Opinion / Columnist
ANSA criticism of Tsvangirai justified however tribal undercurrent is counter productive
23 May 2017 at 11:12hrs | Views
Moses Mzila Ndlovu, Interim President of Alliance for National Salvation (ANSA) was spot on in his scathing criticism of Morgan Tsvangirai.
"In the last seventeen years Morgen has clearly failed to comprehend the task at hand for the opposition, clumsily squandered public goodwill of the Zimbabwean people, leaving himsilf obscured from the realities of the struggle against ZanuPF as a system. ZanuPF has deeply entrenched itself, embedded itself within the institutions of the state. It is now clear that Tsvangirayi is ambitiously angling to become just another Muzorewa of the seventies who was under state capture of the Rhodesian State," wrote Ndlovu.
There is no doubt that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have had many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but wasted them all. It is sheer madness to drag the nation into yet another flawed election knowing fully well the elections will be rig and not the free and fair elections the nation is dying for.
The root cause of our all economic and political problems is our failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. MDC were elected to bring about the democratic changes necessary to stop the vote rigging and deliver free, fair and credible elections.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friend have had many opportunities to deliver on their promise to bring change with the best changes being during the GNU. They had SADC support and five years in which to implemented the agreed democratic reforms. They failed to get even one reform implemented.
Having wasted the GNU golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms, MDC compounded the problem by contesting in the 2013 elections with no reforms in place as this gave the flawed process the modicum of legitimacy it did not deserve. It is not surprising that, having rigged its way back into power, Zanu PF has once again been flexing its political muscle and resisting the implementation of reforms.
"You can't expect us to reform ourselves out of power," boasted Professor Jonathan Moyo, Zanu PF's self-anointed propaganda guru. Of course, not! Only the politically naïve in the MDC-T and the NERA grouping are expecting that!
No tyrant in history has ever given up power; we, the people, will have to wrestle power away from the regime. What must be crystal clear to us as well as the regime is that individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and the right to life are not privileges. They are birth rights and per se cannot be denied or bargained like mangoes with a street vendor! Zanu PF as the party in government has a constitution obligation to implement the reforms and restore all the individual freedoms and rights. It is not for the regime to choose whether or to implement the reforms; it is legally obliged to do so.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were elected by the nation on the ticket they will hold Zanu PF to account and demand the implementation of the reforms. It is deeply regrettable that Tsvangirai & co. have since failed to get even one reform implemented even when they had the golden opportunity during the GNU to do so.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are sell-out and not fit to be elected ever again into public office.
Where I and many thinking Zimbabweans would differ with Ndlovu is his tribal and regional agenda!
"Tsvangirayi should be reminded that the public support which raised him to his current dizzying political heights came from the regions affected by the Gukurahundi and continue to be marginalised and treated unequally in a country they worked so hard to free," wrote Ndlovu.
Ndlovu must name the region(s) in Zimbabwe that has done well out of the 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption under this Mugabe rule? After travelling extensively round the country, I have yet to see one town, growth point or village untouched by poverty, rot and decay.
"Trying to steer away from talking about the consequences to ZanuPF for killing people because they belonged to the 'wrong tribe', consequences for rape and plunder, consequences for bribery, for deception, consequences for looting and sabotaging the economy, for stashing money in foreign countries, for abuse of state power is an act of cowardice," Ndlovu tells us.
This is yet another misrepresentation of the reality. Gukurahundi was not so much a tribal massacre but rather a party-political one as its sole purpose was create and impose a de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. Dr Joshua Nkomo, himself, was very clear this was not a tribal issue and said so.
"Here I am talking as one who knows," Dr Nkomo told a BBC reporter, Jeremy Paxman in 1983. "It is a mistake for anybody to believe that the Shonas have organised against the Ndebeles. … It (Five Brigade) is a political army and not a tribal one."
This is a matter of public record; Google "Joshua Nkomo Interview in Exile".
Indeed, President Mugabe has since the end of Gukurahundi gone on to murder another 10 000 innocent Zimbabweans in pursuit of his selfish de facto one-party dictatorship agenda. The murders were carried out along party-political lines and not tribal or regional lines.
After 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption President Mugabe and his regime have completely destroyed Zimbabwe's once vibrant and promising economy. Zimbabweans are today the poorest in Africa and this included everyone across the tribal and regional divide. Poverty has touched us all including the Zanu PF ruling elite grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira, he died a pauper.
It is the country's economic meltdown that is fuelling the implosion in Zanu PF itself as members fight over the fast shrinking national cake like hungry hyenas.
The demise of the Zanu PF dictatorship is creating the golden opportunity for the nation to start afresh; implement the democratic reforms to create the healthy and functional democracy we want. And to get on with the difficult task of rebuilding the schools, hospitals, roads, etc., etc. out of the ruins Mugabe has left. We must not make our work even harder than it is already allowing Mugabe's cursed legacy degenerate into tribal and regional divisions.
"In the last seventeen years Morgen has clearly failed to comprehend the task at hand for the opposition, clumsily squandered public goodwill of the Zimbabwean people, leaving himsilf obscured from the realities of the struggle against ZanuPF as a system. ZanuPF has deeply entrenched itself, embedded itself within the institutions of the state. It is now clear that Tsvangirayi is ambitiously angling to become just another Muzorewa of the seventies who was under state capture of the Rhodesian State," wrote Ndlovu.
There is no doubt that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have had many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but wasted them all. It is sheer madness to drag the nation into yet another flawed election knowing fully well the elections will be rig and not the free and fair elections the nation is dying for.
The root cause of our all economic and political problems is our failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. MDC were elected to bring about the democratic changes necessary to stop the vote rigging and deliver free, fair and credible elections.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friend have had many opportunities to deliver on their promise to bring change with the best changes being during the GNU. They had SADC support and five years in which to implemented the agreed democratic reforms. They failed to get even one reform implemented.
Having wasted the GNU golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms, MDC compounded the problem by contesting in the 2013 elections with no reforms in place as this gave the flawed process the modicum of legitimacy it did not deserve. It is not surprising that, having rigged its way back into power, Zanu PF has once again been flexing its political muscle and resisting the implementation of reforms.
"You can't expect us to reform ourselves out of power," boasted Professor Jonathan Moyo, Zanu PF's self-anointed propaganda guru. Of course, not! Only the politically naïve in the MDC-T and the NERA grouping are expecting that!
No tyrant in history has ever given up power; we, the people, will have to wrestle power away from the regime. What must be crystal clear to us as well as the regime is that individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and the right to life are not privileges. They are birth rights and per se cannot be denied or bargained like mangoes with a street vendor! Zanu PF as the party in government has a constitution obligation to implement the reforms and restore all the individual freedoms and rights. It is not for the regime to choose whether or to implement the reforms; it is legally obliged to do so.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were elected by the nation on the ticket they will hold Zanu PF to account and demand the implementation of the reforms. It is deeply regrettable that Tsvangirai & co. have since failed to get even one reform implemented even when they had the golden opportunity during the GNU to do so.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are sell-out and not fit to be elected ever again into public office.
Where I and many thinking Zimbabweans would differ with Ndlovu is his tribal and regional agenda!
"Tsvangirayi should be reminded that the public support which raised him to his current dizzying political heights came from the regions affected by the Gukurahundi and continue to be marginalised and treated unequally in a country they worked so hard to free," wrote Ndlovu.
Ndlovu must name the region(s) in Zimbabwe that has done well out of the 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption under this Mugabe rule? After travelling extensively round the country, I have yet to see one town, growth point or village untouched by poverty, rot and decay.
"Trying to steer away from talking about the consequences to ZanuPF for killing people because they belonged to the 'wrong tribe', consequences for rape and plunder, consequences for bribery, for deception, consequences for looting and sabotaging the economy, for stashing money in foreign countries, for abuse of state power is an act of cowardice," Ndlovu tells us.
This is yet another misrepresentation of the reality. Gukurahundi was not so much a tribal massacre but rather a party-political one as its sole purpose was create and impose a de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. Dr Joshua Nkomo, himself, was very clear this was not a tribal issue and said so.
"Here I am talking as one who knows," Dr Nkomo told a BBC reporter, Jeremy Paxman in 1983. "It is a mistake for anybody to believe that the Shonas have organised against the Ndebeles. … It (Five Brigade) is a political army and not a tribal one."
This is a matter of public record; Google "Joshua Nkomo Interview in Exile".
Indeed, President Mugabe has since the end of Gukurahundi gone on to murder another 10 000 innocent Zimbabweans in pursuit of his selfish de facto one-party dictatorship agenda. The murders were carried out along party-political lines and not tribal or regional lines.
After 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption President Mugabe and his regime have completely destroyed Zimbabwe's once vibrant and promising economy. Zimbabweans are today the poorest in Africa and this included everyone across the tribal and regional divide. Poverty has touched us all including the Zanu PF ruling elite grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira, he died a pauper.
It is the country's economic meltdown that is fuelling the implosion in Zanu PF itself as members fight over the fast shrinking national cake like hungry hyenas.
The demise of the Zanu PF dictatorship is creating the golden opportunity for the nation to start afresh; implement the democratic reforms to create the healthy and functional democracy we want. And to get on with the difficult task of rebuilding the schools, hospitals, roads, etc., etc. out of the ruins Mugabe has left. We must not make our work even harder than it is already allowing Mugabe's cursed legacy degenerate into tribal and regional divisions.
Source - Nomusa Garikai
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