Zim Talks? What a Farce!!
I have kept half an eye (and ear) on the power sharing talks between the two MDC formations and ZANU PF. I would have loved to have kept my full attention on the talks, but l have a living to earn and needs must. In an earlier piece, l spoke about the need for us to draw lessons from history. Now amid rumours that claim that MDC Mutambara has cut a deal with ZANU PF and with Mutambara calling Tsvangirai “indecisive”, l find l must once again refer to history to draw some very necessary lessons for the negotiators. There was a leader of a party called UANC. He went by the name Bishop Abel Muzorewa. During the years that he was most influential, the country that is now Zimbabwe was then called Rhodesia. Rhodesia was reeling under stiff sanctions imposed on the country (as opposed to individual Zim sanctions) as well as an insurgency by Africans determined to secure black majority rule. The then leader of Rhodesia, one Mr Ian Douglas Smith, decided to come to an agreement with Bishop Abel Muzorewa as well as other nationalists who were then viewed as a “moderate” (as opposed to the “hardliners” Nkomo and Mugabe). The result was the Internal Settlement and a country with a double barrelled moniker- Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The Bishop was made a Prime Minister while the real power remained in the hands of Smith and his merry band of renegades who retained control of the country’s civil service, judiciary, police and armed forces.
I will pause here to draw (somewhat simplified) parallels between our dear Bishop and Mr Mutambara. Over the short history of his party, he has carefully cultivated the demeanour as the cultured, reasonable and educated one. He has tried to sell us the image of one who is leading a group of rational beings (as opposed to the militant and irrational (he would now have us believe) Tsvangirai). I am sure these and other reasons are also why Bishop Muzorewa was perceived as a moderate by Smith and Co. The Bishop spoke the same language that Mr. Mutambara speaks now; broad and lofty phrases that are an attempt by that faction of the MDC to sell the image of a visionary leader who can rise above petty party differences. “All parties must work together and put national interests above petty and personal interests”
Now l am not sure l can believe everything that the Herald says, but if the agreements that were publicised in the Herald of the 14th August are anything to go by, then l am not sure that the public is buying what Mr. Mutambara is trying to sell. The Internal Settlement was rejected by all and sundry. It was not a legitimate reflection of the will of the majority of the people. I am willing to bet my last dollar (revalued) that any settlement between Mutambara and ZANU PF that does not reflect the will of the people will also be rejected. I am certain that just as Mugabe in his previous incarnation as a nationalist found the prospect of a Smith-controlled army and police force unpalatable, we will also find the continued occupation by Chihuri, Chiwenga et al of their present posts similarly distasteful. If the then nationalist leaders could not stomach the idea of Smith holding the strings while Muzorewa danced like a puppet, then why should they expect Tsvangirai to bend over backwards to accommodate ZANU PF?
Smith’s deal with Muzorewa was also an attempt to divide and conquer the nationalists. I am also certain that the reason why ZANU PF and the Herald have been speaking so glowingly of Mutambara and his faction’s co-operation and decisiveness in the talks is an attempt to divide and thereby conquer the opposition. With the Internal Settlement the two major leaders of the nationalist movement Nkomo and Mugabe were united in their rejection of the settlement. Muzorewa accepted the offer that was dangled in front of him. We all know what happened to him. If Mr. Mutambara wants to go ahead and cut deals and secure positions for himself and his team within a Mugabe-controlled government, then l have three words for him; “Josiah Zion Gumede.” He was the President in Muzorewa’s ill-fated government. He held that office from 1st June 1979-12 December 1979. Good luck Mr. Mutambara. Really.