Opinion / Columnist
Rich for Eddie Cross to lecture SADC on Mugabe when MDC installed the tyrant
24 Aug 2015 at 07:01hrs | Views
If we are serious about finding the way out of this political mess then we, Zimbabweans and not anyone else, must face up to our own serious weaknesses. We must acknowledge that we are the authors of our own mess.
"Mbeki stuck to his 2000 decision and supported Zanu-PF," Eddie Cross tells us. "Facilitating the GNU in 2009 and regional leaders then allowed to opportunities created by their intervention to lapse in 2013 with the result that Zanu-PF was returned to power." What a truck load of baloney!
Yes SADC did bend over backwards to give President Mugabe a soft landing after his brutal attempt to cling on to power at all cost following his contemptuous disregard of human rights and even the right to life in the wanton violence of the 2008 presidential run-off. SADC should have insisted on fresh elections and not gone for the GNU option.
Still, credit where credit is due, SADC did manage to get President Mugabe to agree in the GPA to a raft of democratic reforms which, if implemented, would have dismantled the Zanu PF dictatorship and ensure the next elections were free, fair and credible.
SADC Heads of State notably Botswana's President Ian Khama and South Africa's Lindiwe Zulu did their best to remind MDC to implement the reforms but sadly no one in MDC listened. Eddie Cross was one of the MDC leaders in throughout the GNU years; he too ignored the SADC leaders' warning.
SADC leaders literally begged MDC not to take part in the July 2013 elections without implementing the reforms first but again MDC paid no heed!
We know why MDC failed to get even one single reform implemented in all the five years of the GNU. President Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders into doing nothing about implementing the reforms. SADC Heads of State issued a statement accusing MDC leaders of "enjoying themselves in the GNU and forgetting why they were there!" Of course MDC leaders sold-out!
It is totally unacceptable that those who sold-out and getting the nation into this mess should now want to distort the historic facts and blame SADC leaders for the mess.
"Zanu-PF plotted their 2013 victory and got what they wanted - full control of the State." Yes Eddie, that is very true but it was MDC's breath-taking corruption and incompetence that made it all so, so easy for Zanu PF to rig the elections.
"This week the leadership of the SADC passed from Mr. Mugabe to the President of Botswana," wrote Eddie Cross. "Regional leaders have to understand the consequences of having a pariah State in their midst - straddling their key infrastructure and transport, power and communications systems."
It is not enough for the regional leaders to understand that we have a corrupt and ruthless dictator in President Mugabe if we Zimbabweans go out of way to make sure Zanu PF stay in power.
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Patrick Guramatunhu <patguramatunhu@gmail.com
"Mbeki stuck to his 2000 decision and supported Zanu-PF," Eddie Cross tells us. "Facilitating the GNU in 2009 and regional leaders then allowed to opportunities created by their intervention to lapse in 2013 with the result that Zanu-PF was returned to power." What a truck load of baloney!
Yes SADC did bend over backwards to give President Mugabe a soft landing after his brutal attempt to cling on to power at all cost following his contemptuous disregard of human rights and even the right to life in the wanton violence of the 2008 presidential run-off. SADC should have insisted on fresh elections and not gone for the GNU option.
Still, credit where credit is due, SADC did manage to get President Mugabe to agree in the GPA to a raft of democratic reforms which, if implemented, would have dismantled the Zanu PF dictatorship and ensure the next elections were free, fair and credible.
SADC Heads of State notably Botswana's President Ian Khama and South Africa's Lindiwe Zulu did their best to remind MDC to implement the reforms but sadly no one in MDC listened. Eddie Cross was one of the MDC leaders in throughout the GNU years; he too ignored the SADC leaders' warning.
SADC leaders literally begged MDC not to take part in the July 2013 elections without implementing the reforms first but again MDC paid no heed!
It is totally unacceptable that those who sold-out and getting the nation into this mess should now want to distort the historic facts and blame SADC leaders for the mess.
"Zanu-PF plotted their 2013 victory and got what they wanted - full control of the State." Yes Eddie, that is very true but it was MDC's breath-taking corruption and incompetence that made it all so, so easy for Zanu PF to rig the elections.
"This week the leadership of the SADC passed from Mr. Mugabe to the President of Botswana," wrote Eddie Cross. "Regional leaders have to understand the consequences of having a pariah State in their midst - straddling their key infrastructure and transport, power and communications systems."
It is not enough for the regional leaders to understand that we have a corrupt and ruthless dictator in President Mugabe if we Zimbabweans go out of way to make sure Zanu PF stay in power.
----------------
Patrick Guramatunhu <patguramatunhu@gmail.com
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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