Tanonoka Joseph Whande

I was honestly disgusted to see Morgan Tsvangirai being sworn in by Robert Mugabe.
I mean, it doesn’t make sense, does it?
Mugabe expects Tsvangirai to uphold a constitution that he, Mugabe, refused to honour.

It was a painful sight as, once again, an African country made mockery of a democratic process with the assistance of the international community, South Africa and SADC.
Mugabe swore in the man who should have replaced him as president had Mugabe upheld the constitution.
For Tsvangirai, it must have been a very painful development indeed to be let down in such a manner and to be reduced to begging for the money in his own pocket.

I am very tempted to hold my breath and cheer, wishing with every fiber of my existence that the Government of National Unity (GNU) consummated by Mugabe and Tsvangirai on Wednesday will take hold and succeed.
Sadly, I am cursed with pessimism.
Fear comes uninvited.
I don’t like this arrangement.

But with all the odds staked against the success of this government, this thing called hope, remote and faint as it might be, lingers and flatters lazily about. It is hope forcibly born out of a desire to see the cessation of hardships inflicted on our compatriots by the same man whom we are now forced to trust.

We have been forced to put our lives in the hands of the same man who, over the decades, has taken so many of our compatriots’ lives. Our break with the past is to be supervised by the man who has soiled the very same past we are so desperately trying to forget and abandon.
We are taking our tormentor and his demons into a future we’d have preferred to be with neither.

As for me, there is never going to be a time that I will ever think Robert Mugabe can do anything decent for the people of Zimbabwe again.
The man forced himself on us for 30 years as he destroyed everything in his path, like the fabled bull in a china shop.
He used the 30 years at the helm of a peaceful, prosperous country to convince the world of his bad character.

There was a chilling display of brutality.
There was an undisputed demonstration of economic incompetence and corruption.
We lived through human rights abuses that left us with so many of our citizens dead and many more missing.
The word genocide was introduced into our lexicon.
Property rights were taken away from us and we lost property to our own government.
Our Judiciary was contaminated while our Parliament became a madman’s bedroom, where political sadism was practiced at the expense of legislative protocol.
Our homes where bulldozed to the ground and others were set alight as our own government, our supposed protectors exposed our infants, the elderly and the infirm to the elements.
Even as the MDC celebrates sinking its teeth at the edge of the pie whose ownership is in dispute, some of its supporters are languishing in prison; some are in hiding and others in exile.
This is the man we must trust.

One of our esteemed listeners wrote to say that whilst Morgan Tsvangirai has displayed immense courage and dedication in his opposition to the current political dispensation in Zimbabwe, he has also displayed spectacular levels of naivety, inconsistency, indecisiveness, flip-flopping and downright incompetence during the recent negotiations culminating in the GNU.

She said that the people of Zimbabwe did not endorse the GNU; in fact their opinion was never sought! We should never lose sight of this; this is important, she emphasised. ZANU-PF, MDC and SADC decided, in their wisdom, that they know better what is best for us.
But do they?

SADC forced the winners of an election to relinquish a clean mandate legitimately given to them by the people. For SADC’s sake this arrangement must succeed so that SADC may, at least, claim that they achieved something.
But I am a worried soul even if I were to be drowned in a drum of optimism.

My greatest fear is that the presence of the MDC in this government, in which ZANU-PF clearly is dictating terms and direction, will resuscitate Mugabe and strengthen his evil empire and brutality.
The MDC’s presence in this government legitimizes Mugabe in the eyes of the world and the last thing we want to see now is Mugabe replenishing his strength.

I pray that this so-called unity is temporary.
I wish it could have been slated to last only a few hours because an angel cannot ask the devil for help and not compromise himself.
Zimbabweans voted for a break with Mugabe and for the opening of a new chapter. They got neither.

It is my hope that the MDC knows something we do not know. They are obviously taking a very big risk on behalf of the nation, a risk that might end up leaving Mugabe in a stronger position than he was in before the agreement.
As the contestants literally circle each other in the arena, sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies must remain firmly in place.
There should be no letting up and the pressure must be maintained or even tightened until we see a deliberate willingness to free the Zimbabwean people and to give back the people their freedom.

I do not believe in this exercise at all, not because of Mr Tsvangirai but because of Robert Mugabe. My fear and reluctance are born from past and current experiences.
I was abused so much before that I am afraid to hope.
And yet hope is a part of the installments we have to pay if we want to believe in a possibility.
The resilience of the Zimbabwean people is a matter of public record.
We fought like lions to liberate our country and still refuse to be tamed by anyone.
But, as someone wrote to me recently, I hope we are not lions being led by donkeys.

As long as Mugabe has any say in what the government does and as long as he has sway in what direction the nation should take, please count me out.
Personally, Robert Mugabe is one man I will NEVER accept or forgive; let alone forgiving him enough to let him hang around the corridors of power.
I will never celebrate with those who celebrate with Mugabe. I have been betrayed.
If today, some feel euphoric enough to celebrate while holding hands with Mugabe, please go ahead.

There is absolutely no chance I will celebrate joining hands with Mugabe as the MDC has chosen to do. Of course, the people at home know what they want. They will give their verdict soon enough. Some people underestimate Zimbabweans at home and think that they will sell themselves short because they have suffered for too long.
They will give an answer soon enough and the MDC better be prepared for the verdict. There is nothing to celebrate here. It is premature.

I am hoping that Tsvangirai, who has made such a sterling contribution and shown so much courage and conviction for our beloved country, has not tired enough to position himself and his party to be swallowed.

Regrettably, I agree with those who say that this is no longer the time to be crying about which party won what in March or June or which party should have got which ministry.
We were screwed and left to shout at each other.
Now ZANU-PF and Mugabe are calling the shots while the legitimate winners wait to be allocated their share and complain.

Support for our political parties must not blind us to realities, nor should it make us so impotent as to be unwilling to criticize ourselves.
The heart of the matter is that I shall not celebrate joining forces with Mugabe. I believe that it was a mistake for the MDC to accept joining ZANU-PF in government.
The MDC should have held out for ZANU-PF to join it.

Now the MDC must see to it that their cooperation with ZANU-PF does not make Mugabe stronger enough to start preying on people again while the MDC watches helplessly.

We are expected to turn 30 years of justified mistrust into faith yet our preference and choice were denied.
We have now been forced to trust Mugabe and all who abused us for decades.
Faith is belief in something that cannot be proved and I think the international community has asked Zimbabweans for a little too much.

Now let us all calm down and see what changes the MDC will bring while it drags ZANU-PF around its neck.
Hope is a commodity that needs to be nurtured but not nurtured by one who is doing the hoping.
On second thoughts, there is, after all, something appealing about lions being led by donkeys, wouldn’t you say?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and I do not know if that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it should be today, Thursday, February 12, 2009.