Opinion / Columnist
MDCs were foolish not to implement reforms
19 Jun 2015 at 17:36hrs | Views
now they are compounding the folly by blaming Zanu-PF
Obert Gutu tells VOA Zimbabwe is at a political stand still whilst MDC pressures Zanu-PF to implement the electoral reforms.
"What we are simply doing as the MDC is to exert pressure from the illegitimate Zanu-PF administration to ensure that at the end of the day, they will carry out electoral reforms that will even up the playing field," said Gutu.
There is no end to MDC's foolishness; MDC is in no position to pressure Zanu-PF on any matter, particularly on reforms!
MDC was supposed to have implemented the reforms they keep talking about now during the GNU; they failed to get even one reform implemented. SADC and others reminded Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Ncube and the other MDC leaders about the reforms but they paid no heed. So at the end of the GNU not even one reform was implemented.
Mugabe paid MDC leaders to do nothing on the reforms and they took the bribes. MDC sold out, period!
It was only after the July 2013 elections that the penny finally dropped in the MDC leaders' heads that they needed the reforms but it was too late, the horse had bolted.
Since the rigged July 2013 elections MDC has called for elections boycott until Zanu-PF implement some reforms, they have made it clear throughout their campaign that it is Zanu-PF's fault the reforms were not implemented before the elections. A clever move but it will fool only their naive and gullible MDC followers and no one else especially Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF paid bribes for MDC to do nothing about reforms and so there is no reopening the reform deal - a deal is a deal!
Tendai Biti apologized for the opposition's "collective foolishness" and failing to implement the reforms is, without doubt, the most foolish thing MDC leaders have ever done. But with fools like Tsvangirai, a fool is work is clearly never done; his attempt to blame Zanu-PF for MDC's foolishness does not diminish the folly but rather compound it.
"How can you now talk of reforms when almost the similar conditions that prevailed in 2013, when they were trounced in the elections, they participated under the same circumstances," rightly asked Morris Ngwenya.
He added Zanu-PF is under no pressure as the status quo remains and the ruling party is working on the economy under its economic empowerment program, ZimAsset.
Ngwenya is wrong on the economy; the only real pressure on Zanu-PF to implement all the democratic reforms is coming from the economic meltdown. Like it or not ZimAsset is dead; Mugabe has failed to get any donor to bank roll the $27 billion plan.
Unemployment has been 80% for decades now and it is getting worse, the 2,2 million new jobs Mugabe promised have not materialized. Millions are sinking into abject poverty and hopeless despair. The present economic situation cannot be allowed to continue for much longer, it is not social or politically sustainable.
The Zimbabwe economy needs serious reforms to address the endemic mismanagement and corruption and to end the lawlessness. Only someone with a fresh democratic mandate can be trusted to implement these reforms hence the reason why the political reforms must come first.
----------------
Nomusa Garikai <zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
Obert Gutu tells VOA Zimbabwe is at a political stand still whilst MDC pressures Zanu-PF to implement the electoral reforms.
"What we are simply doing as the MDC is to exert pressure from the illegitimate Zanu-PF administration to ensure that at the end of the day, they will carry out electoral reforms that will even up the playing field," said Gutu.
There is no end to MDC's foolishness; MDC is in no position to pressure Zanu-PF on any matter, particularly on reforms!
MDC was supposed to have implemented the reforms they keep talking about now during the GNU; they failed to get even one reform implemented. SADC and others reminded Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Ncube and the other MDC leaders about the reforms but they paid no heed. So at the end of the GNU not even one reform was implemented.
Mugabe paid MDC leaders to do nothing on the reforms and they took the bribes. MDC sold out, period!
It was only after the July 2013 elections that the penny finally dropped in the MDC leaders' heads that they needed the reforms but it was too late, the horse had bolted.
Since the rigged July 2013 elections MDC has called for elections boycott until Zanu-PF implement some reforms, they have made it clear throughout their campaign that it is Zanu-PF's fault the reforms were not implemented before the elections. A clever move but it will fool only their naive and gullible MDC followers and no one else especially Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF paid bribes for MDC to do nothing about reforms and so there is no reopening the reform deal - a deal is a deal!
Tendai Biti apologized for the opposition's "collective foolishness" and failing to implement the reforms is, without doubt, the most foolish thing MDC leaders have ever done. But with fools like Tsvangirai, a fool is work is clearly never done; his attempt to blame Zanu-PF for MDC's foolishness does not diminish the folly but rather compound it.
"How can you now talk of reforms when almost the similar conditions that prevailed in 2013, when they were trounced in the elections, they participated under the same circumstances," rightly asked Morris Ngwenya.
He added Zanu-PF is under no pressure as the status quo remains and the ruling party is working on the economy under its economic empowerment program, ZimAsset.
Ngwenya is wrong on the economy; the only real pressure on Zanu-PF to implement all the democratic reforms is coming from the economic meltdown. Like it or not ZimAsset is dead; Mugabe has failed to get any donor to bank roll the $27 billion plan.
Unemployment has been 80% for decades now and it is getting worse, the 2,2 million new jobs Mugabe promised have not materialized. Millions are sinking into abject poverty and hopeless despair. The present economic situation cannot be allowed to continue for much longer, it is not social or politically sustainable.
The Zimbabwe economy needs serious reforms to address the endemic mismanagement and corruption and to end the lawlessness. Only someone with a fresh democratic mandate can be trusted to implement these reforms hence the reason why the political reforms must come first.
----------------
Nomusa Garikai <zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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