What has Dr Tsvangirai learnt to be wiser that during GNU days?

It is hearting to hear that Dr Morgan Tsvangirai is "a little wiser" and will not be cheated by President Mugabe as happened during the GNU. But what exactly has he learnt and when?

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats (ZSD) would like to remind the people of Zimbabwe that the nation would NOT be in this political and economic mess if Dr Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders had implemented the reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. The reform should have been implemented in 18 months but in the end the GNU lasted five years and still not even one reform was implemented. Not one!

If MDC had implemented the reforms then it would have been impossible for Zanu-PF to rig the July 2013 elections. The country will have a legitimate and competent government addressing the root causes of the economic meltdown; and a year after the election the country would be talking of some real economic turnaround (not the imaginary recovery coming from so quarters).

We in the ZSD welcomed the announcement by the Zanu-PF spokesman, Rugare Gumbo, two weeks ago that Zanu-PF was will hold talks on finding a way to end the country's economic meltdown. We want the talks to result in real change and not another political fudge as happened with 2008 to 2013 GNU.

"They (Zanu-PF) are now saying let's talk. If they come now, we are a little bit cleverer; we will start by dismantling their hegemony and then form a government," said Dr Tsvangirai.

We ask Dr Tsvangirai what is it exactly that he has learned and, more significantly, when he learnt it?

MDC was warned not to take part in the elections without any reforms implemented and the party paid no heed showing that right up to the day of the elections Dr Tsvangirai and his colleagues had not learnt the critical importance of the reforms. So if Dr Tsvangirai's had learnt nothing in the five years of GNU classroom type environment with his legs under the desk what has transformed him into A+ student to have learnt more in a year that he failed to learn in five years?

It should be remembered that MDC failed to dismantle even one brick of the Zanu-PF dictatorship when the party had the majority in parliament and cabinet and had the enthusiastic backing to SADC leaders plus five years to get the job done. What makes Dr Tsvangirai think he can just "dismantling their hegemony and then form a government", particularly when it is President Mugabe who has all the trump cards this time?

Conclusion
The GNU of 2008 to 2013 offered this nation its best chance since independence to dis-mantle the Zanu-PF dictatorship and replace it with a wholesome democratic system of government. It was the nation's "get out of jail card"! The chance was wasted because Dr Tsvangirai and his MDC friends allowed themselves to be "sated to distraction by the spoils of being in government," as a New Zimbabwe reporter aptly put it.

The people of Zimbabwe are to blame for the wasted chance in than we failed to ensure that MDC implemented the reform. If is unforgivable that even now, with the benefit of hindsight, so many Zimbabweans are failing to see Dr Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for the breathtakingly incompetent individuals they are and are therefore are likely to en-trust the destiny of this great nation into such blundering hands once again.

If this nation is ever to get out of this political and economic mess then it is for the electorate must be "a little wiser" and not be so easily conned by failed and incompetent individuals.

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Wilbert Mukori Secretary General Zimbabwe Social Democrats zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com