Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe are stuck to each other like bread and butter. By the way politics is going in the country; it will not be long for one to be interchanged for the other.
The decision by leaders of the Southern African Development Organization to call on the international community to end sanctions against the Zimbabwean government is the latest twist in the saga.
It showed that Zimbabwe is indeed Mugabe’s country. The call has stripped naked the image of power-sharing partner, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which in essence means its leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The call for an end to sanctions has effectively pulled the carpet from under the MDC’s feet and other activists, giving them little comfort and a victory sign for President Mugabe.
The shock mainly came from South African President Jacob Zuma who during his campaign and pre-election moonlight had sided with the MDC and criticized former leader Thabo Mbeki of being soft on the issue.
Now Zuma has changed his political lens, leaving the MDC holding the bathwater. The development has left Zanu-PF, the other partner in the government of national unity entrenched and stronger while MDC remains punctured and comparable to a drowning man.
Satirically, there was the case of a drowning man who shouted help, help, I can’t swim-as a couple passed by. Not realizing that the man was in danger, the couple simply retorted we have been learning to play the piano for seven years and still can’t but we are not shouting about it.
If you can’t swim why shout about it? This is how it’s being worked out in the Zimbabwean political chess. The country remains a far cry from the icon it once was but still uniquely attractive to both foreigners and the millions of its overseas citizen’s mainly in Southern African countries or further afield as Britain, Canada and the United States.
Black and whites still see the county as a gem unlike many Africans elsewhere who would wipe their feet doggy-style the moment they go abroad. Perhaps what keeps the country on the glow is its capacity to rise up from its ashes like the proverbial phoenix.
Already the agricultural sector has boomed this year with produce widely available. More foodstuffs are available than the period last year. Farmers are stopping huge smiles. Moneywise, the country’s workers are the envy of states next door as transactions so far including salaries are in United States dollars.
The shops boast of a wide variety of consumer goods although as expected prices are high and sometimes prohibitive to folks down the line. The eagerly sort out flour, which had dodged the consumer to prepare the much needed Ogali (the main meal) is now widely available.
Zimbabwean colleague Robert Muntala emailed me the other day to say that “things have never been so good…. except for one thing human rights. Opponents of Zanu-PF starting from the MDC itself still linger in jail. Appointments of Attorney-General, the Governor of the Bank and other vacancies remain unfulfilled because they are supposed to be MDC slots.”
At least one MDC deputy Minister is still in detention awaiting trial of plotting to kill Mr. Mugabe years back. But Mugabe – what is seen as an uncertainty from the outside is to secure grounds by Zimbabwean politicians themselves.
Mr. Tsvangarai keeps touting that his country is “in an irreversible process towards change.” “It is on the right course to the extent” that he and President Mugabe’s interaction has been instructive.
Is there then the call for the lifting of sanctions the latest twist in the political horse trading and the new-found advocate, South African President Jacob Zuma working on a plan B fallback?
Is it precisely that the boot is now on the other foot? What or rather where is the lone Botswana voice that had once said, “Mugabe must go before Zimbabwe would see the light.” Whatever is the case, the opposition remains unhappy in Zimbabwe and it is going to be just that for some time to come.
President Mugabe’s arrogance must be curbed … the sooner the better. He may be talking tough to the international community thinking it was a period of when Zimbabwe got its independence. Times have changed and its diplomacy that now rules the waves.
Days before he had talks with the European Union, Mugabe’s posture was much more like preparing for battle with al Qaeda. Such Baghdad approach to the problem would hardly add much to re-connect the country to the world arena.
No doubt Mr. Mugabe remains Zimbabwe’s Master of ceremony. This time, its not that the devil lives on the other side of the channel, it’s within … and living big. The whole business is putting Mr. Tsvangirai’s leadership of the MDC on a knife edge.
It could encourage some political rascals in the MDC camp to blow the whistle that his time is up for a replacement, and accused him of pussy-footing. Everyone no doubt is confused by the constant bickering.
What is new for any leader to say apart from slogan and clichés. That Tsvangarai continue to say that the partnership is working makes it difficult for anyone else to urge for more prompting. The limbo may not last.
By Rod Mac-Johnson
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