No deal as long as African leaders side with Mugabe

On Monday, October 27, African leaders will gather again in Harare to try and salvage the infamous government of national unity (GNU) deal that has all but collapsed.

The African leaders have a simple task at hand. All they need to do is to remind Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF cronies that the GNU demands that he share power, equally, with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

With the benefit of hindsight, we believe that the African leaders will do no such thing. Instead, they will side with Robert Mugabe on one hand while on the other hand they will  try to force Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC to accept what Mugabe wants.
Indeed even Tsvangirai knows this, why he was forced to make his position clear when he was in Marondera Saturday. 

“We have very high respect for SADC (Southern African Development Community), very high respect for every African institution,” he said. “When they (the regional leaders) come on Monday we shall respect them,” he added, but he was quick to remind them that he will not accept a deal that favours Mugabe or one that leaves him powerless. 

“There is nothing wrong with the deal, the problem is now its implementation… the problem is that Mugabe wants all the key ministries… I will not enter into this government when I know there is no sincerity… How can I sign this deal when I am not given the tools to perform?” 

In a show of the complete distrust of the MDC of the mediator Thabo Mbeki, Tsvangirai went on to castigate Mbeki’s quiet diplomacy, arguing that “quiet diplomacy has its limits.”

 
Tsvangirai and the MDC are right to be afraid of the African leaders. Over the past seven months of the crisis, the African leaders at first denied that there was crisis, but as the ZANU-PF militia went of the rampage in rural Zimbabwe, they were forced to eat their words and eventually accepted that the situation in Zimbabwe was a crisis.

At every turn in this whole crisis, the African leaders have sided with Mugabe. In fact, over the last decade, when Mugabe and his ZANU-PF cronies destroyed Zimbabwe, these African leaders stood by, hands folded. Some of these African leaders even applauded Mugabe, urging him on.   

Mugabe and ZANU-PF are aware of this, and they are looking forward to capitalizing on the duplicity of the  African leaders. ZANU-PF will enter the meeting with a strong hand, assured that the African leaders will cover their back.  

So, today Monday, it is interesting to ask these simple questions. What would the African leaders do differently at this emergency summit? What will be different? Would they have stopped looking at Mugabe as a hero? Would they cast of the misdirected ‘African Solidarity’ stance and do what is right for the people of Zimbabwe? The answer to all these questions is no. 

Therefore, we the Harare Tribune Editorial Board accept as fact that today and the days ahead, either a) Tsvangirai will accept a deal that favours Robert Mugabe and his cronies or b) The impasse over the allocation of cabinet posts will continue. 

We hate the cabinet deadlock. The people of Zimbabwe are suffering.   

We urge African leaders, starting with Thabo Mbeki who presided over the collapse of our country Zimbabwe, to do the right thing.   

Do the right thing and force Mugabe to share power equally with the MDC. It is time African leaders stopped siding with Mugabe.