Skepticism Surrounds The Motives of The Dictatorship

Skepticism Surrounds The Motives of The Dictatorship
I am skeptical about the talks that are set to resume between our MDC and the Zanu PF in South Africa today. My main worry is the motive of the dictator and his military junta? What do they hope to achieve by the talks? Because surely they can not suddenly claim a heartfelt need to solve the political crisis in Zimbabwe that has been going on for over 10 years now. The events in Zimbabwe speak for themselves, the violence against MDC members and still carries on with impunity over 1000 MDC officials and members are still in custody, to date 110 people have died since the start of April this year all victims of a state concerted effort to destabilise MDC members and instill fear in innocent citizens and cow them into supporting Zanu PF. A few days prior to the MOU, Mugabe was vitriolic in his usual attack of the British blaming them for the 5 million percent inflation in Zimbabwe, he never looked nor sounded like a man with reconciliation on his mind, his wife as well joined in the verbal attack of President Morgan Tsvangirai the leader of MDC and the rightful winner of the March 29 elections. All I am saying is nothing in actions or demeanour of the dictatorship indicated that they really wanted to resolve the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

Some of the critics of MDC say we will never negotiate from a position of strength after pulling out of the Presidential runoff that Mugabe then went on and declared himself a winner so he could negotiate from a position of strength. As usual the arm chair pundits are way off the mark, Mugabe and his junta never wanted to negotiate. At first they thought they had the April 27 runoff between Tsvangirai and Mugabe all wrapped up after the orgy of violence that they had meted out to MDC members they knew they were going to be winners predicting a low or no turnout of MDC voters. The violence was brutal, it left 10 000 homes destroyed, another 10 000 people requiring urgent medical attention, 250000 people internally displaced, 1000 MDC members in illegal detention over spurious charges and 110 people that lost their lives at the hands of bloodthirsty state machinery that was unleashed on innocent Zimbabwe citizens. MDC had no option than to pull out of the Presidential runoff. However the dictatorship welcomed the idea and went ahead with a shame election, as ridiculous as taking a penalty when they is no goal-keeper and surprise surprise there was one winner Mugabe. They hurried the inauguration and did it on a Sunday so that Mugabe could travel to AU summit in Egypt as a head of state. Despite the need for non-recognition of Mugabe as an illegitimate head of state as he predicated a few among his peers dared to declare his tenure illegitimate with Botswana only issuing the most strongest of terms. All the other African countries as I wrote here on this blog before are tyrannical and their tenures of office are equal questionable. So the expectation of many people that Mugabe would be rejected never happened. After the collapse of the British sponsored UN resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe there was little left that could be done by the world to help the situation in Zimbabwe.

I do not even think it was the sporadic uncoordinated sanctions against the regime in Harare that pushed them to begin negotiations with MDC nor was it the EU targeted personal sanctions. Yes the shortage of watermarked currency paper that the dictatorship imported from Germany company was the one that pushed the regime. However I acknowledge that the collapsed economy is starting bite the very architects of the collapse. Inflation at 2.2 million officially but economists put it at 5 million per cent is the highest in the world and is unsustainable. I think that was one of the issues that forced the dictatorship's hand. The other one might be the choruses of disapproval mostly from African countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria...... amongst those most critical of the illegitimate regime led by the despot Mugabe.

If Zanu PF and its machinery are going through this with insincerity or as a charade to wood wink the world that they are ready to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe then the talks will break down. If Mugabe thinks he can engineer another coup by swallowing MDC as he did Zapu in the late 80s and giving MDC MP token cabinet positions then I can assure you again that the talks will break down. MDC will never accept piece-meal type of settlements that disregard that MDC is the majority party in the parliament and that Morgan Tsvangirai is the rightful winner of the Presidential elections. There is also the issue of the immunity and amnesty, Zanu Pf will try and coax immunity pledges from MDC in exchange of release of all detained MDC members and officials, but we will refuse it. If however as a measure of compromise immunity is offered to Mugabe and his junta it will be difficult to stop individuals that will seek justice of the atrocities that the junta ordered in a new Zimbabwe.

Whatever the motive of the dictatorship in entering the talks, MDC will be on its guard and we will never play second fiddle to the junta we will claim what rightfully is ours, the people given victory of March 29. Any other outcomes the dictatorship can continue in its ruinous rule of Zimbabwe and we shall see if they have the political wherewithal to revive the collapsed economy and improve the lives of ordinary people.