Save Zimbabwe, abandon talks with Mugabe and ZANU-PF

TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE

The heart of the matter is that Zimbabwe does not need these notorious talks at all.
We have been through the same boring process before.
Several times, Tsvangirai was reported to be upbeat because of imminent agreement in the talks with Mugabe.
Several times, he has run straight to the people and said he would not betray the people by signing something that does not reflect the will of the people.
Even the leaders of the two ZANU-PF factions, Arthur Mutambara and Robert Mugabe, have had their share in the spotlight expressing optimism over imminant agreement.
And then suddenly all three would withdraw and deny what the others were saying and Zimbabweans found their hopes dashed once again.
On Monday, Mugabe and Mutambara were upbeat about the talks but Tsvangirai was grumpy. On Wednesday, Tsvangirai and Mutambara were upbeat but Mugabe was in the doldrums after Mbeki reportedly brought in new proposals.
If Mugabe is not forced to leave office as the elections indicated, then the talks should be about a transitional government not about the government of national unity.

The Movement for Democratic Change might have its reasons for agreeing
to be used in a game of charades, erroneously referred to as “talks about forming a government of national unity”, simply, talks on power sharing.
What power sharing and why when the people rejected Mugabe? What government of national unity? What national unity?
Over the years, Mugabe has shown that he does not want to join anyone but expects everyone to join him.
It is an interesting ambition on Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC’s part to believe that they might succeed with Mugabe where the likes of Ndabaningi Sithole and Joshua Nkomo failed.

I am appalled that African presidents actually look at this as a solution.
It is not a solution.
Just ask Raila Odinga of Kenya and look at the frustration written on his face. Odinga wants it to work but it is not working and will not work.
Tsvangirai went to see Odinga last month just after the SADC summit in South Africa so as “to ask for advice on power sharing”.
The fact that Tsvangirai never mentioned this again means that Odinga told him the truth: “Brother, this does not work; don’t do it.”
Unlike Mugabe, Tsvangirai has a constituency to answer to. And that constituency can punish him if he goes against their wishes.
Tsvangirai is a messenger of the people and receives orders and instructions from the people while Mugabe gives orders and instructions to his people and none of his people would dare tell him what to do.

So I do not understand why African presidents would rather prescribe wrong political medication for Zimbabwe knowing full well that it would not work.
I was appalled by Jakaya Kikwete who, as African Union chief, demanded from someone that he wanted a 50-50 power-sharing government in Zimbabwe. Is young Kikwete mad?
How many countries in Africa are ruled by two political parties that are forced to work together contrary to popular vote and who are made to do so under duress?
Are African leaders conspiring to assist Mugabe to destroy our nation? Are African leaders so limp as to fear telling the truth to each other?
I see they continue to abuse the girl child in Swaziland where they attend a pornography show called the Reed Dance and parade innocent young girls so that a pitiful egocentric kid, who calls himself king, just points and takes someone’s else’s child and instantly turns the poor girl into a wife.
If African leaders can make a beeline for Swaziland to google at this young Casanova with such sickening bedroom manners do this to blameless and pure young African girls, then it is a sign of doom for Africa.

Mugabe and his litter of tainted would-be politicians are not clinging to power because they believe they have something better to offer.
They are not denying the people the wish to vacate State House because they are wiser.
They are messing up the political stage and are refusing to leave office because they have nowhere to go.
No matter what happens, Mugabe, Chinamasa, Mutasa, Mnangagwa, Chiwenga, Chihuri and the whole litter of the destructive bootlickers are going to jail. They know that once they vacate State House, they have stripped themselves of any protection.
So they pretend to be interested in a settlement of some sort but the evidence is clear now that they do not mean do negotiate in good faith. They are just buying time and hope something happens to their advantage.

It surprises me why the MDC and the world expected something from these talks.
Imagine, if you will, that I have lost my property to a burglar who got caught. Here, we have the robber trying to negotiate with me, demanding that I not only allow him to live in my house but to let him keep part of the property he had stolen from me.
What really are these talks about and why is the MDC wasting our time like this, raising our hopes that something might actually come out of these talks?
If any agreement is reached, then the people will have been betrayed. If nothing comes out of these talks, as indeed will happen, then our people continue to suffer. Both outcomes are unacceptable yet the proper outcome will never come because they are negotiating over the wrong topic.

The MDC is taking part in a game whose rules are being made by the lead player of the opposing team as the game progresses.
Right from the start, the subject matter was deceitful, conceited, irrelevant, unnecessary and opened the door wide enough to let rejected, political criminals, like Mugabe, and his entourage of marooned political upstarts, like Patrick Chinamasa, thumb their noses at the Zimbabwean electorate that continues to suffer under the selfish, malicious policies of these people.

If you look carefully, you will see that Mugabe, Chinamasa and their ilk have Zimbabwe in a life sapping vice. If they continue applying this Full Nelson on the country, the country will die, as it has already shown signs of doing.
The crooks have knives at Zimbabwe’s throat and Zimbabweans and the international community are pointing their guns at the crooks heads.
Mugabe has taken a country and its citizens hostage.
The only way to save Zimbabwe is to entice the muggers into relaxing their deadly hold on the nation a little and then pounce at a time when the hostages face a chance to survive the ordeal.

Zimbabwe does not need a government of national unity because it is too soon and too much to ask of the victims to embrace ZANU-PF, which continues to harass, mug, murder and withhold food from citizens because of their perceived political affiliation.
Kikwete and his group of fellow African presidents should force Mugabe to stand aside. His time is passé as people decreed.
Kikwete should not tarnish his image by being caught up in a cold-blooded, deadly political parody orchestrated by Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe is killing and starving the citizens of Zimbabwe and the least we want is to hear someone applauding such evil, which is what the African presidents are doing.
Kikwete should look at Thabo Mbeki and learn that whoever you are, you can never defeat the will of the people. Kikwete should prescribe for other countries that which he would prescribe for his own country.

Zimbabweans sneer in the face of death at Mugabe’s hands because they believe in themselves. If African leaders cannot stand by the people of Zimbabwe, the best thing for them to do is to leave us alone and let us handle our problems.
It is clear that without the asinine assistance from African leaders, Zimbabweans could long ago have solved their problems. But we are oppressed and have food and freedom withheld from us yet we are made to fight not only Mugabe but the likes of Kikwete, Dos Santos, Mbeki and many African presidents who are cheering Mugabe as he decimates citizens of Zimbabwe.

If Kikwete wants to help Zimbabwe, he should demand a transitional government for Zimbabwe and with the full presence of the international community, which must never include South Africa and its conniving failure of a president, Thabo Mbeki.
If African leaders do not intervene on the side of Mugabe, Zimbabweans can settle their problems on their own.

Maybe Mugabe was right for once when he said the gun is mightier than the pen.
Zimbabweans might have to put down their pens to get rid of Mugabe and what they pick up to rid themselves of this evil is up to them.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, September 11, 2008.