Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Nathaniel Manheru
4 July 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
The sanctions had been put in place for two goals: the reversal of land reforms, and delivery of Mugabe's head on a platter, the second being a prime enabler to the first goal. Beneath inclusivity And during the trip, a new word entered the political vocabulary of Zimbabwe: "incremental".
The MDC-T's purpose in the Inclusive Government in the about four months that have gone by, has been to subtly loosen President Mugabe's hold on levers of power, in the ultimate hope of pushing him off and out, while "incrementally" enlarging Tsvangirai's hand on the wheel of the vessel of State.
This is what young Chamisa meant when he said ungainly in my view we agreed to share power in order to "take it". Victoria Falls "bonding" was a power-profiling and assessment exercise in the bureaucracy, pending a sequenced, surgical attack on carriers of the State.
Innocent STERP was the facade. After it, an observation post (OP) or sentinel disposal strategy for the bureaucracy was worked out: plaint players in the bureaucracy getting won over, brittle ones meriting a bad name "hardliners" before being hanged! You want to understand the attack of the likes of Gono, Tomana, JOC and lately information leadership, in that context.
A different strategy charm and technicality (land audit) is being attempted for the land sector. When angry Tapa was set on him The burden on the MDC leader was to convince his Western funders that the strategy was working, was delivering.
Or so expected the West. Plainly, he did not. If anything, he irritated them: by denying any land invasions; re-characterising Mugabe as a big, kind heart, rare and reserved for statesmen; denying any human rights abuses, in fact making Mugabe's and his own fate Siamese. He made the fatal error of honesty in a world accustomed to deceptive politics.
After all the game plan had been made plain: the stage-managed Amnesty International visit and damning report; the cold reception in Holland which set the tone, the debate and subsequent more-sanctions resolution in the US Senate, the false Human Rights Watch report on diamonds, already known but to be published later.
All these efforts were to be underpinned by a Tsvangirai full of complaints against Mugabe as an untrustworthy partner in the Inclusive Government. Tsvangirai did not shore up this political position and livid Albion set Tapa and all on him, at Southwalk.
This is the broad context within which to appreciate what China has done to the politics of Zimbabwe.
Globally embattled, globally vilified, the Zimbabwe revolution seemed orphaned, condemned both in the East and in the West. Although those in Zanu-PF knew better, China appeared hostile, or at best reticent.
Russia appeared languid. Both seemed not too keen to go beyond gestures in the Security Council, although admittedly very important at the time. Zanu-pf-PF's Zimbabwe appeared easy to rescue, harder to nourish and defend.
But with what has happened this week, China has moved in emphatically, clearly showing the sun truly rises in the East, dies in the West. Morgan Tsvangirai's beatitudinal West! And China has done it in such a way that even the common man in Zimbabwe visualises how foreign policy matters domestically.
China's guns which only yesterday brought freedom to Zimbabwe, have today flowered to trigger real, unconditional welfare for the liberated. The credit touches on welfare pillars, development pillars so, so sorely lacking. What remains to be seen is whether Zanu-pf-PF can be helped. Will it have the courage to reassert the role of the central bank on the back of this credit? Indeed to end this Multilateral Donor Trust Fund, itself an economy within an economy, indeed a government within a government?
Indeed to reassert the place of the new farmer, the nationalist entrepreneur, both of them orphaned by the inclusive Government? Or will it, as before feed the treacherously fawning managerial bourgeoisie that had so quickly abandoned it for a new suitor, a new benefactor?
Those who had taken to platforms to denounce Zanu-pf-PF and its leadership at Trade Fairs are already dusting their party regalia, sharpening their words for another round of praise poetry. For the daffodil is blossoming again.
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