Opinon Article for Your Consideration

The same Simba Makoni who held secret talks’ with Mugabe at state house recently? Before I go into a lot of debate and ranting on what I really think about this Makoni saga. I ask Zimbabweans to cast their minds back in time to that era when that other independent’ was very much a player in the ZANU PF team of cheats. The independent’ I am talking about is none other than Jonathan Moyo, the so-called professor’. Jonathan Moyo was a renowned scholar and lecturer of politics at the University of Zimbabwe and then a visiting lecturer at Wits, before he supped with the devil’ and sold his soul to become the minister of Information and Publicity and lost whatever shred of credibility he had in the process. In his zest to show his muscle Moyo introduced POSA (Public Order and Security Act) and AIPPA (Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act), and who could forget all the endless hondo yeminda’ programmes we were all subjected to on our only television channel? Reading Moyo’s articles and material he wrote in opposition to the Mugabe regime was almost an out of body experience as it was difficult to think about what was written and putting Moyo’s face a few years later to what was written there was the feeling that it can’t be the same person. But it was! Then there was the Tsholotsho indaba’ that left Jonathan Moyo out of the ZANU PF circle and definitely in the cold. Realising that no one in opposition circles would touch him with a barge pole Moyo contested the Tsholotsho seat as an independent’ and pulled some miracle by actually winning the seat. Then there is the former minister of Finance, Simba Makoni, a man incidentally who I admired and thought would at least reign in the collapsing economy and put i n place fiscal measures to revive the economy. Ok, so he was! fired w hen he tried to introduce these measures and then disappeared from the political scene, which left him with some credibility. Until the rumour mill started churning and Makoni reappeared with whispers of forming an opposition party and contesting the presidential elections. With all the chaos at MDC the long-suffering Zimbabwean people fluttered with anticipation. Until that is, news broke of a secret meeting’ between Mugabe and Makoni, then suddenly it was the challenge that never was, a toothless bulldog! Suddenly there was no opposition party and Makoni instead opted for an MP role within ZANU PF, selling his soul too to the devil. Upon realising that he had been duped’ and his bid for an MP position blocked Makoni wants ordinary Zimbabweans to believe that he understands the suffering that the Zimbabweans have endured. The question I have is …where the hell were you all this time Simba? You too like Jonathan Moyo were supping with the devil,’ the devil th at is ZANU PF and Mugabe. Whatever credibility Makoni had he took to state house and left it there on his way out. Makoni can contest all the elections he wants but unfortunately Zimbabweans the world over, will not have wool pulled over their eyes. He thought it best to give ZANU PF another go and only when he realised that the ZANU PF gravy ship had sailed without him, he wants us to believe that he really’ is an opposition figure to be taken seriously, who really’ has our best interests at heart, who really’ will bring about democratic change. Pull the other one please! Some might argue that I have watched too many conspiracy thrillers and therefore see a conspiracy when there isn’t one, but who is to say that in these secret meetings’ Mugabe and Makoni did not conspire to weaken the opposition further, although Tsvangirai and Mutambara were doing a pretty good job themselves. Makoni’s candidature would spread the opposition vote thinly across the candidates and Mugabe would then emphatically win’ show! ing that despite all the news reports and the collapsed economy’ which is by the way, a figment of the opposition’s imagination Mugabe is the people’s choice’ and the win would have endorsed this. Again I say pull the other one mate, it aint happening! Makoni and Jonathan Moyo are definitively birds of a feather and not only flock together but also contest elections as so called independents.’ And then there is Mutambara who apparently intends to back Makoni, that in itself speaks volumes, its difficult not to view him as an opportunist, who intends to enter parliament at whatever cost, so on realising that he lacks the likeability factor has decided to back a person who is identified as standing for all that MDC (the real MDC’) has been fighting against. The only thing left to say is it’s just a little to late for Makoni to empathise with Zimbabweans the world over (I say this because shift inorwadzwa ndapota! [Shift work is really hard] and in most case s we are stuck doing jobs we hate.)