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Does anyone really care what the people of Zimbabwe want?
Can Prime Minister Tsvangirai really take any cabinet minister to task like he promised some complaining villagers over the weekend?
Are there any people out there who care about the wishes of the Zimbabwean rank and file?
Do those in power, like President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and South African President Jacob Zuma, care to consult, listen and do what the Zimbabwean people instruct?
Or is this hullabaloo always stirred to accommodate a few dangerously greedy politicians at the expense of the people?
Two days before Zuma left his country for Zimbabwe, some villagers sternly urged Tsvangirai to immediately pull out of the inclusive government, saying that the arrangement had failed to positively impact on their lives, yet state-sponsored violence was on the increase again.
Although conceding that the formation of the inclusive government brought with it hope and expectations, the villagers emphatically stated that their lives had remained unchanged.
Said villager Trainos Zengeya: “Prime Minister, our lives have not changed and it appears the situation is getting even worse because the US dollar is scarce.”
Zengeya went on: “It (the inclusive government) is like you want to breed a donkey and a cow; it will never work. Why can you not just pull out of this arrangement immediately?”
Another villager at Jerera Growth Point spoke to Tsvangirai about the issue of political victimization.
He told Tsvangirai, who was on a whistle-stop tour of some of the areas in the country that they were still living in fear because ZANU-PF continues to harass them and at times beat them up.
It was at Jerera Growth Point where two of Tsvangirai’s activists were burnt beyond recognition during the run-up to the June 27 presidential election runoff in 2008.
“We feel you just have to get out of this arrangement,” pleaded the villager, “because it has not benefited us.”
The villagers were wasting their time.
Tsvangirai and his top lieutenants have tested the good life and will not abandon their pots of honey to show solidarity with some lowly villager in God-forsaken part of Zimbabwe.
Through all the humiliation, ill-treatment and disdain shown to them by Mugabe and ZANU-PF, the MDC will never go back to the people.
They are now at a higher level than the people who weaned them.
Tsvangirai admitted that coalition governments have always been a problem.
“However,” said Tsvangirai, “the arrangement that we are in is irreversible and we have to pull through until we get to a time when the country has to have free and fair elections.”
Free and fair elections?
It appears to me as if the MDC is now blinded by the little power allowed to trickle through their fingers. They are too busy enjoying the crumbs.
When Tsvangirai was saying this to the villagers, Zuma was on his way to literally assist Tsvangirai to keep his now apparently ceremonial prime ministerial job.
The MDC can still not be called the ruling party; it is practically still an opposition party, dominated and pushed around by ZANU-PF, and this is what Tsvangirai calls irreversible.
But he went crying to Zuma.
The headlines were big and expectant; they were loud and over-estimating.
“Zuma arrives amid high expectations”, said one.
“Zuma arrives in bid to revive stalled talks”, another one said.
But one, which truthfully and simply stated, ”Little expected from Zuma as he jets into Harare”, told a truth that reminded all those blinded by South African spin doctors that Zuma is just stretching his legs, nothing serious.
After all, Zuma was only going to Zimbabwe to try and “revive stalled talks” not to stamp his authority as SADC mediator.
As Tsvangirai continues camping in the oasis of denial, dreaming of “free and fair elections” with Mugabe, political violence has started to smoulder in Zimbabwe.
The provinces of Masvingo, Manicaland and Mashonaland East are reporting an increasing number of violence as ZANU-PF operatives go from village to village threatening people and warning them not to demand a new constitution but, instead, support the Kariba Draft, which is more favourable to Mugabe.
Tsvangirai was in Manicaland Province a few days ago and, again, heard the complaints over the resurgence of violence coming straight for the affected villagers’ mouths.
This should not be taken lightly; we lost more than 200 compatriots in the 2008 elections.
The best solution Tsvangirai could come up with was to ask villagers “to note down names of police and army officers who are perpetrating violence in their areas”.
Such a list has been under compilation from as far back as six years ago yet absolutely nothing has ever been done to anyone on the list.
As he had done in Masvingo Province a day or so earlier, Tsvangirai could only urge the villagers to continue to report cases of violence, assuring them that he would take the co-Ministers of Home Affairs to task if perpetrators of violence were not arrested.
As if sensing that the villagers did not buy it, Tsvangirai added: “I tell you I will take the Home Affairs co-ministers Kembo Mohadi and Giles Mutsekwa to task.”
How he would do that remains a mystery considering that in a year in government, he has never wielded any power or authority over government ministers.
Just last week, Mugabe stripped some ministries run by Tsvangirai’s officials of important sections and departments and there was absolutely nothing that Tsvangirai could do about it except to cry out to Zuma to intervene; so how Tsvangirai can take any cabinet minister to task is purely wishful thinking and an insult to the rural people who were making genuine efforts to give Tsvangirai some feedback on the real state of the nation, what other people refer to as ‘what’s on the ground’.
Zuma went to Zimbabwe for more useless talks. Politicians enjoy talking while people suffer and Tsvangirai was told that to his face by those people bearing the brunt of violence and those being used as fodder by the politicians.
Before he even left South Africa, Zuma’s trip was already rigged with wrong priorities.
Mugabe, Zuma and Tsvangirai seem agreed on holding new elections but none of them is putting an effort in paving the way for such elections to be conducted. New elections can certainly not be held under the present circumstances, which are a duplicate of the 2008 electoral fiasco.
Were Zuma a serious mediator, interested in coming up with a fair, just and permanent solution, he would have taken this opportunity to ensure that proper and sufficient reforms are put in place before talk about elections.
Zuma must know that elections under the present circumstances are just a fatal prescription for Zimbabwe.
It must not be an affair restricted to Zuma, Mugabe and Tsvangirai alone; everybody must be brought on board.
Everybody, including the villagers in remote places, including the United Nations, including the African Union and all other so-called stakeholders must be involved. No more secrets or closed meetings.
Let us first lay the foundations for free and fair elections. We cannot afford any more loopholes.
The heart of the matter is that while fresh elections are welcome, certain issues, at this stage, have to be given precedent over elections.
The issue of state-sponsored violence has to be dealt with and eradicated once and for all.
Already, the outreach programme that is meant to inform the people about a new constitution and to gather their contributions to it is already being interfered with because ZANU-PF is afraid a new constitution will weaken Mugabe’s hold on power. People are already being beaten up yet a new constitution is a precondition for the elections.
If violence starts now, as it has, will the outcome reflect the people’s wishes?
The issue of voters’ security needs to be addressed because elections have become yet another excuse used by Mugabe to kill our citizens.
The United Nations and other regional bodies must, of necessity, be given the mandate to supervise the elections to make sure no rigging takes place and that the loser accepts the results. It must be spelt out clearly that there is to be no more inclusive governments born out of aborted elections, thank you.
What do you think?
Send me your comments to tano@swradioafrica.com.
The voters’ Roll needs thorough scrutiny and updating. In 2008, some people who had died before independence were found on the voters roll.
An election cannot be held before the repeal of repressive laws such as Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act.
The media and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission have to be left alone to carry out their mandates.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande saying: “No, Mr Zuma, elections in Zimbabwe should only come after the political playing field has been levelled.
I suggest you pick up your pick and shovel right now, Sir.”
And that, Mr Zuma, is the way it is today, Thursday, March 18, 2010.
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