When Zimbabweans felt they were being taken for a ride by Mugabe, they very readily and rightly transferred their confidence to the MDC. They did so in the full and fervent belief that their concerns as a people were likely to be much better understood by a government under MDC leadership.
Unfortunately, attempts to democratically elect a government in accord with the will of the people have all but failed because Mugabe and Zanu (PF) are allergic to democracy. However, when Tsvangirai agreed to share power with Mugabe in 2008 the overwhelming opinion was that, although to share power in circumstances where he clearly was the winner amounted to a travesty of fairness and democracy, his options were limited.
Restoring dignity
Equally overwhelming was the sense that things would improve for the better and they have to some extent. However, the improvement has not been fundamental enough to offer a clean break from the past. It has not been enough to restore the dignity of the majority of Zimbabweans.
Here is the simple reality: anti-MDC sentiment is mounting and it is mounting at a pace so swift that it just may become impossible to contain if peoples support is continually taken for granted.
While support for the MDC abroad may still be intact, in Zimbabwe it is falling to pieces. Almost two years into the arrangement, Tsvangirai is still very much a part of it – clear evidence that despite its imperfection, there is some kind of understanding between the parties in government.
When that government fails it is not just Mugabe who fails, Tsvangirai and Mugabe fail together. Tsvangirai and the MDC have not done enough to deal decisively with real issues such as teachers salaries, tertiary education, media reform, inhuman prison conditions, poverty and disease.
Govt broke
Annoyingly, the explanation usually given in response to questions about why, two years on, not much has been done, is simply that government has no money. It was the MDCs Tendai Biti who approved an expenditure of over R100 million per semester for the education of Zimbabwean students at South African Universities, most of whom are the offspring of the political elite of this country. (Bear in mind there are two semesters in an academic year and an average degree spans three years.)
It was the MDCs Tendai Biti who just recently disbursed an estimated US$6.3 million to the Information and Technology Ministry headed by Nelson Chamisa. While up-to-date communications and information technology (CIT) is vital in the modern world, it is not a top priority for Zimbabwe right now.
It boggles the mind, therefore, how and why that kind of money could be made available for those purposes when the countrys constitution-making process has been stalled because the government is failing to make good on its obligation to provide the US$8 million required for the process to get under way.
What is needed is decisive action on the real issues and not on self-serving agendas.
Show me the money
Despite the ignominy our dear old dictator heaps on the United States, Hillary Clinton recently revealed that her country pledges US$300 million each year in aid to our government. $US300 million per year is not enough to bail Zimbabwe out of its economic crisis but it is a lot of money nonetheless. And since Tsvangirai and the MDC have been in government for over a year they are just as accountable for it as Mugabe is. Where is that money?
There is much more to Tsvangirai and the MDCs task in the unity government than to always and ineffectually declare anything and everything null and void.
It is their task, among other things, to bring about political reform. It is their task to plead with the donor community to put ideology aside, to open their hearts and help the people of Zimbabwe in every way possible. That is not happening right now. If it is, it is not being pursued vigorously and effectively.
Zimbabweans invested so much hope and expectation in the MDC yet today there is little to show for it. To date there remains a deep-seated, underlying economic anxiety in our country. That is why teachers are increasingly threatening to go on a nationwide strike. It is precisely why the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is becoming increasingly critical of the MDC.
Losing sight of the struggle
Many are now of the justified view that the MDC is losing sight of what it is fighting for in the struggle against Zanu (PF). That struggle, they correctly argue, is about putting the needs of people before claiming and clinging to leadership positions. It is about guarding against treating teachers as cheap labour. It is about ensuring that university students throughout the country are able to study in wellresourced colleges- more particularly, that they can sit for their exams without fear of being barred because of unpaid tuition. It is about ensuring that thousands of precious children do not die needlessly every year from preventable diseases.
That is what the struggle is all about. Sadly these hopes and expectations are not being realized even with the MDC as part of government. The MDC is really going to need to pull something special out of the bag to renew their covenant with the people.
No party can claim to have an absolute monopoly over the politics of our country. Not Zanu (PF). Not the MDC. If the MDC continues to take the support of the people for granted, it does so at its own peril.
They can no longer continue to circumvent the ever loud and clear calls for swift, tangible and decisive action without serious consequences for the image and support base of their party. – leader@usd.org.zw
Post published in: Opinions