Mugabe using MDC to buy time

By Doreen Mutemeri

Zimbabweans will no doubt be nauseated by the endless SADC summits and troika meetings discussing the crisis in their homeland.

In September 2008 the three parties to the Global Political Agreement (GPA), Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC-M signed an agreement to share power.

This was despite Tsvangirai’s MDC trouncing Zanu PF in the Parliamentary elections and their leader Morgan Tsvangirai garnering more votes than Robert Mugabe.

The current political crisis where the loser of the election is failing to honour an agreement that saved his skin should not arise because everything at stake is contained in an agreement.

How thirteen SADC states are failing to force Mugabe to respect what was agreed on paper is beyond me. Only Botswana’s President Ian Khama has called a spade a spade by blaming Mugabe and Zanu PF for the deadlock.

It is even more shocking that some SADC states are actually entertaining Zanu PF demands that the MDC must call for the lifting of western targeted sanctions on members of the Mugabe regime and a closing down of so-called pirate radio stations like SW Radio Africa and Studio 7.

Simple logic dictates that the MDC do not own any sanctions and do not have the power nor leverage to have them removed by the countries that imposed them. Worse still those countries have set certain democratic and human rights standards as the minimum condition for any removal.

So the argument that sanctions by the West remain an outstanding issue is quite ridiculous. Zanu PF should be asked to explain HOW the MDC is expected to remove these?

The other demand over so-called ‘pirate’ radio stations is equally laughable. Is Zanu PF suggesting that the MDC can walk up to the offices of these stations and say ‘right, we are now shutting you down.’ The MDC does not own a single radio station.

SADC know these demands from Mugabe’s party have no legs to stand on but will tolerate them because they are giving them a cover to hide their own inability to confront Mugabe. That for me is the bottom line.

Meanwhile Mugabe continues to toy with the MDC, tying them up in knots with silly court case after court case. Blessing Chebundo (rape case), Thamsanqa Mahlangu (cellphone theft), Roy Bennett (terrorism), Tendai Biti (treason), Shuah Mudiwa (kidnap) and many other cases, too numerous to mention.

The old dictator has no intention of sharing power and will frustrate the MDC until the next round of elections in which he will unleash his violent thugs on the nation.

Zanu PF in this unity government is toying with the MDC while buying time for their lootocracy.

This is not power sharing, its power retention.

Doreen Mutemeri is a UK based gender and political activist. She is also a regular columnist on Nehanda Radio.