The looters are screaming for the PMs head. They are infuriated that so far in his European and American trip, he has only been able to raise millions of dollars for the people and not for the government the looters included. (Pictured: Morgan Tsvangirai and Barack Obama)Obama pledged $73 million but quickly indicated that the money would not go directly to the inclusive government but to the people of Zimbabwe, obviously through UN agencies and progressive NGOs.This has incensed the Zanu (PF) thieves who would have preferred that the money be placed in the discredited Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), where they can have easy access to it courtesy of their beloved governor, Gideon. Well, you can fool some people only sometimes but not all the people all the time. As a result of that arrangement, the inclusive government remains stuck in the mud in terms of implementing its STERP model of economic revival. The government also remains unable to pay salaries to its civil servants, soldiers and policemen included. Herein lays the danger to the stability of the fragile Mbeki configuration.
It is hoped that some donors will eventually start to pump funds into the innovation called the Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) from which the government may be able to pay civil servants salaries. The situation under which all public servants are currently living and working is clearly deplorable, to say the least. Indeed, there is growing disenchantment with the inclusive government among the majority of its employees who have been waiting for meaningful remuneration since the beginning of this year.
The people have, certainly, given the new government a chance to get its act together and be seen to bring the situation back to normal, but to date, little seems to have changed from the time of the outgoing Mugabe regime. Time is fast running out for the inclusive government, and something urgent needs to be done.
While singing for his dinner, Sunday Mail (14.06.09) political editor Munyaradzi Huni, calls PM Tsvangirais current trip to the West, Mission Impossible. He also fears that President Obamas words that the $73 million should go directly to the people might mean that the funds will be directed at MDC-T related ministries. What in the world are MDC-T related ministries?
So what happens to the ministries that have MDC-T and Zanu (PF) ministers and deputy ministers? The shallowness of the analysis befuddles the mind. Writing in the same issue of Zimbabwes worst Sunday paper, Fanny Mushava predicts that the PM might come back home empty-handed. He completely misses the point that the PM had already raised $73 million from the US government alone. It is therefore impossible for him to come home empty-handed.
Both Huni and Mushava decry the fact that in spite of the PMs appeal to Western powers, none of them agreed to lift the sanctions imposed against the outgoing Mugabe government.
Western powers are not idiots; they are fully aware of the fact that little has changed since the inclusive government was inaugurated in February. There are just too many issues that remain unresolved. There are several provisions of the GPA that are still to be implemented. Targeted sanctions against selected perpetrators of dictatorship and violence must therefore remain firmly in place.
At least seven supporters of the MDC-T are still missing from the face of the earth, while others have court cases pending. It would be premature to lift targeted sanctions or travel restrictions against the Zanu (PF) hoodlums whose sole aim is to go and retrieve their ill-gotten wealth hidden in the banks of some of these Western countries. Ishe komborerai Africa.