Zim Security Council All But Disbanded

By Denford Magora

Robert “The Solution” Mugabe has effectively pulled the wool over Morgan Tsvangirai’s eyes on the matter of the National Security Council and has vowed not to reconvene the meeting after the highly publicised inaugural meeting on 30 July this year.

The National Security Council, the only platform at which Morgan Tsvangirai can officially discuss the business of the national security with the leaders of the armed forces as well as Mugabe, is supposed to be held every month, just as was the case with JOC.

Soon after that inaugural meeting of the National Security Council, the MDC triumphantly issued a statement saying that the body would now meet once a month.

But it now appears that Mugabe has reverted to type. He gave in just that once, allowing the NSC to meet just that one time in order to silence the MDC and appear to be acting in good faith.

But Mugabe, it emerged this morning, is now refusing to convene another meeting.

He is citing the same reasons as with everything else: he will not implement anything else the MDC wants until the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC manages to get sanctions against Zimbabwe lifted.

Happyton Bonyongwe, the head of Zimbabwe’s secret police, the CIO, says the body “meets periodically”.

The army public relations office says the meeting is called by Mugabe and that the president is “perhaps too busy”.

Another official source advanced the excuse this morning that “perhaps there are no national security issues the president wants to bring to the attention of the body”.

But highly-placed sources within ZANU PF say that Mugabe has told several Politburo members that there are not going to be any more Security Council meetings until the MDC “gets sanctions lifted.”

“The president feels he needs to remind the MDC who is in charge. They were getting too happy, acting as if the president bows to their every demand. People were beginning to think the Old Man is afraid of Tsvangirai. They must be disabused.”

So, this is basically a renewal of the assault on Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC by Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF.

At the root of it is the now almost universal belief in ZANU PF that the MDC is working to topple Mugabe from within the corridors of power, an assault on the Citadel from within.

As I have said before, the suspicion that Tsvangirai is a Trojan Horse from Westminister is still prevalent in the party and with Mugabe himself, who, I understand, bitterly told colleagues in ZANU PF two weeks ago:

“No good from us is going unpunished.” He was referring of course to the belief that the West is still insisting on putting restrictions on Zimbabwe’s access to capital, donations and grants, even when Mugabe makes what he sees as concessions to Tsvangirai and his party.

I think a statement from a senior ZANU PF figure explains it all:

“We now know that we have nothing to lose. There is nothing that this Global Political Agreement has brought us at all, so there is nothing we can lose by smashing it to pieces.”

But, of course, Tsvangirai sees this as his only and last hope of making inroads into Zimbabwean politics and edge ever closer to the apex of power.

Hence his baffling position that he will sit there and dare Mugabe and ZANU PF to kick him out of government if they wish.

Mugabe and his party, on the other hand, have simply decided to behave as if Tsvangirai does not exist in government, to continue with the looting and patronage and frustrating of the agreement itself.

As Tsvangirai pointed out yesterday at his press conference, he does not believe that there is an alternative to this Inclusive Government. He does not believe that there is any other way in which he could advance his cause.

Hence, knowing as he does that the end of the Inclusive Government means the end of his political ambitions as well, he is now, like Mugabe, tying the fortunes of Zimbabwe to his own personal fortunes and ambitions.

He sees no hope outside of that.

His party is too weak to insist on a change in leadership (just like ZANU PF) so that new ideas and new approaches can be made. The MDC desperately needs new direction and new ideas. Tsvangirai has run out of them, as evidence by his contradictory statements that the Inclusive Government is irreversible in one breath and in the next, that if all fails they can walk away, although he also insists that there is “no other alternative.”

It is called hopelessness.

It is this that spells doom for the MDC.

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