HARARE - After Fridays statement we are all confused. Is MDC still in government? Is Zanu (PF) still in government? I think we need to remember a few facts. The MDC are the government, because they won the last election.They accepted Zanu (PF) into the inclusive government because that party would not admit defeat and the MDC leadership took the decision to compromise in order to avoid further bloodshed. That compromise was embodied in the GPA which was signed by both parties spelling out how power was to be shared.
Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) have broken this agreement many times: Jestina Mukoko and Roy Bennett are two notable victims of their disregard for the solemn agreement they signed with much regional fanfare.
But they need to know that they cant pick and choose which parts of the agreement they will keep and which they are going to ignore. If they accept it as a whole, they may stay in government: if they dont, they cant claim any place in government.
So a simple-minded interpretation of what has now happened is that MDC, as the majority party, are refusing to recognise the legitimacy of people who claim to be partners in a government which was set up in terms of an agreement they never intended to observe. In effect, MDC has suspended Zanu (PF) from the government, as they have the power and the right to do.
With this in mind, the contorted logic of Fridays statement becomes clear. The MDCs action says what I have spelled out above.
It is clear that Zanu (PF), by locking up Roy Bennett yet again, wanted to force MDC to opt out of the government. So that they could then cry foul and fall back on the only tactic they know: jambanja.
But that weapon is not as formidable as it was. The chefs cant plunge us into chaos unless their foot-soldiers in the army and police still obey them. Every day the inclusive government survives, more of those foot-soldiers lost the will to resist the peoples legitimate, MDC-led, government.
Mugabe may have overplayed his hand this time.
Post published in: Opinions