Storm not yet over Mr Prime Minister

It is no doubt a difficult balancing act to perform. But that should be no excuse for the Prime Minister to — in the style of Zanu (PF) — attempt to splash paint over the widening cracks on the walls of the unity government that are so visible even to the blind. There is simply nothing to be gained by telling the world, as the Prime Minister did at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Tanzania last week, that Zimbabwe is out of the political woods, that the political crisis that left us a nation of paupers no longer exists. “The perceived risk on Zimbabwe does no longer exist… The political crisis… no longer exists, this is what the Prime Minister told journalists on the sidelines of the forum. This is simply not true! If in any doubt, just ask the commercial farmers who are still being harassed and evicted from their properties a whole year after formation of the unity government.

Or if you do not believe the white farmers, then talk to the villagers from Mtoko district and other parts of the country who are being terrorised by Zanu (PF) youths and armed soldiers and being threatened with violence once next months FIFA World Cup in South Africa is over. Now, we do not expect the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe to make it his business to hang the nations dirty linen out for the whole world to see. But neither do we expect him to try to use the backdrop of an international economic forum to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the world press. It is simply an unwise thing to do, to say the least, and one would have hoped that the Premiers able advisors would know this. Telling the world that all is well in Zimbabwe when people like Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere are threatening to seize private companies does not do quite well for the image of the Prime Minister.

Assuring the world that the chaos is over in the same week that Joseph Chinotimba and his crew yes the same lot that triggered black Friday 13 years ago stormed the finance ministry to demand more cash and other freebies is to us not a good idea. The Prime Minister must market Zimbabwe as best he can. We agree. Only we believe that the best way to do that is by holding Mugabe to his every word and promise under the global political agreement (GPA). With the rule of law back on farms and in rural areas, political violence stopped and more pace added to constitutional and other democratic reforms, Tsvangirai would find Zimbabwe much easier a product to sell. But simply telling the world that the storm is over is not going to work for the simple reason that it is not yet over!