By Patrick Guramatunhu- I once watched a documentary on meerkats. A family group came across an ostrich egg.
A meerkat will easily crack the shell of most eggs but so with the ostrich egg. Meerkats get most of their food by digging and so one after another they moved the egg back and forth by digging round it or pushed it in the frantic effort to bite it. After a while the meerkats gave up and moved on.
It is most disconcerting when human beings start behaving worse that meerkats!
“Given conditions in Zimbabwe, dialogue is the only sensible way forward, but both MDC factions need to be involved and the dialogue needs to be transparent and even-handed,” argue Professor Stephen Chan of University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
“Having said that, formal talks might well be beneficially preceded by an informal meeting between the ‘Big Three’ – Mnangagwa, Chamisa and Mwonzora – something like a Kariba Houseboat meeting of the sort once brokered by South Africa.
This is a foolish idea because the proposal has failed to acknowledge the reality that these Zanu PF and MDC leaders are the ones who not only landed the nation into this mess but, worse still, are the ones who created the mess. They are the problem; how then can they be the solution too!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Guess who has been rigging elections all these last 40 years – Zanu PF leaders.
The nation had its golden opportunity to implement democratic reforms designed to end the vote rigging during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Guess who wasted the opportunity and failed to implement even one token reform in five years – MDC leaders.
Professor Chan and his fellow political meerkats’ insistence in allocating the key political roles to Zanu PF and MDC leaders is not only unworkable but must must be dismissed with contempt because it seeks to perpetuate the lie that both these parties are legitimate.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections. ZEC failure to produce some thing as basic a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake!
MDC leaders had no business participating in the 2018 elections knowing fully well Zanu PF was rigging the plebiscite. They participated because Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats, bait they found irresistible. By participating the elections MDC gave credibility to the process and legitimacy to the result.
So, “the big three” are being allocated the principle political roles because they either blatantly rigged the elections or sold-out of the fight for reforms and free, fair and credible elections!
The real meerkats had the common sense to walk away from the ostrich egg when they realised they did not have the right tools or intelligence to crack the egg. After 40 years of corruption, breath-taking incompetence and murderous tyranny by Zanu PF thugs and their MDC acolytes, the political “meerkats” are more determined than ever to impose the same leaders as the answer to our problems. Of course, the political meerkats are insane!
It is not enough to call for free, fair and credible elections, we must demonstrate our commitment to the same by condemning those who rig elections and stop the folly of rewarding them with absolute power.
After 40 years of appeasing Zanu PF by giving in to all the thugs’ demands; the thugs demanded a foot, took yard and were back to demand even more. Zanu PF misrule has dragged us deeper and deeper into the abyss we now find ourselves stuck in. We are not going to get out by appeasing Zanu PF!
Zanu PF and their MDC vote rigging conspiratorial partners are illegitimate and must step down to allow the nation to appoint a competent and independent body that will, at long last, implement the democratic reform. Zanu PF has held this nation to ransom for 40 years and counting; this must not be allowed to continue. Enough is enough!