Dabengwa rubbishes another GNU, backs transitional vehicle

By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |

The opposition Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) president and former cabinet minister under President Robert Mugabe, Dumiso Dabengwa, has trashed the idea of another Government of National Unity (GNU).

Addressing supporters in Umzingwane in Matabeleland South on Saturday, Dabengwa said there was talk of unspecified external forces that were pushing for a second coalition government that would bring together the opposition and ruling Zanu PF.

The first GNU was established in early 2009 after a widely condemned presidential runoff the previous year.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-) president, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Mugabe in the first presidential race in March 2008, but failed to garner enough votes to form a new government on his own, resulting in the runoff that was marked by intense political violence.

Tsvangirai withdrew from the race at the last hour after some 400 supporters of his party were killed by alleged State agents working with militias.

The GNU lasted until mid-2013 when new polls were held and MDC-T admitted that it erred by agreeing to enter the coalition that gave Zanu PF and Mugabe a chance to resurge.

“There are rumours that some external forces are encouraging the formation of another GNU.  That would either be a dead end or….would erode fundamental change in a way worse than the previous concoction of 2009-2013 that polluted the opposition and gave breathing space to the Zanu PF way of doing things,” Dabengwa said.

“Zanu PF in all its forms should not get a lifeline and a chance to blunt real change of direction by seducing, corrupting and co-opting the opposition,” he added.

During the first GNU, Zanu PF controlled almost all the power ministries and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which has been accused of aiding the ruling party to get a landslide in 2013.

Instead of a coalition government, Dabengwa said there must be a transitional authority to run the affairs of the country till the next elections in 2018.

The Mugabe establishment has failed to fix the economy which is now characterised by unemployment independently estimated to be over 90 percent, a biting cash crisis and bludgeoning corruption.

Dabengwa said the economy was set to implode, making it necessary to put in place the transitional mechanism.

“The economic and political crisis will deepen and become increasingly impossible to contain. It is patently clear therefore that some soft landing needs to be devised to prevent chaos and meltdown,” he said.

“One promising initiative is the formation of an NTA (National Transitional Authority) proposed by citizens organised in the panel of concerned citizens. Basically, the NTA would be a non-party administration composed of respected technocrats and professionals.”

But there is no agreement on the NTA within the opposition.

Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru, the leader of the newly founded Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) party, recently poured scorn on an NTA.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led by Tendai Biti, MDC-T’s former secretary general, has been the loudest in calling for a transitional authority, whose form none of the parties has explained so far. Nehanda Radio