Mangoma must spare us the pieties

By Wilbert Mukori

In a statement Tuesday, the opposition MDC Renewal group said it “holds the government of Zimbabwe responsible for the economic meltdown that has caused our people to look for greener pastures elsewhere.”

“The Renewal Team is disturbed by the despicable acts of carnage that is being orchestrated against foreigners in South Africa,” said the group’s treasurer Elton Mangoma.

This is the first time Comrade Mangoma has spoken out since the recall of all the 21 MDC – Renewal MPs and Senators.

Just for the record, that was just a malicious act on the part of MDC – T much more so since the latter had already made a congress resolution not to contest any by-elections.

To therefore recall the 21 MP’s only to give the 14 contested seats to Zanu PF without even trying to win them back did not make any sense.

Whatever differences MDC-T and MDC –Renewal have, surely those can never ever be so great to justify one side siding with Zanu PF to the extent of reducing the opposition footprint in parliament and increasing that of Zanu PF.

Until the next elections, for bad or worse, Zimbabweans are stuck with the MDC MPs and Senators to voice their concerns; mediocre and incompetent as they all are but there it is!

To therefore deliberately weaken this opposition voice further by donating 14 seats to Zanu PF is MDC –T throwing hot chilli in not just their former colleagues’ eyes but in the eyes of the Zimbabwean people too!

Comrade Tsvangirai is it not bad enough that you betrayed the whole nation by failing to implement even one democratic reform and thus allowed Zanu PF to rig the July 2013 elections and get back into power? But not content with that you now give Zanu PF another 14 seats as an early Christmas gift!

Now that MDC – Renewal has stopped feeling sorry for yourselves over the recalled 21 members it is clear you condemn Zanu PF for the country’s economic meltdown, etc. just to remain relevant.

It was MDC’s failure to implement the democratic reforms; everyone had agreed in the Global Political Agreement were necessary for free, fair and credible elections; that allowed Zanu PF to rig the elections and thus stay in power. It is hard to believe you are being sincere in the condemnation of Zanu PF.

Zimbabweans are being bombarded by MDC (Ncube), MDC –T, your MDC –Renewal, Simba Makoni and his Mavambo, Dumiso Dabengwa and his Zapu and now this new kid-on-the-block Zanu PF People First all pontificating to care about the people’s economic suffering and all claiming to have the solutions to end the economic meltdown.

What is disappointing is that you were all in power five years and decades for the likes of Didymus Mutasa and the other People First guys and you all achieved nothing.

If you seriously expect the people of Zimbabwe to believe you will, this time, keep your promises and deliver the democratic reforms and not betray them as you did last time during the GNU then you must start by being honest with them and finally tell them why MDC failed to implement even one reform during the GNU.

Last week Mr Morgan Tsvangirai categorically denied that SADC did not warn MDC against taking part in the rigged July 2013 elections without the reforms. Your fellow MDC –Renewal member, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, said the exact opposite. They cannot both be right; can you tell us which one of them is telling the truth and who is lying.

Thomas Mapfumo said Morgan Tsvangirai sold-out in failing to implement the reforms to join the “cash-brigade”. 

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because the country’s political leaders have betrayed the people left, right and centre.

An avalanche of platitudes from the same political “weevils” and “cash-brigade” is not going to help us get out of the mess but will drag us even deeper into the hell-hole. If you are not going to tell us the truth about the GNU Mr Mangoma then spare us pieties!