Here are some excerpts from a recent SW Radio hot seat interview. Brian Kagoro shares his views

On fighting Zanu PF from within
There is some serious fault in the logic that suggests that we will fight from within. What are we fighting from within? If the fight is against Robert Mugabe, well you know, that fight is a fight many of us were not necessarily part of. If the fight is for fundamental change, a change in principles, a change in political culture, that fight is a fight I believe every Zimbabwean has been engaged in. And that fight says, whether it be Tendai Biti, Morgan Tsvangirai, Priscilla, Welshman Ncube or Robert Mugabe, as long as they violate these agreed principles that constitute national consensus and consent then they fall foul and must be opposed. And irrespective of who they are, as long as they observe these particular principles, the sanctity of human life, the human dignity and right of all, that social, economic, cultural, environmental as well as the civil and political rights of people then they must be supported. This is what this fight has been about.

On large sums of money needed for Zimbabwe’s turnaround
My fear and I hope it’s not a harsh judgment, I have seen in Kenya, the attempt by the Kibaki government to use Raila Odinga as their public relations manager to spruce up their international image. My fear is that Tsvangirai will join Mbeki as Zanu-PF’s new public relations manager, international public relations manager. He will go, bowl in hand, begging for money to turn around the education sector, the health sector and whatever else. And this is likely to attract all sorts of issues and conditionalities on our country, and he invested a lot of his life within the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions opposing policy conditionalities. And given the abysmal decline of our economy and our governance, the West is quite likely to impose all sorts of irrational policy conditionalities on Zimbabwe. And it would be tragic to have someone who has been fighting for liberty, for liberation, human rights and freedoms to actually be the conduit through which this country takes back on that aid that is tied to policy conditionalities. He will become the new face of betrayal if he doesn’t carefully handle this particular issue.

On Tsvangirai becoming the target of discontent over problems he didn’t create
He is now joined with Mugabe, there will no longer be reference to Zanu and MDC, there will just be reference to the new face-lifted Zanu or the expanded Zanu-PF government. We refer to a government by the ruling party, so you know, it is a Zanu-PF led government, that’s what it will be and he’ll be part of that government and its failures and he will be part of those failures. There’s no point to continue trying to be leader of the opposition whilst you are in government. Once you are in government you are in government, there’s corporate responsibility of government, of cabinet. A corporate responsibility for successes and I certainly hope there will be many successes. Corporate responsibility for failures. One cannot to continue to extricate oneself and say, no I am not responsible. So it is a courageous position he has taken but huge consequences he must gladly live with.

How do the sceptics and the optimists make sense of this and move on?
All those of us who are sceptical maybe wrong, all those who are optimistic may be wrong. As Bob Marley once said, ‘only time will tell’. The triumphalism of the moment will dissipate; the reality of the situation will bite. Children have to go back to school, teachers have to go back and teach, health workers, our hospitals have to get medicine. Professionals who have fled to South Africa and elsewhere have to be brought back. People who have been victims of human rights violations have to be compensated. Those who have been responsible for torture, for murder, for abductions have to be brought to justice. Those who have been responsible for kleptomania, for plunder of natural and national resources have to pay back. The task of this expanded regime would be to deliver these things. If this expanded regime does not deliver this then it has an epitaph already written on its grave – here lies a marriage that was doomed from the beginning. Let’s hope that we are all wrong. Let’s hope for the sake of Zimbabwe that there is a commitment in Zanu-PF and in the two MDC clubs for a real transformative agenda. That there is a commitment to return this country, not just to an economically sound footing but also to a sustainably democratic and accountable culture of governance – where no one is above the law, where looters are brought to book. Let us hope for the sake of our beautiful country that this marriage of convenience, this polygamous marriage of convenience, unequal yoking of enemies will prove to be a workable solution.

Well now.

It’s taken almost a year for us to get a result from the 2008 March election. Hmmm. Then Tsvangirai said he’d halt any negotiations regarding a Government of National Unity until all abducted and detained activists were returned or released. That didn’t last for long, he was soon back at the round table and the mini bar. And now that he has agreed to jump into bed with that old guy, he’s said that previous demands like the allocation of ministries will be sorted out over the next 6 months, or so. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?

John Makumbe writing for openDemocracy has this to say:

The bottom line is that Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF have no intention of handing over power to the MDC, except under severe political pressure from both within and outside Zimbabwe. The activists gathering at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on 26 January-3 February 2009 to highlight the “passive genocide” in their country are right; those who are prepared to consent to a political fix that will entrench its architects in power are wrong. Read more

Valentine’s Day is approaching and Fungai Machirori reminds us that although we’re living in a time of cholera, corruption and other forms of chaos, we still have Love to console ourselves with. I’m always pleased when we, the citizens, come up with basic home made remedies that we can engage to keep ourselves sane amidst all the political clap trap. Che Guevara said, At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love.

Here’s some self help and love from Fungai. Don’t know about you, but I’m off in search of some Charon’s toffees.

We Zimbabweans live in curious times. We suffer much and sacrifice even more – dreams, memories and even hopes. If there is any group of people whom I expect out on the streets, painting the town red with passionate and compassionate love this February 14, it is us. For when all else has ravaged us – political intimidation, economic deflation, scourges of violence and disease and condemnation – all that has remained to console us is love. And whether you are a traditionalist who believes that V-Day is a commercial gimmick, or a fervent but cash-strapped romantic, I say to you, “Make the effort, this year!” Pluck a simple flower from an overgrown bush, be patriotic and buy a packet of Zimbabwe-manufactured toffee sweets, or make a simple card with a meaningful message. Whatever it may be, make sure you do something special for someone you love. Our recent history has taught us to value what we have now because we have learned in a cruel way that the future is often not for us to control.

As some Zimbabweans celebrate the signing of the GNU, where do we all stand on the need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the innumerable human rights abuses committed by the Mugabe regime? Zimbabwean poet Beaven Tapureta reminds us of the pain experienced on the road to freedom.

Carry His Spirit to a New Zimbabwe

I lie beside my brother
In the glaring mountains
Of my countryside
He looks at me
Eyes swollen
Buttocks fried
“Some men did it.
Said I belong to a party they don’t like,” he whispers

This sight alone plants my
Future in front of me

“Take me home,” he pleads
I try
But there is nowhere to touch
his flogged body
and hold it.
I try
With bare hands
To lift him
his pain is my pain
Zimbabwe, our pain.
God knows where it will end
They might drive it the direction they want
Our future seeks another route.

I softly lift my brother
in his bloodied shirt
red
Like the flag
of my country
now
tattered
muddied
defiled
I lift him home
My brother
With all my love
His spirit rises to a new Zimbabwe.

For more poetry by Zimbabwe writers please visit the Poetry International web site

That people do not trust Zanu PF is a historical fact backed by numerous events since the party’s formation back in the 1960s.  That fact was cemented after the MDC National Executive Council agreed January 30 to get into bed with the party roundly condemned for running down the economy and horrendous human rights violations.

Instead of this important announcement being met with wild ululation, word on the street remains one of subdued hope – or total absence thereof – with sentiments like: “What the heck? Who cares anymore?” It is when the people’s sense of resolve and hope is destroyed that one looks at the whole thing about politics – African at least – as inherently flawed.

Do elections offer hope for the masses anymore? What about non-electoral political settlements like the one Zimbabwe is witnessing? These liberation parties have for long claimed ownership and entitlement of the nations they liberated from white minority rule, and it does not make any sense for the general populations that these elites seem to only accept the opposition into government only as lesser political entities under their phony tutelage.

What tangible space then does the victorious political opposition occupy to be able to change and reserve decades-old policies that were engineered by the liberation movements?

I listened to a group of unemployed men rubbing their hands with unbounded glee that the decision by the MDC to at last join Zanu PF in government was a harbinger of a change of their fortunes.

But another in their midst – perhaps from that Afro-pessimism school to which I happen to belong – was quick to warn them against premature celebration.  More like premature ejaculation perhaps: it’s over before it even begins! After muted consideration, another was instantly converted to that school. There was little or nothing to celebrate, they agreed. But as some would have said in different circumstances, “let’s give peace a chance,” so perhaps let’s give this experiment a chance.

Zanu PF is viewed as a “senior partner” by many here who watched ZAPU pitifully give itself one hard kick in the butt into political oblivion when Mugabe tricked that good man Joshua Nkomo into believing they were equal partners.”Yes we are brothers, but I am the big brother!”

That is the history many sceptics are reminded of today, and as long as there is no confidence in this formation of the GNU among not only the ordinary people but most importantly among the political players themselves as both parties are reported to have inveterate hardliners opposed to the union, then this is yet another historic triumph for ZANU PF.

And the people’s understanding of local politics does not offer any sunny side of contemporary Zimbabwe. For starters, does this mean for example the release of political prisoners? As far as recent developments and media reports go, Zanu PF has not yet committed itself in that regard. Are we likely to see Zanu PF dropping its tired rhetoric of calling the MDC-T puppets of the West etc? It would be incorrigible naivety to image Zanu PF having that instant conversion in a bid to move the country forward and up the Sisphyean path of economic recovery and the rebuilding of essential services. That conversion would sure be a miracle worth sneaking into the pages of the Bible.

What the people need is Mugabe to go peacefully not the mere signing on the dotted line of the GNU, that is what you hear everyday.

Many have tried – and many have failed – to change Zanu PF from within but only to question their own wisdom after dining with the Devil only to fail to dehorn it.

Zimbabweans agree the country must move forward, what they do not agree on is whether supping with the Devil is the right path. Better the Devil you do not know after all! While popular sentiment across the country and indeed the world is that what Zimbabwe needs is a total makeover with the absence of Zanu PF, it is instructive that the MDC is seen as having done this against its better judgement.

It can only be because there is something Zimbabweans already know about Zanu PF for this mass deception thing is being viewed as precisely that – mass deception. If only the MDC was being passed the poisoned chalice in the sense of Zanu PF leaving government. But what they have done is actually sit down to partake of the contents and return it to people who have taken gulps of a mysterious serum to render themselves immune to the contents therein.

Zanu PF is beyond caring, and the US government has already said it is sceptical about the whole thing, so imagine the Zimbabwean people themselves who for years have been forced to live with untold misery at the hands of Zanu PF. Their scepticism knows no bounds and with good reason.

Someone called Gina posted this interesting comment on the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum list serv recently:

I read today about a primary school teacher working across the border to raise South African Rand because she can’t use worthless Zimbabwe money. I wonder if she knew that the 100 Billion Zimbabwe dollar note is selling for $45 dollars Australian on e-bay. That’s $30 US  or 1,121,949,240 Z$. Zimbabwe Dollar notes from $1 to $1,000,000 sell for about $35 US. I find it incredible that coin and note collectors are paying so much for Zimbabwe money on e-bay when those that live there say it is cheaper to burn than newspaper.