Yes, you must ask Tsvangirai re sanctions

Did they want Miliband to say he would ask Robert or Zanu (PF)? It is amazing how much Tsvangirai is credited with all sorts of powers that he does not have. When did Morgan acquire the enormous powers to enable him to order the British House of Commons or the British Government to impose sanctions on Mugabe and his hangers-on? If Tsvangirai has such enormous political powers, then why does he not use them here at home to get all the wrong things about this country to be corrected?

There are very clear and good reasons why Miliband rightly stated that he would have to ask the MDC regarding the lifting of sanctions. Miliband and the British Government are fully aware that the MDC won the elections in March 2008; they are therefore the ruling party in Zimbabwe and Zanu (PF) are the opposition.

They also know that Tsvangirai won the presidential elections at that time, beating good old Robert by a huge margin. The man to ask about the lifting of sanctions is therefore Tsvangirai. The political party in power in Zimbabwe today is the MDC and not Zanu (PF), thank you very much. Miliband was therefore simply telling the British Parliamentarians that the legal sanctions imposed against the rapists of this country will only be lifted after consultations with the rightful rulers of Zimbabwe. This, obviously, did not go down well with the state media who then went on to play their favourite game the blame game.

While singing for his dinner, Simon Khaya Moyo, the newly nominated (he was never elected) Zanu (PF) national chairman said, Britain has let the cat out of the bag on the issue of sanctions. What cat is the former ambassador talking about?

Who did not know that like other sensible Western countries, Britain had imposed targeted sanctions against Mugabe, Grace and their attendants and prohibited them from visiting the UK among other countries? Is it possible that a Zimbabwean ambassador can fail to appreciate that a Zimbabwean political party can never dictate the foreign policy of another (foreign) country?

How was this man representing this country in South Africa? Tsvangirai must be very powerful, indeed, because he must have also dictated foreign policy to the whole European Union, the USA, Canada, Australia and distant New Zealand. How thick can an individual be?

Well, at least we now all know that sanctions are likely to stay in place for as long as there are MDC defined outstanding issues between that political party and Mugabes Zanu (PF). Efforts to resolve these vexing issues seem to have stalled, and we are told that the talks will only resume next month. So be it; sanctions will also remain effective till much later than that. Let us see who will cry about this.

In my view, the MDC is holding all the trump cards, while the few cards that Zanu (PF) may be holding are daily slipping out of their hands as the people of this country continue to suffer under a partially implemented GPA. Fortunately, the people of this country know who to blame for the shoddy manner in which the GPA is being implemented.