TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE

SADC’s so-called Troika has failed to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis.
But is it true that leaders of Angola, Mozambique and South Africa “failed” to resolve the crisis?
They organize a small summit to help Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to reach an agreement on forming a government of national unity but do not care that Mugabe would not give Tsvangirai a passport.
They, however, invite Heads of State to a meeting defeated by one of the people and do not have the guts to demnd from Mugabe that a passport be issued to Tsvangirai.
“The troika summit did not meet to deal with the issues related with how you deal with travel documents to the principals,” said SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao. “I think that it’s not the role of the troika to deal with that.”
Do why did SADC converge in Swaziland if they cannot facilitate such minor issues?
SADC, it appears to me, is only good at organizing tea parties and nothing else.

The most painful and embarrassing thing to me, however, is not the implied failure of the Troika to resolve the issue; the embarrassment is the fact that these honourable men were in Zimbabwe to defeat the people’s wishes and save, not Zimbabwe, but Robert Mugabe. They were in Zimbabwe to defeat democracy.
They are having problems because they are trying to cheat the masses of Zimbabwe.

This so-called Troika should have congregated to tell Mugabe that he lost the elections and that he should step aside. As simple as that.
But they have the audacity to congregate to try to renegotiate an issue the Zimbabwean electorate decided upon on March 29. They congregated to insult the Zimbabwean people. They congregated to force us to reward a loser at the expense of the winner.
They were a trio of democracy killers.
And I am glad they failed yet I weep that these men are the ones responsible for our continued suffering.
Had they not been propping up Mugabe, Zimbabweans could have resolved the crisis a decade ago but we could not because we were not fighting Mugabe alone. Zimbabweans were fighting and still continue to fight the African Union in addition to SADC, his principle protectors.
African leaders are ganging up on Zimbabweans.

As if that were not enough, I almost crawled under the kitchen table when I watched Arthur Mutambara humiliating himself on BBC’s Hardtalk.
Apparently tired of creating robots, Mutambara thought it a better adventure to become a robot himself.
“Who do I speak for in Zimbabwe?” Mutambara asked himself on Hardtalk and immediately went on to answer himself saying, “I speak for the suffering people in Zimbabwe…”
And he was referring to the very people who rejected him and all his leadership several months ago.

“Mugabe cannot go it alone,” he roared in a pathetically inadequate theatrical effort for emphasis. “Tsvangirai can’t walk away,” then he added the biggest lie, “I can’t walk away…”
But you can, Arthur, and you should.
Please walk away, Arthur.
We are in this mess precisely because of people like you and your cohorts who try to force themselves on the people. Please walk away, Mutambara, because you are delaying the resolution of this crisis.

Mutambara went on to say that “the three political parties are putting national interest before self interest…”
We are watching and we see what is happening.
No political party, let alone three, that Mutambara mentioned, is putting national interest before self interest. None, including the MDC.
From where I sit, I see only Tsvangirai, as an individual, putting national interest before self interest because he was advised to sign that agreement by those with self interest only to find out that the agreement does not cover what the people wanted.

Mugabe is looking for personal security and survival and has shown, over the years, that the nation is not worthy his time. If Mugabe had national interest at heart, he would have resigned a long time ago.
As for Mutambara, what sacrifice has he made for Zimbabwe? His presence in the ring is self interest because there is no justification for his presence. And don’t tell me about the food riots that he apparently masterminded at the University of Zimbabwe; we are talking more than dormitory life here.

As for Tsvangirai, he has gone through hell at the hands of Mugabe and I do not need to recount his trials and tribulations.
Tsvangirai, unlike Mugabe, has a constituency. His followers sent him and he has to report back to them. Mugabe, on the other hand, tells his followers to jump and they will leap up faster than you can say Kumbaya!
If Tsvangirai wanted personal gain, he could have accepted all that’s been put before him and sat back to enjoy himself and his family while his scars heal.

Mutambara just wants to reap where he did not sow. I wonder why someone of such high academic achievement is fighting so desperately to be accommodated in a profession that hardly requires his academic qualifications.

Mutambara believes that he can just come out of nowhere and become ‘Deputy Prime Minister Designate’. It takes hardworking, well-meaning compatriots a lifetime to achieve anything close to that yet Mutambara aches for that title which he does not deserve by a long shot. Welshman Ncube, Mutambara’s puppet master, with all his turncoat colours of betrayal, would be more deserving of this title than Mutambara. Ncube, at least, went through the process as he learned treachery.

On Hardtalk, Mutambara failed to articulate issues and reminded me of Simba Makoni’s disastrous incoherence and impatience on South Africa’s 702 Talk Radio during Zimbabwe elections early this year.
Mutambara blasted two political parties who are “bickering over ministries”.
That is exactly the point, Mr Mutambara.
The MDC does not want just ministries, it wants particular ministries so as to carry out their mandate from the people and Mutambara, who is representing no one, does not see that as long as he is accommodated in that arrangement.

In a gesture of pure immaturity and simplicity, Mutambara declared that in this government that refuses to be formed “there won’t be an MDC minister or a ZANU-PF minister…”
But, of course, there will be ZANU-PF and MDC ministers in this government of national unity. They are not going to lose their identities because elections loom ahead.
That is why some of us, including the MDC, have always wondered about how the participants are going to handle something called collective responsibility in cabinet. Imagine Mugabe defending an MDC minister and Tsvangirai staunchly defending Didymus Mutasa or any ZANU-PF minister who continues to carry out old orders from the old man.

Mutambara said that the issue around cabinet positions is important but it is not sufficient to destroy the agreement. But it just did.

Hardtalk host, Stephen Sackur, asked Mutambara a simple question: “With the country in economic chaos with a vast percentage of your population facing hunger, starvation, is it not the time for the opposition to be coherent and to be united with one leader?”
“No, that is not necessary,” answered Mutambara. “What is important is to have convergence of agenda, what is required is to have the purpose and mission…” whatever that means.

The heart of the matter is that people like Arthur Mutambara and Simba Makoni are part of ZANU-PF’s arsenal. Their role is to divert attention from the real issues. If they want to be president of Zimbabwe and replace Robert Mugabe, then it means they have a better or different agenda for the nation but they fail to spell it out. Instead they both lean towards Mugabe in support.
It appears as if there are some people who do not want the Zimbabwean issue to be contained. We have a hard task ahead.
And that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Thursday October 30th, 2008.