Comment: Morgan - Come Home

Via the Zimbabwe Independent website


Comment: Morgan - Come Home

Thursday, 01 May 2008 17:44
‘WE know what Zimbabweans are facing,” MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai wrote in anticipation of World Press Freedom Day tomorrow.

“Your new government has the solutions to move us from despair to destiny…Prepare for a new media generation.”
That is good news.
And we welcome his assurance the new government will give priority to repealing such pernicious laws as Aippa. That is our priority as well.
Democracy means a free media, Tsvangirai reminds us. “It means we shall never again celebrate lies as truth, and pretence as principle.”
This comes in a month that has witnessed a whole raft of lies aimed at discrediting the opposition ahead of a possible run-off in which President Mugabe will be fighting for his political life.
While MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti has denounced the lies, which carry all the hallmarks of a state-manufactured disinformation campaign, Tsvangirai has said very little on this or on other matters of policy.
He has for instance told us very little about the coalition he will be forming with the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC.
It is essential that the press has a full briefing on these issues.
A steady and reliable line of communication with the media is an essential component of any modern government’s best practice.
It is to be hoped an MDC government will quickly distance itself from the malevolent vituperations that have characterised the present government’s approach to press relations.
Government doesn’t have to like the newspapers it deals with. It just has to keep them accurately informed.
Hitherto the MDC has seen the independent media as duty-bound to support its cause.
It has sulked when we have not performed to expectations, excluding us from access to information. That in turn has rebounded on the party.
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai needs to return home. He is needed here.
His supporters are taking a beating from the thugs who have been unleashed across the country.
It is time for him to identify with their suffering and give a lead to his followers.
He has been the victim of some remarkably poor advice on staying outside the country. This is our next president.
He cannot be based in Johannesburg or Gaborone. He should be here with his people where he belongs.
Before the election Tsvangirai’s MDC failed to reconcile with Mutambara’s party because the hawks around Tsvangirai wanted a second vice-president in the form of Thokozani Khupe.
They also believed that the Bulawayo constituencies were ripe for the picking.
The result was a split vote in Matabeleland which enabled Zanu PF to sneak in through the back door in many seats.
A unified MDC could have picked up at least 10 more seats and valuable votes for Tsvangirai as president which instead went to Simba Makoni.
In the process the MDC lost some of its best talents such as Paul Themba Nyathi and Welshman Ncube.
This “triumph” has led to a run-off which nobody wants when it could, had more sober views prevailed, have handed Tsvangirai the presidency on a silver platter thus sparing us the current ordeal.
Will the MDC go on getting it wrong on decisions such as these where statesmanship is required over narrow partisan and exclusive interests?
Tsvangirai appears to be in two minds about the big issues of the day. At first he appeared to favour a run-off; now he has set his face against it even though all the evidence suggests that despite state intimidation he would win a crushing victory over an incumbent that the nation is heartily sick of.
We certainly hope he is not hiding from Patrick Chinamasa’s treason charges based on a document which the British Embassy has described as a patent forgery.
Any leader of the opposition worth his salt would have held that document up at a press conference and heaped contempt upon it. Not Tsvangirai. He didn’t say a thing! The same goes for all the other state-manufactured lies that have been doing the rounds.
It was left to Biti to deal with those.
Tsvangirai needs to be both visible and audible. The MDC arguably won the March election. But it behaves as if it lost.
It needs to deal firmly with partisan public statements from the police chief and other unreconstructed elements who think they can get away with threatening to abuse the law to deal with the winning party.
A weekly press conference would be a useful forum to deal with a number of contentious issues in line with Tsvangirai’s promise to open up media space. Has he thanked the people of Zimbabwe for their support yet?
What lead has he given to his people?
And what are the “solutions” that will lead us from “despair to destiny”?
Isn’t it about time that we had some idea of what a Tsvangirai government would do as its first steps to restoring sanity?

Zimbabwe election results out, enter round two!

At last the election result has been released, got wind of at This is Zimbabwe a blog by Sokwanele. I wonder whats going in the offices of the candidates especially Morgan's and I'm asking myself so what happens if Simba Makoni adds his weight to Morgan Tsvangirai's votes?

Does the run-off still have to take place?

Via the BBC news website

Zimbabwe announces poll results

The long-awaited results of Zimbabwe's presidential poll have been announced, with the opposition's Morgan Tsvangirai winning 47.9%, forcing a second round. Election officials say Mr Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe's 43.2%, but both candidates fell short of the 50% needed for an outright win. A spokesman for Mr Mugabe said the result brought no surprises. But Mr Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the result was "scandalous". Continue reading...

Robert Mugabe, hero or zero?

I had a good look at Youtube video sent my a member calling himself mugabeisright and I really appreciate that he set it up. I want to give him my thoughts though. I think he should defend Mugabe's policy and not his personality, which, I don't if you agree has flaws like every human being. His policy and cause is very noble and fulfils the historical maxim, in a revolution unfortunately people die physically and most importantly mentally. People are being brain washed and don't realise that many people who claim to be our friends and looking out for our interests are nothing but actors.

Race and even tribe among we Zimbabweans complicate most peoples analysis of Mugabe's policies and greed, incompetence and selfishness leave this leader unclothed. The question at one point or the other will and has come up, why has Mugabe let corrupt Ministers and Civil Servants go scot free when they, steal and plunder national resources? But this is the start of my argument which sways back in Mugabes favour. Lets agree that Mugabe has been wrong by virtue of the fact that he reined over these criminals, when they steal these resources and bank them outside, someone has to accept these monies. Corruption is a two way street. If there was no one to receiv their ill begotten wealth no one would be motivated to steal. Double standards are at play here, what makes Mugabe different from Paul Biya (http://eliesmith.blogspot.com/2008/04/circus-monkeys-wry-whimsical-view-on.html), nothing except that he rules over a piece of land not highly rated by the US and UK.

Lastly I want to say I think Tsvangirai is the only choice for people not because they hate Mugabe's policies but because they are not satisfied with him as a person. All they want is change and thats where Mugabe really dropped the ball because he should have called upon younger blood from within his flock. I have also had that Tsvangirai has dictatoral tendencies which played a major role in the breakup of the MDC. He has had eight or so years to take aim and this is a political fight in AFRICA not a tea party in a British Palace so it gets tough, hot, dangerous. I'm sure he knew that when he decided to go for it. Sometimes I worry that this man is now just worried about feeding his family and continuing to receive donor money which requires very little accountability if any at all as I heard one very senior MDC official in South Africa confessed one day. Just like ZANU PF, Opposition Politics and the spoils that come from it are now jobs for the boys. If that is the case then I would rather go with the devil that I know.

How real are the threats of recolonisation, imperialism and double standards as Robert Mugabe has been warning for years?