By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
Whatever deals these politicians make amongst themselves must not supersede the people’s vote. Our politicians have now gotten carried away and continue to talk about ‘a grand coalition’ without even looking into the mechanics and fallout of such a pact, let alone telling the people what the pact entails.
‘Grand coalition’ sounds sweet, does it not?
But what kind of co-operation are we talking about?
The ‘grand coalition’ nonsense is spreading like Ebola has come to Zimbabwe. Let us wake up a bit and study the issue. What is the cost to the Zimbabwean people for such a pact? We need to know now. I am not sure they know what they are talking about.
Who are these people who are already sharing cabinet posts?
Don’t get me wrong; I honestly want to understand? Who wants to join who and why? What is the price Zimbabweans have to pay for this yet another nonsensical unity pact? Does MDC-T want to join MDC-N, MDC-M, MKD and ZANU-Ndonga? Or is it the other way round?
Is it not ironic that two of these parties have been in government and have given the nation nothing but acrimony when they were part of a so-called “unity government”? Why would a party with a majority following want to get into a coalition with almost nonexistent parties?
Those little parties exist to muddy the waters. Can’t Tsvangirai see that these little parties only become an issue when elections loom?
Unlike some people out there who have their tongues hanging out of their mouths in great anticipation of the muted “grand coalition”, I am standing right in one spot and will not budge an inch because I know the deplorable calibre of our mediocre politicians.
To all of them, unity means “you join me” not that “I join you”.
Already, some of the Mickey Mouse political parties have started suggesting “a compromise candidate” for the so-called grand coalition – an indirect way of asking Morgan Tsvangirai, the only man who, on his own, has more than a realistic chance of unseating Robert Mugabe, to step aside for a coalition with political parties whose total number of supporters won’t even fill an unroofed classroom in Muzarabani.
That is not unity of purpose; that is destroying something a majority of Zimbabweans took years to build. The last elections proved this to be so. We have this unfortunate situation in Zimbabwe where ZANU-PF is nothing without Robert Mugabe and, now, the MDC’s lifeline appears to be wound around Tsvangirai.
Our political parties cannot survive without their original leaders, much as Ndabaningi Sithole and Joshua Nkomo took their parties with them to their graves. Can Welshman Ncube win the presidency? Hell no! Can Simba Makoni’s followers catapult him into State House? Please!
You get the message.
But I dare say Tsvangirai’s followers can put him into State House, with or without these funny characters that are campaigning for jobs after elections by pretending to want a coalition today.
No one will accept second position except those who have absolutely no chance in hell of winning the presidency. They are the ones who will hang around to be elevated by their mere presence in the “grand coalition”. Please, we don’t want any more charlatans rejected by the people.
While I welcome SADC’s pronouncements concerning the forthcoming elections and security sector reforms, media reforms and other reforms, I am still to understand what punitive measures are in place should Robert Mugabe scoff at SADC’s rulings.
SADC did not say what they would do if such and such is not done by such and such date. Already, Mugabe thinks he is doing the nation a favour by extending the election date by two weeks yet the issues to be solved need far more than two months.
Meanwhile, there is chaos in all political parties and now, faced with ZANU-PF’s intransigence and hiccups within their own political parties, they are thinking of “a grand coalition”, which has already started them off on allocating cabinet posts in a post ZANU-PF government.
They can take this nonsense and shove it! We do not want any coalition that starts with stripping the winner of the freedom and leeway to choose his own cabinet. We do not want a coalition that guarantees these so-called leaders positions in a government to be formed tomorrow.
This coalition must never think of co-opting unelected leaders into government or parliament. Whatever pact is to be made, the political parties involved must first inform their followers about it in detail before that pact is agreed upon and implemented.
We, Zimbabweans, crave for no more governments of national unity. It has not done us any good in four years as we bow to people we never voted for. We do not want to be surprised tomorrow and to be told that the people that we voted down are now our cabinet ministers responsible for this or that.
Is this a ploy to help each other out at the expense of the people of Zimbabwe? We do not want any unity government born out of cancerous convenience or out of the need to thank someone for something. Personal and political I.O.Us must not be paid up through ignoring people’s vote.
If Welshman Ncube wins the elections, he should be left alone to choose his cabinet without having to consider rewarding some unelected people from other parties. Coalitions should be formed for the good of the nation not as a quid pro quo between political conspirators at the expense of the nation.
When we vote no, we mean no. The losers must just go home and stay there, please. So, while talk about coalitions is commendable, we must warn these half-baked politicians not to promise each other positions that will render the election result useless.
We do not want to see anyone who has lost an election being appointed to government; look what damage that has done to the nation in just a few short years. We have no more of examples than Ncube, Mutambara and their followers who are in government without anyone having voted for them.
They have remained a burden on the nation since their appointment. We are saddled with dead wood never voted for by the people.
The heart of the matter is that should there be a need or a desire to appoint cabinet ministers from other political parties, only those who have won elections in their constituencies should be considered for such appointments; those appointments must be made as a matter of choice, not obligation, such as is the case with Ncube and Mutambara today.
We are carrying a lot of underperforming dead wood in our government right now but they cannot be fired because they are there as a result of agreements made at one time in the past. Their presence in government is not even performance based.
We do not want that anymore.
As the leaders of these political parties negotiate, let it be made clear to them all that their individual willingness to forge a united front is their contribution to national interest and national welfare not an I.O.U for a job in tomorrow’s government. That would be blackmailing the electorate much as the now despicable so-called war veterans continue to do today.
The politicians must not mortgage people’s votes by bringing back into government those who might have been rejected by the people at the polls. SW Radio Africa
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Monday, June 24, 2013.
