TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE

When the enemy starts to look more and more like us, it is time to pause.
Walt Kelly’s line, “We have met the enemy and he is us”, scaringly rings as true as it is realistic to us Zimbabweans today.
We are, indeed, ourselves’ enemy.
Are we, today, really in the same blanket with Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF?
To me, this remains a cause for concern. What are we doing here?

Hardly a month after they accepted to join Robert Mugabe in a government of national unity, the MDC has started complaining again and, disturbingly, went as far as threatening to quit the GNU.
This hardly inspires confidence in either the troubled Zimbabwean population or donors.
How much faith should Zimbabweans put in the MDC now as it has again resorted to complaining and threats to leave government?
Are they solid enough for us to pin our hopes on them?

I have written countless times warning the MDC not to accept the agreement, let alone being part of a GNU.
Now the disconcerting behaviour of the principals of this GNU is there for all to see.
Just as I predicted, the MDC is caught in a ZANU-PF engineered whirlwind of malicious intent and political backstabbing, detracting it from performing its responsibilities.

It all started on the day cabinet ministers were being sworn in when farms continued to be invaded as ministers were taking their oaths. Even Mugabe himself could not resist his addiction to thievery as he lined up a whole lot more ministers than allocated him under the agreement.
The MDC group took a stand and threatened to abandon the swearing in ceremony unless Mugabe removed his extra ministers.
They, however, offered no such ultimatum for the release of innocent MDC people still in jails and those who continue to be jailed right under their noses.
Mugabe had the audacity to punch the MDC right in the face by grabbing Roy Bennett, the MDC’s deputy minister of Agriculture designate, and throwing him into jail.
Thus, Mugabe and his people set out, on the very first day, to prove how powerless the MDC is and they continue to do so, reducing the MDC to a whining, complaining partner.

Bennett’s issue also exposed the fact that the MDC is not in any position to protect anyone right now. It was sad, for me, to see and hear Prime Minister Tsvangirai offering his personal self as guarantor for Bennett’s release.
What GNU is there to talk about when a prime minister has to offer himself to the other half of his own government as collateral over a fellow member of that same government?
Even the Mafia can’t do better than this. This is intrigue and is totally unacceptable and exposes the bad intentions Mugabe harbours.
Unfortunately, we predicted this chicanery but no one paid any attention.

Several weeks ago, Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri ordered his police to drop all cases relating to violence and murders committed before and during the run up to last June’s presidential elections, implying this to be within the spirit of national reconciliation.
But last week, Mugabe refused to intervene in the release of Bennett and other (MDC) activists saying it was up to the courts to decide.
Needless to say, Chihuri’s impromptu “amnesty” was directed at setting free only ZANU-PF thugs who are the only ones anywhere who perpetrated violence and murder of MDC supporters during election time.

On the issues of pardons, amnesty and forgiveness, people cannot rush into forgiving Mugabe and ZANU-PF just so that the MDC can be part of a government of national unity born from an imperfect agreement.
The MDC does not have the right or authority to forgive Mugabe and ZANU-PF of sins committed even before the MDC itself was born.

People need closure and the MDC must be sensitive to this.
There is both fear and trepidation in the nation; there is joy and sadness; there is uncertainty but, above all, there is hope and expectancy.
People must go through the process leading them to real forgiveness. They must be able to walk, stop and look back to the past then shake their heads but not cry but smile and say to themselves, “That horrible chapter is gone.”

All things considered, the opportunity is the MDC’s to squander.
In the meantime, we are all groping in the dark because we don’t even know what exactly these people agreed to.

Meanwhile, there are fresh disputes over functions of some ministries. As things move on slowly, if it is movement at all, ZANU-PF is looking at what it put on the MDC’s plate and likes it more than before yet they are the ones who dished out these ministries.
The issue between Webster Shamu, the Minister of Media, information and Publicity, and Nelson Chamisa, the minister of Information Communication Technology, also gives a clear indication as to what ZANU-PF is up to.
ZANU-PF suddenly wants this ministry because business interests of many ZANU-PF fat cats are going to be directly monitored by a ministry under the MDC. So ZANU-PF, like it has always done, is moving goal posts.
Just how much of this harassment and debauchery the nation can take is open to debate.

As if that was not enough, Mugabe went on to choose and install a whole compliment of Permanent Secretaries from his own party, disregarding the power sharing deal which called for equitable distribution of such posts.
This particular incident prompted the MDC to issue its very first threat to quit the GNU, leaving people wondering if this whole GNU exercise is true and strong enough to withstand ZANU-PF onslaught.
Zimbabweans nervously watch the precarious situation. They are overawed by this grotesque government which has 61 cabinet ministers, three presidents and three prime ministers.
Talk of the more the merrier!

This government was never meant to exist. It was molded from an undemocratic process and cannot be expected to deliver anything meaningful to the long suffering Zimbabwean people.
It was a mistake from the beginning and it puts much more pressure on the MDC to show itself to be the only one in whom the people may lodge their expectations.
Take the other partner in this nonsensical GNU, for example.
All the leadership of the Mutambara/Ncube axis lost their parliamentary bids but, today, all those who lost like Mugabe, sit in cabinet, having allocated themselves seats on the backs of those who actually contested and won.
Democracy? Hell, no!
An incumbent president loses the election but remains in office illegally to swear in the winner who now has been allocated a lesser post.
The entire political leadership of a political party loses parliamentary bids but go on to allocate themselves cabinet posts, excluding those within their own party who won at the polls.
How do we explain this government? What should we expect from them?
Nothing!

The heart of the matter is that the MDC made a big mistake, albeit with the best of intentions.
They surely did not believe they could work with Mugabe, did they? They can’t be that naïve.
The MDC carries too much of people’s hopes and trust and its association with ZANU-PF only gives people political heartburn as is evidenced by the continuous bickering instigated by ZANU-PF.

ZANU-PF will never let the MDC serve the people and they will never let them succeed.
Years ago, we saw that with Elias Mudzuri in Harare and with all other MDC mayors who were later removed by ZANU-PF because ZANU-PF did not want people to see the real difference between ZANU-PF and the MDC.
While we know of the MDC’s abilities when it comes to service delivery, the harassment from Mugabe and ZANU-PF will continue and it will greatly curtail what the MDC can do for the nation.

When MDC spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa, threatened two days ago that his party would pull out of the GNU if Mugabe didn’t do this or that, it was the first sensible thing to come out of the MDC since they allowed themselves to be party to this disgraceful political marriage of inconvenience.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande saying that the MDC must seriously consider that option instead of continuously playing chaperone to ZANU-PF before the eyes of both the nation and the world.
The MDC is slowly strengthening ZANU-PF while ZANU-PF is trying to destroy the MDC.
What do you think?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com
I am Tanonoka Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Thursday February 26, 2009.