The Political tug of war between Mugabe and Tsvangirai continues.

The old man blighted by dementia and stubborness he carries on to take and  forget, his latest victim being the Nelson Chamisa  Minister with no Portfolio who for a few weeks was “ The Minister of Information, Media and Publicity“ (or still is depends on who you ask). Certain responsibilities have been taken away from Mr Chamisa because they are of “interest” to the ruling Gorvenment oh sorry to ZANU PF. With Nelson incharge of these “interests” ZANU are not able to fully utilize some “tools” of the Ministry. I guess when Bob handed over the ministry he had a bit too much wine to drink celebrating the union with the Prime Minister or dementia had just kicked in, we can understand your Excellency. 

The other half, understandably were not pleased by this sudden withdrawal by Baba Vakuru and has been one of the reasons for the continuing tension between two. This was supposed to be a Unity Government but when working with Robert Mugabe expect the goal posts to move now and again. Chamisa has so far threatened to quit if his Ministry was not left intact but I do not see the President losing sleep over this, in fact i do not see Chamisa quiting his job because if he did he would have to give back that lovely Mercedes Benz that gave him all the Power he currently posses.

On the other hand the Prime Minister is having to deal with rebelious members of his party who are refusing to hand over or refuse the luxury vehicles handed to them whem they came in “power” distributed by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono. Some members have even threaten to quit the Party (but i ask myself will htey still be entiled to the vehicles if they walked out). That greed settled in so quickly he is now having problems taming his crowd. Currently the Prime minister bounces from emergency meetings to crisis meetings earning his hard earned dollar.

The pressure on the Prime Minister right now is immense beside biting his tongue working the most difficult boss we can imagine  he is having to deal with Land invasion issues which are on the increase, the Roy Bennet issue, the Zimbabwe Constitutional issue with the National Constitutional Assembly, issues relating to farming disruptions, Mugabe has got this man running around.

Is Robert Mugabe a man to be trusted? Prime Minister Tsvangirai will soon find out.

Most Zimbabweans are aware of how Robert Mugabe operates, since the independance of Zimbabwe in 1980 we have seen how he deals with the opposition. This man dreamt of a One Party State that he had control over, he would rule this country until his death more like a Life President and nothing would come between him and his rulership.

With his One Party State in mind we have seen how he has dealt with his opponents, recently we have seen ZANU PF merge with Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement of Democratic Change. Before the merge MDC supporters and ordinary Zimbabweans suffered at the hands of ZANU PF zealots, the situation within Zimbabwe was now beyond repair with the whole system collapsing from Health, the Economy, Education and the Political chaos carried on, for a moment it looked like no one could salvage the situation, Mugabe had lost control. With sanctions imposed and  mounting pressures from both African and the International community Mugabe was backed into a corner and succumbed to “joining” forces with the enemy after vowing on numerous occassions that he will never work with those he believed to be agents of the West and were hard at work to sell-off the country. His position was weakened and he decided to re-establish himself as the country’s premier this time aided by the MDC, he could not take anymore shots and as the MDC was closing in seeing himself and his party out of the picture was a no-no.

To hold onto power Mugabe employed tactics he had used earlier on in his rulership (If you cant beat them join them or get them to join you) only this time without the the 5th Brigade and the Gukurahundi atrocities(Or maybe with). In the 1980s the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (PF ZAPU) led by Joshua Nkomo (who once fled to Britain fearing for his life) was  Zimbabwe’s major opposition political party they proved to be a force to be wreckoned with and were upsetting Mugabe ‘s One Party State dream. The atrocities and the violence could not carry on and in December of 1987 ZANU swallowed up PF ZAPU in the Unity Accord Agreement “uniting” the two parties with Joshua Nkomo as one of the two Vice Presidents and Mugabe as the First Secretary and President of ZANU PF bringing Zimbabwe under one Political Party, the opposition was gone over night.

With the recent union we see history repeating itself again Mugabe has welcomed MDC just like he did PF ZAPU appointing their leaders as Ministers and giving some power and some of the highest seats in office.

When PF ZAPU was swallowed up by ZANU did we see any of their policies come through, does anyone know what Joshua Nkomo wanted for his people and supporters and did they get it? Will MDC go down the same route or will they be the dominant force in this union, will their influence shine through or are they only there to help Bob clean up the mess he has caused in recent years?

Late last year we saw the revival of the PF ZAPU, most of the senior leaders who in the late 1980s joined Mugabe have now abandoned him and ZANU callinign for the withdrawal of the 1987 Unity Accord and disolving the Alliance. Former Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa was elected interim leader and he chairs the Interim National Executive Committee, with branches across the country PF ZAPU is back with party structures operating  under the authority of the Constitution of ZAPU. 

The PF ZAPU break-away claimed, among other reasons, Mugabe was an unrepentant dictator, who had frustrated all efforts by party reformists to seek leadership renewal within Zanu-PF. Some members have heavily criticised the late Leader Joshua Nkomo of allowing Mugabe to crush them by incorporating them into ZANU. The WEST obssesed President attacked the break-away faction calling them  ”willing tools of the West”, what else was he going to call them….

Morgan Tsvangirai has recently written to Mr Mbeki expressing his concerns over the support Mr Mbeki has shown to the currernt Presient of Zimbabwe and I say to him has he forgotten how these issues are dealt with in African Politics. Two lessons “Prime Minister” Tsvangirai has got to learn quick;

1. Politics is a dirty Game

2. Mr Thabo Mbeki is indebted to Mr Robert Mugabe (a bit of history there The name Govan Mbeki comes to mind)

Mr Mbeki took his sweet time to react to the plight of the Zimbabwean people, the whole time Mugabe and ZANU PF were destroying the country he did not seem bothered as his country was benefiting at the time, so with this in mind why would Mr Tsvangirai think that Mr Mbeki was going to deliver him Zimbabwe or half of Mugabe’s Powers. I have prevously pointed out that Mr Tsvangirai’s hunger for power clouded his own judgement he took no precations and went into this with his eye closed. Did he seriously think Thabo Mbeki was going to play fair, this is how Mugabe works. I would not even have allowed Mr Mbeki to listen in own the “Power-Sharing” discussions let alone have him chair the whole negotiations. It was doomed from the begining and the Prime Minister is partly to blame.

Mugabe has been in Power for 28 years not because of his love for free and fair elections or his Power-sharing skills, he has been in Power all these years because Mugabe and ZANU will ot let anyone else Govern the country even if that calls for stepping on peoples toes. The Prime Minister has accused the President of Power grabbing by holding onto the key Ministries such as Foreign Affairs, Local Government, Defence and Home Affairs and I say he right to moan about these, But take stand back the minute you hand one of these ministiries over to the opposition  handing over some of your Power and do you see Mugabe doing that…..NO

To you Prime Minister I say there are reasons why Mugabe agreed to this deal with Mbeki involved and before signing you should have asked yourself a number of questions. There are very few people in the world who have volunterily agreed to share power and I hate to say Robert Mugabe’s name is not going to be added onto this list. Your naivety torwards this whole issue has left me wondering, thinking – did you honestly think you were going to get a fair deal.

Over the years Mugabe and ZANU PF have used these key ministries to further their own gains, using organisations such as the ZRP, instead of working for the people this organisation has been  under ZANU control for years. I can give a million reasons why MDC is not going to get the Ministry of Home Affairs, handing them over will be letting them in on the movements of the ZANU PF Party and that is not going to happen. These organisations have been working hand in hand with the Ruling Party for them to hand it over a lot restructuring will take place before this happens.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is not happy with the current set-up, he feels a bit cheated by President Robert Mugabe……………NEWS FLASH Morgan this was inevitable. A few months ago I did point out that we will soon get to this point, what I did not know was it was going to be so soon. Morgan is not happy with the way he is being treated and I ask myself, has he been listening to Mugabe and ZANU PF all along, throughout the years, the months leading to the elections he “won” and later pulled out. Mugabe has been adamant about how he feels about the opposition and if they (MDC) had paid attention to what he was saying they would not have signed that agreement but carried on fighting. I have stressed over and over again that Zimbabwean people are my main concern in this whole circus show, They are no better now than they were before the Power Sharing Agreement was signed. People are still starving and suffering. Before the ink had even dried Mugabe had gone back to his verbal attacks on the Western Powers something he does now and again.

A few weeks ago I learnt that The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai was unable to travel because he did not have a passport, thats right the Prime Minister. Word is his Passport was up for rewnewal but the “authorites” informed him that he will have to postpone his trip wait until the materials to put together a passport were available, Morgan did not travel. I’m no Prime Minister and in the past I have been able to submit the relevant documents to obtain an Emergency Travel Document (ETD), but this is the least of his problems. Like with all Power sharing agreements both side normally dont trust each other and are always on the lookout for being short changed. Most Zimbabweans know how Mugabe operates both publically and Privately and for Morgan to enter inot suxh a deal with him most would think it was for personal gain. I think Morgan wanted to be in a Position of power an did not care what it was going to cost him, because we all know Mugabe was not going to play fair. There is no point being the Prime Minister of a country with no powers or say in whats going on. This is the price of greed hopefully his supporters are going to support him through this ordeal all I say is its going to get messy. I can bet you anything there s no way Mugabe is going to hand over more power to Morgan. If Morgan had not rushed into signing the agreement and, consulted his party seeked advice form other regional leaders (other than that Mbeki)  there should be no reason to revisit the terms of the agreement, Robert Mugabe is no fool and Tsvangirai of all people should know better.

I seriously thought after Meddler Mbeki was ousted by his own people he was not going to meddle in the affairs of my county. I was sort of relieved,he is in forced retirement he’s gone gone gone gone, but now we find Tsvangirai turning to this man gain in the time of crisis (Morgan – He is the one who got you in this situation and you call him aghain to mediate, come on guys!) You keep turning to Mbeki you will always be in this situation if not worse. I am sure Mr Mbeki is a nice man (when he is at home with the gran kids) just not in my country messing with the lives of Ordinary Zimbabweans. This agreement was drawn up to avoid sanctions and to keep you quiet and you fell for it. This is not an attack on the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe I am just pointing out that my mother always told me to look before I leap……