SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
13 November 2008
All is set for Friday's national executive and national council meeting of the MDC in Harare, in what has been described as 'the most important and crucial' gathering of the party's top bodies since its formation nine years ago.
Analysts predict it is almost certain that the two bodies will endorse the position expressed by the negotiating team and party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, after the SADC summit in Johannesburg on Sunday.
Tsvangirai, after consultations with his negotiating team Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma, had rejected SADC's ruling that ZANU PF and the MDC should share the leadership of the Home Affairs ministry. The MDC leader said he was 'shocked and saddened' by the SADC decision, charging that the summit had missed a great opportunity to bring an end to the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Cape Town based political analyst Glen Mpani told Newsreel the two top bodies of the MDC were likely to back Tsvangirai's position, that they cannot enter into a government where they would be treated as juniors.
'I don't see them supporting any other view than the one already suggested by their leader, that they reject the co-sharing of the Home Affairs ministry,' Mpani said.
The MDC has insisted it wants an equitable and fair inclusive government, that is able to deliver on the immediate and long term legitimate demands of the people of Zimbabwe. It views the unilateral grab of powerful ministries by Robert Mugabe as showing his complete lack of sincerity in the power-sharing deal. An advisor for the MDC told us the deal should be about the will of the people of Zimbabwe, as made clear on 29th March. He said they were disappointed by SADC's ruling, but still respected the regional body.
'We respect African institutions and we hope that they will realise that the people of Zimbabwe have made it clear that they want a truly equitable and fair, all inclusive government - and Home Affairs is the bare minimum and non-negotiable,' the advisor said.
On the way forward, the MDC believes that the current talks are now 'a corpse.'
'We can't continue to raise people's hopes on these talks, we have to be honest and inform them that these talks are dead -- the people must then tell the leadership on how best to proceed. We have to confront the challenges head-on,' the MDC advisor added.
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GT:
The "politburo" is a Marxist device wherein the "party" decide what should "be" the "official" policy of the "state". The "party" "exists" to serve the "state", but the only "state" the "party" recognizes is that which is governed by the "party"! A difficult issue, is it not?
Hence is the difficulty of ZANU-PF/Mugabe! They arose from the foam of the post-colonial "Liberation" movement. They, like the ANC in SA, grew to represent the black population of Zimbabwe. The Lancaster Accords were signed and Comrade Bob found himself governing a "Country"! He promptly put the "party" in command of every sector of Zimbabwe's economy, with particular emphasis on the security forces........
Alas, ZANU-PF has not caught the fresh breeze of democracy and equal representation that much of the world has breathed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Zimbabweans are just beginning to percieve that their future is in their own hands and, while they owe respect to Comrade Bob having delivered them from colonialism, have decided that ZANU-PF/Mugabe are too entrenched in the past, and not enough concerned about delivering to their people, a gradually increasing standard of living!
That is why ZANU-PF/Mugabe will eventually fall!
I have a dream, or rather a story, a parable if you will......... and my dream sort of goes like this (you'll forgive the "Lord of the Rings" tone of this daydream......):
"Once upon a time.......
"The people of Zimbabwe were liberated from colonial oppression by Robert Mugabe and the cadres of ZANU and ZAPU. Although the people of Zimbabwe were grateful for this, Robert Mugabe and his friends consolidated power in the aftermath of the Lancaster Ageeements and improperly managed the stewardship of Zimbabwe that they were given. And the once prosperous Zimbabwe fell into a dark time, a dark time indeed.
Thence came a Morgan Tsvangirai...... He collected the disaffected peoples of Zimbabwe and proposed a different way. Because Mr. Tsvangirai proposed a plan opposed to that ZANU-PF/Mugabe had proposed, he was attacked (and denied a passport) by Robert Mugabe and his friends, and many innocent people were injured, killed, or taken away for torture because they actually gave public voice to their dissatisfaction with the way ZANU-PF/Mugabe had handled the affairs of their country......... Mugabe then said, "this man is the evil representation of the slavery imposed by the white man (the West!)!".
For a while, the people believed him, and even when Mugabe evicted the white farmers and their families from what had once been productive agricultural land, the people believed in Mugabe because he was going to give the land of the dispossessed whites to them. Robert Mugabe soon disabused them of this and granted the land to his "party cadres" who knew nothing of the land, or it's people.
Soon the land from the dispossessed imperialists of the previous age grew fallow with the indolence of the "party cadres" to whom the land had been given. There was no maize to feed the cattle, let alone the villages!
An "Election" arrived (at the Constitutionally appointed time) and the party of Tsvangirai registered their disapproval of the ZANU-PF/Mugabe regime and the hardships they had foisted on the people of Zimbabwe. For every hundred Zimbabweans, fully 55% of the voters sided with Tsvangirai, that the direction and management of the the country's affairs had been mis-managed by ZANU-PF/Mugabe and their cadres.
Astonishingly: The "results" of the "election" required 5 ("FIVE") weeks to certify! The results taken by the followers outside of the "official" voting precincts by Tsvangirai counted 55% to 43% for themselves against ZANU-PF/Mugabe.
Confounded by this result, ZANU-PF/Mugabe sought to ascertain where this level of ingrattitude came from, "why have you done this to us, we delivered you from slavery". The answer the people of Zimbabwe gave was "you delivered us from slavery, but gave us a life of penury". The forces of ZANU-PF/Mugabe reacted against this response by refusing people to gather, to exchange ideas. They proceeded to "teach" those that had voted against ZANU-PF/Mugabe the follies of their thoughts pertaining to such sacred ideas of the privacy of the ballot box or any right to free expression!
The supporters of Tsvangirai requested the mediation of outside "friends". They were told that they must accept subjugation to the policies and procedures of ZAN-PF/MUGABE, They refused to accept this and withdrew from the "treaty" they had previously signed with ZANU-PF, saying "no deal is better than a bad deal".
The suffering of the people of Zimbabwe continued. They no longer believed that the allegedly "illegal" sanctions of the "West" could possibly cause this level of depravity when they had been told they were "totally empowered" by the local ZANU-PF chieftan. The economy cratered, the value of their currency plummetted. "What are we to eat" cried the common masses as they sought to fight off starvation....... To which ZANU-PF/Mugabe cried, (in the Herald)!,, "Let them eat cake"!
Again, we all know how this story ended...........
Zanu Pf through what they term as the Politburo (whatever that means), has failed to realise that MDC represents the majority of Zimbabweans, possibly because Zanu PF is pursuing their own self-serving agenda. What should clear to Zanu PF failure to accommodate MDC is failure to accommodate Zimbabweans to determine their destiny. Ian Douglas Smith pursued the same policies and con games, but failed. We are used to these kind of games where we are restricted to one broadcasting and a single important newspaper the Herald (mostly bought to use as a cheap toilet paper) In addition to the Herald Ian Smith had a free paper The African Times I remember very well as the toilet paper we had. From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe we have gone on vicious circle the worst is the Zimbabwean side for Rhodesia every one had a meal nzara kwakange kurikuda. We had a strong currency ask South Africans or Batswana not what we are seeing where Zim dollar is not even wanted by our neighbouring countries. We are not even qualified to talk of economics hapana zvatiri we are just hopeless in the world. So if Zanu PF fails to accommodate the majority of Zimbabweans let them go but change is inevitable.