THOSE critics in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change who wanted President Thabo Mbeki replaced as facilitator have had their day, hopefully.
But be careful what you wish for.
President Mbeki wielded a lot of influence on President Robert Mugabe and got a lot of concessions for the MDC which Kofi Annan failed to get for Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The same critics who were urging Zimbabwe to follow the Kenya model would have got the MDC-T a worse deal than they got.
Most of us remember Presidential Spokesman and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, George Charamba saying earlier this year at the EU-Africa Summit that “Zimbabwe is not Kenya” and that we will chart our own path. His words were vindicated by the independence of that deal and the two MDCs got a better deal.
This was all negotiated by President Mbeki.
A close comparison of Odinga’s and Tsvangirai’s deals will show you that Zimbabwe has matured politically much better than our East African brothers. We were no under Western or any other pressure, yet we got a better deal. Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, despite his ‘magnanimity’ could not get Raila what Mbeki got Tsvangirai.
Kenya’s The Nation newspaper reported last week: “The Zimbabwe deal has reopened the old debate that Kenya's power-sharing accord, signed last February 29, gave little "meat" to the Prime Minster's office and that whatever powers Mr Odinga is enjoying is only courtesy of his personality.”
The paper continued: “The irony is that Mr Tsvangirai visited Nairobi and consulted Mr Odinga before signing the deal.”
Well the irony is that Tsvangirai signed the deal after recognizing its utility, and after President Mugabe threatened to form cabinet without him appending his signature. Could it also be that he had seen that he got a better deal than "the wise man from the East of Africa"?
I requote: “The Zimbabwe deal has reopened the old debate that Kenya's power-sharing accord…gave little ‘meat’ to the Prime Minster's office and that whatever powers Mr Odinga is enjoying is only courtesy of his personality.”
President Mbeki facilitated this good deal for the MDC parties, while Annan facilitated this “bad deal” for Odinga’s party.
The irony is that Mbeki gets less credit than gets Annan.
Now that a new facilitator is likely, I say to those critics of President Mbeki and those MDC members who wanted him replaced: “Be careful what you wish for!”
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SABOLA • sabola1984@fastermail.com Subject: GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MIND Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:27:10 • Paul, you think the west is happy that a deal has finally been signed in Zim? If you think so you better get that out of your mind. They are not playing wait and see as you call it. Can't oyu see that the truth is clearly showing: they are not happy that Mugabe should still weild some power.Remember, he took away land from their brothers and sisters--who were in the minority but unfairly claiming huge tracts of land. The west will always crave for African leadrs who give them a false sense of godliness and will do anything it takes to get rid of those who have the stomach to tell them that they are not gods at all. Kudos for Mbeki for embarrasing those who belive in taking an impartial stand in mediations.
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:09:33 • Idiots will forever remain idiots! If one is not happy with a deal offered to them they have every right to refuse to sign and be party to it! MT did it a few weeks before he signed this deal. It means he was happy with what had been offered to him and if he is still unhappy, then of course he has every right to pull out leaving Bob to go ahead and appoint a Cabinet of his own choosing, one that he thinks will do the job for him even though constrained by sanctions! NB: The other day I was gobsmacked to hear Lovemore MOYO the representative of New Labour in Zimbabwe report back to his constituency in Manchester for the ''help'' through sanctions given to Zimbabweans over the past 10 years. Well done MOYO for showing the world what the MDC really stands for - neocolonialism! Soon your chum Zuma, the guileless empty vessel, rapist who takes a shower after imposing himself on an HIV positive young woman and power hungry ignoramus takes over the reigns of power in SA. Its going to be a hoot! Another power hungry bigot taking over from a talented intelligent and wise pan-Africanist leader. Smacks of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair coup of which a smiling Blair is seeing his successor overwhelmed and unable to come to grips with the demands of running a country! He is losing every election there has been and now blames this on Mugabe and world recession yet when the going was good he claimed all the credits. Zuma will likewise blame the destruction of the SAfrican economy on Mugabe and Thabo Mbeki who refused to be tough with Mugabe. Unfortunately for the world, there are no longer world statesmen/women of the likes of Indira Gandhi, Dag Hammerskjold, Thatcher, Castro, Brezhnev, Mao, Churchil, Miterrand, Chirac, Nyerere, Kaunda, Mbeki, Nkrumah, Neto, Nujoma, Sadat et al. What we have are pretenders to the throne Mugabe, Morales, Chavez, Pohamba, Putin, Gaddafi, Ahmedinejad, Hu Jintao excepted. The rest are just rubbish who are trying to market themselves as world leaders but failing every time to convince the world's led.
Brave • btmunatswa@yahoo.com Subject: Mugabe rules Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:24:59 • The current president of Zim is Mugabe even Tsvangirai admitted it by signing the Mbeki deal. In an interview with SABC, Chamisa was asked why they signed the deal before the issue of who takes what in the cabinet was concluded. His answers were Mr Mugabe had promised ...and Mbeki said he guarantees it. This shows the MDC does not have the power we all think it has. Mugabe was manipulating these political novices into submission with promises. Thus Zanu Pf is stronger than the MDC(without external interferance).
Its very painful to swallow this fact for those who hate the old man but mkuru mkuru nyange arindururane! saka Bobo anotonga.Tsvangirai cant claim victory from an election he didnt contest, neither can he from those election he declared unfree and unfair(in March) so there is no mandate for him to clame the presidency. He can only settle for the prime minister's post which doesnt exist in the constitution. So he has an unrecognised office
Mhofeti • pasizw@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Mediator role Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:53:56 • Paul, I think you are confusing Mbeki's role. I thought mediation was offering impartial support between or amongst parties negotiating for a common goal. It was not like Mbeki making his own rules but rather simply facilitating the negotiations as laid out by the AU. The AU proposed the all inclusive government idea as the way forward for Zimbabwe whilst MDC and Zanu PF wanted to have it their way. The SADC in their wisdom or lack of it then thought the best person to get us to this position is Thabo Mbeki. Despite the naive partisan calls for being tough,firm and aggressive with Mugabe, that was not Mbeki's job, his was to impartially use his appeal and charm for the principals to append their signatures to the deal. A few days preceding the signing of the deal Tsvangirai said something to the effect that Mbeki couldn't make him sign, true indeed!!. In all fairnes if Mbeki couldn't make Tsvangirai why on earth does anyone think he could make Mugabe sign? The AU, SADC, negotiating teams from parties (credit to them all) and the document to be signed were clearly tough and aggressive enough in their intents. If I may end by asking, Where have you ever heard of a mediator having firm, tough and robust stance against one party to the negotiations? Absolutely nothing humiliating about giving credit where its due! Thanks Thabo!
Paul • sea_tel@yahoo.com Subject: To all. Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:35:12 • Mr Murombedzi, l am not sure if your article falls in the opinions or news category. In any case, What influence did Thabo Mbeki have?. As the president of the most powerful African nation he had the tools to broker diligently and forcefully but what did he do. Dilly dally as he did to the Aids pandemic in his own backyard, where he came up with silly theories on the causes of Aids instead of adddressing the issue of alleviating the plight of those enduring the effects of Aids on their livelihoods and health. In the meantime Mandela was campaigning for drugs from the west. Mbeki is too casual to be a good leader, he might have had good economic policies but do not forget that the South African economy was solid when ANC took over and remains to be seen if it will continue to be so. Fortunately enough ANC is not as rotten as ZANU-PF. As for which deal is better or not, that is irrelevant because the casual Mbeki still weeks after the signing has not managed to convince Mugabe to co-operate. The deal was an empty deal hence the stance by the west, that they will play wait and see. Otherwise no money for the Unity government. As for the credit that Annan gets, it is because there was a quick restoration of peace and order after the deal, no matter how bad it was. The whole issue of peace deals is not a competition between states. What we need is moving forward but right now with a better deal, our country is still stuck, we do not know where we are going. I wish...........
Changamire Dombo • ChangamireDombo@rocketmail.com Subject: Who Wo The Election? Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:54:04 • Good question.
If you don't know that by violence, rigging, hook and crook ... RGM won the Zim-Election then please do us a favour and shut-up!
RGM won the Election, period. How he did it is another question. As for MT, tough luck Mr Boycott ... ever heard that it gets darkest just before dawn?
As long as a Constitution is still in force it has to be upheld, MT abandoned the race mid-way and the thuggish RGM romped home. Don't ask me to give him a medal though!
Lastly, he is in power and what the hell can you do about it?
Nothing, zero, nil, zilch, hapana!
So, shut-up your mouth please and let those working tirelessly for progress get on with the job at hand.
Kunzi dzibate, handi kunzi dziridzeba.
N/A • N/A Subject: Mbeki Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:55:04 • Samas and Mungho-Your comments about Murombedzi's article are unhelpful. Murombedzi is only stating the obvious. Nobody is saying that President Mugabe owns Zim but lets face facts.Even MDC has no monopoly on rulng Zim.It is ingenous for Mungho to state that the country should not be negotiating with President Mugabe.because he lost the election. The question is which election because in the March elections, the ruling party had most of the popular votes and no candidate had the required percentage to be president. In the June election, which Tsvangirai boycotted at the last minute, President Mugabe was a clear winner. Whenever there is political polarisation in a country, the best route forward is negotiation so as to try and accommodate as many vested interests as possible.Smith had to negotiate with the Patriotic Front and other stakeholders even though everyone knew the Rhodesian forces were losing the war against the freedom fighters as far back as 1976.It is now the duty of all Zims to stop labelling each other this and that and start working for the good of Zim.Progress will not be made by throwing bric-bats at one another. Someone (anon) said, there are those who make things happen, those that watch things happen and those who ask what the hell has happened Which one of these do the two of you want to be?
As for Mbeki's role in the facilitation process in Zim, he actually saw the bigger picture and acted accordingly. Political power has many dimensions and is not derived exclusively via the ballot box. Take time to understand how political power is derived in mature democracies, It has taken the developed countries a thousand years to arrive at the democratic systems they currently have and these are far from perfect. Why do you expect Zim to be at the same stage as the West within 28 years? Let Zims not be carried away by sound bites such as democracy ,human rights etc without fully understanding what these terms actually mean,
JM • n/a Subject: NOTHING Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:02:23 • Mbeki has done nothing for Zim the deal was only pushed through because he knew he was going to have to resign his post as president and wanted a legacy........The deal that was signed is nothing but a bit of paper there is no substance, it is a Mbeki and Mugabe production we have not moved an inch in the problems facing Zim we are still in Zanuland..........Good luck Mbeki
mungho • rober@'yahoo.com Subject: your thinking is twisted Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:19:13 • Zanu PF has wapped your thinking so much tht you think Mugabe owns Zimbabwe and we have to beg him to give up some of his powers at his discretion and if he does so he is doing us a favour. The country shouldnt even be negotiating with mugabe - he lost the election!! He is therefore a persona na grata in Zimbabwe and the MDC is just respecting a fool to avoid noise. Mugabe is not Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is not Mugabe. He is merely a citizen like everyone else!!!
samas • n/a Subject: n/a Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:56:08 • I think you are saying nonsense. Mugabe does not own this country and has no monopoly of ruling it, unless you admit that he is a dictator. Mbeki has been making Mugabe more and more arrogant.
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