Life & Times of GND (Government of National Disunity)

The events of the past week have been disturbing; many members of parliament, Ministers have found themselves locked up for one reason or another. The mayhem reached a crescendo with the nullifying of the post for Speaker of Parliament or the election thereof. The Supreme Court overturned the ruling passed earlier by the High Court that Lovemore Moyo should continue as speaker of parliament. So now we have no speaker of parliament in place, a deputy Prime Minister whose position bears no mandate from his party, a Finance Minister failing to account for monies that should have made way to the government treasury. Everything is not well in the government of Zimbabwe, every party is pulling to its own side. Despite people being upbeat at the formation of the Government of National Unity, many have now lost faith in this cause. ZANU PF appears keen to maintain the status quo prior to February 2009, at every turn they are eager to frustrate the country moving forward. Their blend of patriotism is to the party leader first, party second and everything else comes thereafter. Despite the nationalism tag which ZANU PF desperately cling to, they are far removed from the principals that brought them together to fight the Ian Smith regime, empty slogans is what remains, the party is turned into an appendage of a few big wigs. Anyone in the establishment can seek promotion only up to number two position; the first place is ensconced in one Robert Mugabe.

Perhaps the GND was not necessary but at that juncture it was the only plausible thing to do, the people had been held hostage after a run-off election where the incumbent had pulled all stops to frustrate any outcome favouring the opposition. Life has somewhat improved for the ordinary man on the street, food has become visible at affordable price, the runaway inflation was tamed. But the chaos is threatening to unleash itself once again; the arrest of many government officials is testament to the fact that ZANUPF is unwilling to forsake its violent nature, torture is crawling back into the mainstream after having gone on holiday. ZANUPF will be happy to go into elections with the current setting that will allow them to manipulate the system; the fear of defeat in free and fair elections might be the reason why they have shifted into flight mode.  Haply if they can force the break of the Government of National Disunity, elections can be held in the same conditions as in 2008. But will SADC and Zuma be amenable to such a situation? It remains to be seen but it appears SADC is not eager to proceed until its road map to free and credible elections is adhered to, without Mbeki at the helm, Mugabe also finds himself without much support within SADC and this might be the reason why he is tentative about going it alone. The fact that SADC is willing to proceed with a makeshift DPM in Arthur Mutambara might bear testimony to the fact that a lasting solution to Zimbabwe’s squabbles is seen as urgent.

On the other arm of the GND you have MDCM/N now led by Welshman Ncube, this group appears to be in government for vendetta and this overlaps to within their own ranks. Currently it has metamorphosed into two other parties MDC99 and the one led by Arthur Mutambara. But it is the hate they have for the main MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai that is astounding, they have scored minor victories in the form of joining hands with ZANUPF to elect a speaker of parliament. Despite the fact that their candidate lost, just the notion of forming a pact with ZANUPF had many tongues wagging. Recently they scored a major in ensuring that the speaker of parliament was removed from his post, it remains to be seen if they will go into bed with ZANUPF again to frustrate the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

But overall democracy has suffered, the people’s misery has been prolonged, from the results thus far, it is clear MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai went into the GND eager to prove something, that given a mandate they can be able to turn around the situation. They are the only group who played the ball and not the man. They had goals to achieve but unfortunately they had to work with the masters of dirty on the one hand and the architects of vendetta on the other. What remains is for the GND to be done away with, therefore it is expedient that a new constitution be enacted together with a clear roadmap to elections. However this will not be easy as ZANUPF is eager to hold on to the one thing that has kept them going, a dysfunctional constitution as well as electoral bodies that are manned by party loyalists. As it is Tobaiwa Mudede is past retirement age but is still holding office for the sake of ZANUPF, he knows how to manipulate those dead votes and do the balancing of figures. But it is evident that we are reaching an end game, there is no way out, the tenacity of the people of Zimbabwe has outlived the oppressors.