Zuma getting it completely wrong on Zimbabwe
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...By JIRIHANGA MUGADZAWETA
Published: January 24, 2010
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ZIMBABWE – HARARE – It is always tricky for a man to appreciate, let alone understand and, therefore, alleviate a neighbour’s problems. It appears the difficulty stems from the fact that if the neighbour in good standing directly points a finger at their wayward fellow, the former may be instantly accused of having an adulterous affair with the latter’s wife.
It is really tricky. One has then to let their neighbour abuse their spouse and kids because the spin-offs are quite tremendous if they dare intervene, it appears.
It is probably because of the complication alluded to above that a number of African statesmen are often found either mum or hallucinating when it comes to solving their peers’ internal problems. I have heard arap Moi proposing a primary school boy solution to the Rwanda/Burundi massacre in 1994. According to him it was pretty easy; both countries are constituted of Hutus and Tustis, why not Tutsis immigrate to Rwanda from Burundi and the latter’s Hutu leave for Burundi? Easier said than done! How about their jobs and homes, would they be readily available on the other side of the border? How about the Mchanganyikos (kids from intermarriages), where do they go? Fast forward to 2007 when his own Kenya was a tribal blast furnace, when the Luos were chasing the Kikuyus away from the Rift Valley. He was suddenly mum instead of advising Raila and Mwai to transfer the Kikuyu from the area permanently and leave the Luo as he had proposed for Rwanda and Burundi. Why not the same approach home and away? Doesn’t 1 Corinthians 12 v 12 say we are the same?
Moi is not the only to succumb to the Moi syndrome, that of doing unto others what you would not do unto yourself. Mbeki forged a fragile peace deal in Zimbabwe via the discredited idea of a government of national unity (GNU) which celebrated Nobel Prize laureates in his native country could not sustain. And the syndrome is quite contagious. Meles wanted to forcibly drive out Somalia’s militant rebels yet handling discussions with Ogden rebels in his own country. And as I write this article, the syndrome has been diagnosed in West Africa. Senegal’s octogenarian president Wade’s solution to Haiti’s earthquake misfortunes is equally simple; let the Haitians retrace their ancestors’ footsteps back to Senegal. He accordingly promised them houses, plots and even a whole region if they immigrate en masse. He is offering all these promises despite the fact that his own country is reeling under the magnifying glass of exorbitant food prices and a massive unemployment rate exceeding 50%. How then can he be so ambitious as to invite Haitians who have lived for four centuries in the Caribbean to Senegal? After all it is a neighbour’s problem so any solution is possible and adequate!!
And the Jacob who stepped into Mbeki’s shoes could not be spared of the Moi syndrome, after all it is contagious. Accordingly, he is bound to continue mishandling the Zimbabwean issue as did his predecessor. For one thing, Zimbabwe’s gnu is based on the Global Political Agreement which is Mbeki’s brainchild, and which Zuma agreed to enforce lock, stock and barrel by the virtue of him agreeing to inherit the mediator ship from Mbeki. What is surprising is the fact that Zuma seems contend with letting Rwavhi Mugabe getting away with murder through allowing him to wink at some provisions of the GPA and rushing to call for an election with those provisions still outstanding. Zuma’s inherent problem, the one for which he is often criticized at home is his tendency to hunt with the hounds and run with the hares. Unfortunately such a double faced approach will not in Zimbabwe as the situation stands.
Yes Jacob is accused of talking meat when he is with the butcher and bread when with the baker, pies when with both. Unfortunately he is forced to talk democracy in Zimbabwe regardless of the forum at which he is. The man comes into Zimbabwe wearing three hats; he sympathizes with Zanu since it shares liberation movement status with his ANC, with the MDC since it is a social democratic movement like his own and with the MDC-M because one of his daughters is married to its godfather, Welshman Ncube. That on its own creates a serious, deleterious conflict of interest. He, therefore, needs to excuse himself from the whole exercise. To graphically demonstrate this, Tsvangirai jetted into South Africa towards the end of last year with the object of outlining to Zuma how Mugabe was violating the GPA. Zuma reacted by giving Mugabe a stern warning to respect the agreement.
A few months down the line, Zuma send his top envoy Tokyo to Zanu’s congress to show solidarity with the party getting measured for its coffin. We did not any word from either Tokyo or the ANC condemning the dictatorial tendencies in Zanu of holding congresses to rubber stamp rather than elect leaders. That is definitely not the way the ANC does it. Zuma and Tokyo could not be there if it was done the Zanu way. Be careful Mr Tokyo, there is political wisdom which requests us to show our friends such that the judges can tell us who we are. Ukadziya moto wembavha newe watovewo mbavha. Additionally, Zuma is in excellent books with resurgent Zapu which is to all intents and purposes a tentacle of Zanu. Now there are talks of a Zapu/MDC- Welsh merger. What a Zanu grand plan? All those antics will not prompt or necessitate an election in the current poisoned environment either!!!
Unfortunately such prevarication cannot solve Zimbabwe’s problems. The gnu is in the intensive care ward and needs honest, sustained support. South Africa had maintained quiet and dust-settling diplomacy policies towards Zimbabwe during the Mbeki era. Obviously South Africa used to benefit from Zimbabwe’s problems during the earlier part of the last decade; ordinary people used to go to South Africa to acquire groceries while most professional relocated to the country thereby closing the skills gap there. But that was just the beginning! Dangerous criminals in this country who had no one to steal from also voted with their feet; destination, South Africa. Prostitutes whose clientele base here had declined considerably due to the exodus of men found themselves left with no choice but to do the drag nuch suiden, southward drive. Result: an unprecedented surge in the scourge of our age, crime and unemployment.
The best that Zuma can ever do for us is to tell the geriatric at our state house that, come the next poll, he should respect human rights, and our rights chose our destiny. Not that we hate geriatrics and those that stay in power forever. No! What we abhor is the age of his archaic ideas especially his resolve to drag us back to the Stone Age while he and his inner cabal enjoy modern life. Tell him the famous Zulu saying, umntu ngumntu ngabantu. The better Jacob can do to tell Mugabe to respect the GPA to which he is a signatory, allow the constitution to be redrafted and have elections held as planned. Can’t he Jack see that Mugabe and his henchmen are throwing spanners into the works when is it comes to implementing reforms agreed upon in the GPA? The good would be to be quiet, revert to Mbeki’s quiet diplomacy and we labour to assert our own liberty. The worst is what he wants to do, calling for elections in the current environment when the terrain is gravely lopsided in Mugabe’s favour. The best that the Zuma approach would engineer will be the same, old after taste- a horrid hybrid that is neither fish nor fowl by the name of the gnu. Worst still, then it may include Zapu and Mavambo!!
May be Cde Zuma does not understand the background to the current problems in Zimbabwe. I am prepared to provide such background to him for no pay. A little over a decade ago, there was founded an obstinate opposition party by the name of the MDC. Stubborn because unlike any of the parties before it and after it, it was neither a tentacle of Zanu nor was it a fly-by-night garden party organized to give people false hope. It had been traditionally known that there is a vortex of opposition to Rwavhi, but due to the fact that there was no credible opposition party, such groundswell of disaffected individuals remained dormant. With the birth of the MDC, the people concurrently realized that they had not benefitted a thing for twenty years under Rwavhi. Rwavhi himself realizing that his hegemony is under threat, singled out local whites for supporting the newly formed party. Their businesses were from that date repossessed as a retribution measure. The west responded by imposing sanctions on Rwavhi and his inner cabal. Elections held from the subsequent year were accompanied by unprecedented violence and rigging. The worst-ever circus come with the 2008 which while admitting that he had been thumped, Rwavhi stubbornly stayed put.
That is the background to the uncertainty that the country currently finds itself in. The importance of addressing the demands of the MDC before any election can be held is as follows:
- If Gono remains at the reserve bank, who knows, Rwavhi might reintroduced printing cash on bond paper which in the past engineered the worst ever inflation. All the modest gains registered on the economic front will thus vanish into thin air.
- Since the major problem facing the country is human rights violation, especially the arbitrary arrest and torture of MDC activists, does not it make sense that partisan Tomana be relieved of his duties at the attorney-general’s office for his continued stay there would just exacerbate the said problem? Tomana is the very impediment to democracy in Zimbabwe apart from Rwavhi himself.
- Is not the appointment of provincial governors and ambassadors by a man who lost the poll an insult to democracy? The appointees execute their duties in a partisan manner which in turn prejudices the ruling party, MDC of supporters especially in the hunger stalked rural areas. Do you do it like down South? The answer is an affirmative no. We know that Helen Zille of the DA is the premier of the Western Cape. Tony Leon of the same party is your ambassador to Argentina. Worse still Zanu is the minority, opposition in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s current problems cannot just be charmed away. It is political minefield that needs to be demined before any safe treading on it can be made feasible. Therefore, the call to tread anyway despite the known presence of landmines is both irresponsible and uncanny. It is an uninformed decision that is bound to backfire big time. It smacks of the Moi syndrome.
And sanctions are without the powers of the MDC. They do not control the western countries and to think that they can just jet into New York and request Obama to unlock aid is foolhardy. The west has categorically stated that they want the causes of the sanctions to be addressed before they can even think of lifting them. Human rights violations continue unabated and Rwavhi is refusing to move an inch in addressing the underlying causes of the sanctions. Therefore, calling for elections in such an environment is simply putting the cart before the horse. Unless if the objective is to have another GNU as they seem to be fashionable in this day in Africa. The call smacks of Rwavhi’s own call for elections soon when he closed his congress in December. It then puts paid conspiracy theories which have it that the ANC has a hand in Rwavhi’s perpetual stay at state house.
What seems in line is to be frank with Rwavhi that he is simply treading the garden path. That message might stick big time if it emanates from someone like Zuma. Ian Khama did it. Mwanawasa did it. Guebuza of Mozambique and Kikwete of Tanzania have already indicated that they are not apostles of Mugabe’s antics. Because South Africa has chosen a softly-softly approach to its neighbour’s problems, Rwavhi claims that SADC is fully behind him. It’s high time Zuma clearly defines himself in relation to the Zimbabwe crises. He can no longer afford to take a neutral stance where there is no room for such neutrality. This represents a moment of truth for him, a time when he should just bite the bullet and tell the dictator to back off. His continued romance with Mugabe and Zanu coupled with a non-committal approach to the Zimbabwean crisis will leave multitudes doubtful about his own democratic credentials. After all, there has been precedence from the likes of Khama, so there will be nothing new there.
There is vibrant democracy in the ANC. He roared to power against the wishes of a powerful incumbent in 2007. There is also lively democracy in the country as well. Citizens are free to form political formations without stress. COPE’s demonstrates the point in this regard. Others like PAC and the IFP are all offshoots of the ANC that have been left to shoot themselves in the foot. Isn’t it Jacob’s wish that a similar culture permeate the whole continent, Cape to Cairo? And the disenfranchising of citizens living and working abroad isn’t that criminal and calculated to unfair determine the outcome of elections. If an election is to all intents purposes free and fair, there should be a concomitant willingness to let any willing observers to come in and observe the poll. These are all underlying fundamentals that should be addressed before a call for elections in Zimbabwe can be made.
It also depends on the motive of holding elections after all. If they are to be held as a ritual with their results of no eventuality, then let it be. If however they are to be legitimately as a cog of democracy, then sorry not now. Rwavhi’s hoodlums are still roaming the country like a bunch of rootless cultural bastards groping in darkness for lost identity, objective; to harangue opposition supporters and sympathizers. Unfortunately may be such reports do not reach honourable Jack at any point in time. The long and short of it is that Zimbabwe is to all intents and purposes, not ready to go the polls any time soon.
Mugabe is still smart from the 2008 drabbing by the MDC so would not like a repeat of that post haste. Tsvangirai would not want an election against Mugabe when the fundamentals of the gnu are not addressed. MDC-M knows that their political lifespan is congruent to the gnu. Bald Arthur categorically stated that Zimbabwe is not in an election mode now and anytime soon. Zanu leeches know that calling for an election now would be tantamount to reading Malachi 4 vs 1 to them, the coming of the time of reckoning. Most especially from the southern and eastern parts of the country know that they no longer enjoy any meaningful support to eke out a win even after rigging. A buffoon by the name of Munyaradzi Mangwana demonstrated this by cheating us into believing that an election would prejudice the current parliament. Bu the point is, is the parliament benefitting the people? Who then needs the election soon, Msholozi?
Zuma seems to be suffering from the Moi syndrome, hallucinating on big assignments. In fact hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it. The mediator in our crisis is doing exactly that. He however needs to be reminded that Moi is a professor of politics and as such may have been performing an experiment with Rwanda and Burundi. Unfortunately we have suffered long enough to know, abhor and avoid such experiments being carried out with our failed state. And it is unfortunate that the fortunate frequently mistake being less privileged for folly. The two may have a cause-effect relationship but it is not always the case. An election without far-reaching reforms as agreed in the GPA is a sheer waste of time, we don’t want.
JJ MUGADZAWETA