright.

Mugabe has used cars and other conveniences on his opponents and he has always come out tops. Ask John Nkomo and whose scouts who were given same treatment when they campaigned to convince PF-ZAPU supporters to disband and join ZANU-PF.

If the people of Zimbabwe clamour for the MDC to return those cars to the CMED, it will signal the end of the political marriage between the people and the MDC because whatever happens, MDC ministers will never return those vehicles to the government. Those people are not ours anymore.

What it means, therefore, is that it is one thing to criticise ZANU-PF ministers for extravagance but another to resist the same temptation when it presents itself before you.

Constitutional Affairs Minister, Eric Matinenga, an eminent human rights advocate, says he is “embarrassed” that he has a government issue official Mercedes, calling it “a condition of plenty amidst deprivation”.
He, nevertheless, accepted the car, calling it “a convenient evil”.
Mugabe must be saying something about “a convenient evil” when he talks about the Gukurahundi madness!

Morgan Tsvangirai has always preached hope, forgiveness and working together. His speech at Victoria falls reflects what he has always believed in.

Tsvangirai has always offered something to Mugabe and yet, up to this day, Mugabe has never reciprocated in a meaningful way, unless, of course, if we count the Mercedes Benz cars dished out to the cabinet of both parties.

Meanwhile, the MDC is humiliated with continuing farm invasions. Tsvangirai has warned that farm invaders will be prosecuted. While at their retreat at Victoria Falls more farms were stolen and Tsvangirai again repeated the threat to arrest farm invaders.

People are still being detained and injustices continue to be perpetrated. The heart of the matter is that the so-called retreat, being a government and not party issue, was supposed to come after all outstanding issues had been resolved. It is pointless to me that they hold a retreat to discuss government policy when they differ along party lines and they differ in both approach and prescription for our woes.

Is Gideon Gono's issue not that important and does it not interfere with the economic revival upon which the MDC places so much emphasis?
There is also the issue of continuing farm invasions which fly in the face of investor confidence and are themselves proof of the absence of property rights.

Change will not come by imitating past mistakes or walking in ZANU-PF's footsteps. Whatever happened to 'CHINJA MAITIRO'? ZANU-PF continues with its destructive policies and anti-people crusade but the MDC appears they one that is changing, not ZANU-PF.

You see, we are just afraid of having more of the same. It is my hope that real change will soon be evident. I hope we are on the way to changing the bad policies and practices and not changing just the principal players.

While we are at it, could the two MDC camps please find a way to stop associating a political party with an individual? What really is MDC-T and MDC-M? It might be a small thing but it is one that can assist in perpetrating polarisation.

Haven’t we learned enough from Mugabe and ZANU-PF?

Send me your comments at tanowhande@swradioafrica.com I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Thursday, April 9, 2009.