On countless occasions promoters of the unity government have told us that it deserves support from every well meaning Zimbabwean because the administration is the only viable option to extricate our once proud nation from the mire. It is the only game in town, they have told us. By the look of things, the unity government is fast degenerating into the only circus in town. With the signs of impending humanitarian disaster written large on the walls and requiring any government worth the tag to act urgently to put in place measures to avoid needless suffering and even death of citizens, all we see from Messrs Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara is episode after episode of an embarrassing and increasingly juvenile power struggle.
Civil servants have gone on indefinite strike to press for better wages and soon we could be back to the 2008 situation with paralysed state institutions and a government that existed in name only. Multitudes of Zimbabweans or at least two million people by some estimates face hunger after a failed agricultural season, while many millions more continue to struggle against the same challenges and threats such as deepening poverty, HIV/AIDS and unemployment that they faced before formation of the coalition government. Even the worst of political morons would probably tell you that the government needs to put a united front in the face of looming disaster. Yet the Class of 2009 is courting paralysis with the President pulling in one direction and the Prime Minister pulling the other way. No, this is not how transitions work!
The defenders of the Zimbabwe power-sharing government have often mentioned the example of South Africas bitter, painful and ultimately successful transition from apartheid to democracy under the guidance of Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk. But they miss one point, Mandela and De Klerk were great foes who were brought together by a genuine desire to build new and better South Africa that all its citizens could proudly call home. Nothing unites Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara. No doubt, they each have a vision of a better Zimbabwe but they clearly differ on what constitutes that better Zimbabwe or the methods to achieve it.
The three men are in the unity government solely because none of them can see any better option outside the power-sharing arrangement, now that is hardly good enough a reason for a government to exist. The task to rebuild Zimbabwe is huge. We have neither the resources nor time to keep a government in office for the simple reason that its leaders and top officials need jobs. Now is the time for Zimbabweans to demand that this unity government puts its act together and deliver on its many promises. The administration must deliver on constitutional reforms, press freedom and other basic freedoms, health, education, jobs and human rights — or do us a favour and disband!
Post published in: Editor: Wilf Mbanga