The man who cried wolf

The Herald

November 24 2010

IN one of his famous fables, Aesop — the slave and storyteller — who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC; relates the story of a shepherd-boy who tended a flock of sheep near his village.

The boy was such a prankster that on three or four occasions he brought out the villagers running by crying out, "Wolf! Wolf!" and when his neighbours ran to his rescue, there was no wolf to be seen and the boy had a good laugh at his neighbours’ expense for falling for his prank.

Then one day, a big hungry wolf did come, and as per habit the boy, now really terrified cried ‘‘Wolf, Wolf,’’ but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor rendered any assistance as the wolf destroyed the whole flock. The villagers naturally believed the boy was up to his usual tricks again.

The moral of this fable is simple: People are always hard pressed to believe a habitual liar, even if he was to speak the truth for once.

This truism appears lost to MDC-T leaders who have been crying wolf even over their own shadows in the inclusive Government. Given MDC-T’s comical approach to the GPA, surely President Jacob Zuma and his colleagues in the Troika can’t distinguish MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai from the prankster in Aesop’s fable. This may explain why the other members of the Troika — Presidents Rupiah Banda of Zambia and Armando Guebuza of Mozambique — did not even bother pitching up in Gaborone to discuss Zimbabwe on the sidelines of the official opening of the new Sadc headquarters in the Botswana capital over the weekend.

The reason, I believe, is simple. Tsvangirai’s alleged ‘‘constitutional crisis’’ was nothing more than a little boy’s prank, they have seen it all before. There is no doubt that President Mugabe acted within the powers vested in him in appointing provincial governors, re-assigning ambassadors and appointing judges as per the recommendation of the Judicial Services Commission. In short, the President was not the big, bad wolf Tsvangirai tried to pass him for to Sadc.

Aesop does not say how the embattled boy related to the villagers upon his return home or whether he did not also end up in the wolf’s gut, but our shepherd-boy here left little to the imagination. He went straight to foul the communal well by insulting Sadc leaders whom he likened to ‘‘toothless bulldogs.’’

An ironic comparison if you ask me given that the bulldog is a British running dog. Need I say more? Tongai Moyo, advises in the song, "Ndiro yababa" off his latest album, Toita Basa, that ‘‘ngwariraiwo kuzvituka chinyararire.’’

But what is disturbing about the MDC-T’s attacks on Sadc is not only that they are baseless and unwarranted, but that it’s misdirected energy.

The people the two MDC factions or formations should be attacking are the Westerners who are clearly the stumbling blocks to the full implementation of the GPA with their continued refusal to lift the illegal economic sanctions. Let them keep the travel bans if they wish, but the economic sanctions have to go.

If the truth be told, Zanu-PF has done more to meet its part of the bargain under the GPA than both MDC formations combined. The GPA is quite clear that there are economic and other forms of sanctions on Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans. It’s quite clear that western-funded pirate radio stations should stop beaming their divisive hate messages into Zimbabwe. It’s quite clear that there should be no foreign meddling in our internal affairs.

What does the MDC-T leadership do? They continue denying the existence of sanctions claiming "bad governance and corruption" were responsible for the economic decline of the past decade. They feature daily on the pirate radio stations denigrating their partners in government.

They approach westerners seeking assistance to take on Zanu-PF in the next election to the extent of accepting intelligence agents seconded to them by the same hostile western countries. And after all that they turn around and cry wolf claiming Zanu-PF is violating the GPA.

Either MDC-T leaders think they are very clever or that everybody else in Sadc is very stupid. For how else can one explain their decision to go to Sadc, the guarantor of the GPA, claiming to have fulfilled their part of the GPA when their hands are so soiled with western excesses?

They deny the existence of sanctions and then go to the same Sadc that, at its last Summit in Windhoek, Namibia, tasked its own chairman — President Hifekepunye Pohamba and the Troika — which coincidentally the MDC expected would toe their line, to lobby for the lifting of sanctions that MDC-T leaders claim do not exist.

So is Tsvangirai saying Sadc, made up of all of 14 states, is schizophrenic and sees non-existent things? And such a man expects to be taken seriously? The mind boggles.

I have no doubt Tsvangirai is a stranger to history because if he knew his history he would not have accepted to be used as a cat’s paw by self-serving westerners.

History should have told him that such adventures never endure beyond the interests of the sponsor. He would have known that Sadc was built from the foundation of the Front Line States that ranged against the same forces driving the MDC today, and as such would never be willingly used to advance reactionary politics.

Instead of continuing to cry wolf in the wilderness, Tsvangirai should join others to confront the real wolves ranged against this our community.caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw

What’s in a name?

The Herald

November 18 2010
IT’S said miromo yevakuru haiwire pasi, literally, the wisdom of ages endures. To this end the characterisation of the three main political parties in Zimbabwe made by Chiefs Council president, Fortune Charumbira, was apt judging by events in the body politick.
Chief Charumbira, in his characteristic, hard-hitting Karanga dialect described the parties as follows: ‘‘Mazita ane zvaanoreva. Take Zanu-PF. There is Zimbabwe, there is African, there is National, there is Union, there is Patriotic and then there is Front, which was the name given to the line of defence in a liberated zone during the struggle. This was the same with Zapu which had Zimbabwe, African, people and union.
‘‘Now come to the MDC. There is no Zimbabwe, no African, no National, no Union, no Patriotism, and of course no Front for the defence of our country or the gains of independence.’’
The Chief went on to attribute the vagueness of the MDC’s full name to the fact that the party’s umbilical cord reposes in Whitehall, in the foggy isles; a development, analysts say explains why the same template used for Fredrick Chiluba’s Movement for Multi-party Democracy in Zambia, fitted the MDC in Zimbabwe and Kizza Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change in Uganda,
That MDC is a foreign-conceived, foreign-funded and foreign-driven political group is not a secret given that the Westminster Foundation admitted as much on its website, before removing the incriminating admission after Zanu-PF latched on to it.
That MDC is alien to many things that define us as a people distinct from others in the community of nations is also not a secret given the party leadership’s failure to pronounce themselves on progressive programmes like land reforms and the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive; all of which are geared at moving our independence from the political to the economic dimension.
At every opportunity we have seen MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai speaking against Zimbabwe, but for Westerners to the extent of even trying to negate the nation for the cause of the Great White Hope, Roy Bennett.
And only this past week, at a time when even our brothers and sisters in Sadc summoned the US ambassador to express their displeasure over the ruinous economic sanctions, we saw an MDC-T legislator — one Jefferson Chitando — standing up in the House of Assembly to say westerners should intensify their illegal economic sanctions.
Not coincidentally, ambassador to Australia, Jacqueline Zwambila, drawn from the MDC-T had set up a scandalous website for western readers on which she denied the existence of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.
A week earlier, MDC-T legislators had disrupted a pre-budget consultative meeting in Victoria Falls after CZI boss Joseph Kanyekanye told delegates that economic sanctions had severely impacted on the economy.
That MDC-T leaders are greenhorns lacking both the temperament and deportment for national leadership was aptly shown by Ms Zwambila who is reported to have stripped to her underwear before three, shocked male embassy staff whom she accused of leaking information about the sanctions-denying website to The Herald.
How Zwambila believed she could hide information on the Internet defies logic but is a good pointer to what lies between her ears.
These are, by no means the only incidents that bid the MDC to do some serious soul-searching if it is to be considered a potential government in waiting.
For instance on September 11 this year, MDC-T vice-president Thokozani Khupe, manhandled and slapped a cop at a roadblock near Zhombe Business Centre in the Midlands.
The cop’s crime: He insisted on searching vehicles in the MDC-T convoy that was on its way to Gokwe Centre for the party’s 11th anniversary celebrations. An infuriated Khupe is said to have disembarked from her vehicle, grabbed the hapless cop by the scruff of the neck before dragging him to her vehicle where she gave him a mouthful before slapping him
Not to be outdone, two weeks later, on September 25, the MDC-T legislator for Masvingo Urban, Tongai Matutu and his entourage allegedly beat up Chief Serima — Vengesayi Rushwaya — at Matizha Business Centre after the Chief admonished him for not greeting him as per tradition.
This is what the people have seen from the self-styled ‘‘party of excellence’’ over the past three months alone.
And throughout that time, their colleagues in Zanu-PF were speaking for Zimbabweans, campaigning against the sanctions, fighting westerners over Chiadzwa, consolidating land reforms, pushing forward the indigenisation and empowerment agenda, according chiefs the respect due to them to the extent that the chiefs are reported to have announced that President Mugabe should be president for life.
Add to that the different fortunes the two parties faced during the outreach programme for the new constitution due to the differential appeal of their talking points, and you have a situation where one party has increasingly alienated itself from the people while another has steadily worked to endear itself to the voters, who are the owners of the political process anyway.
Any wonder then that the self-fulfilling prophecies have already begun, manifest in the MDC-T’s campaign against the new constitution, threats of a no vote whose campaign sources say is already underway, and threats to boycott an election that is still to be called?
MDC-T leaders are already gripped by necrophilia, Chamisa has been claiming every dead body in town; every mugging, every rape will be politicized in a bid to discredit next year’s poll, which the MDC-T leadership rightly feels is bound to be their Waterloo.
But then don’t they know voters are like ladies, they need to be serenaded, they need to be wooed and they always go for the better charmer.
Isn’t it time ‘‘the party of excellence’’ told the nation its areas of excellence? Is it heckling, violence, stripping? People need to know.
MDC-T leaders must change their ways to become truly Zimbabwean, African, nationalistic and unifiers. Real democracy vests in empowering the people to be masters of their geo-polity and resources. Zita rine zvarinoreva.
caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw

Be careful what you wish for

The Herald
November 3 2010

IT’S said one day, a bear and a rabbit were walking trough the woods when they came across a genie in the form of a golden frog.

The frog said ‘‘I don’t see many people here, but when I do I grant them three wishes’’.

The bear looked at the rabbit and said, “That means three each”. The bear then said, ‘‘I wish all the bears in this forest were female.’’ The rabbit, in turn, wished for a motorbike.

The bear looked at the rabbit again, and said, ‘‘in fact, I wish all the bears in the next forest were female, too.’’ The rabbit wished for a crash helmet.

The bear (getting a bit carried away), said ‘‘I wish all the bears in the world were female!’’ Then, the rabbit put on the helmet, revved the bike and said, ‘‘I wish that bear right there was gay’’ before roaring away.

The moral; be careful what you wish for, it may just come back to haunt you.

Well, sometime this week, MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai — who seems to have discovered the art of letter writing of late — is reported to have written to GPA facilitator, South African president Jacob Zuma complaining about what he called ‘‘unilateral’’ appointments (of provincial governors, judges and ambassadors) by President Mugabe saying he wanted to sue the President over the ‘‘illegal’’ appointments.

In so doing, Tsvangirai behaved like the proverbial bear above that got carried away forgetting to be careful what it wished for.

In believing he can sue President Mugabe for ‘‘violating’’ the GPA, Tsvangirai forgets that he is also bound by provisions of the same GPA and can similarly be sued for failing to meet his part of the bargain.

Before getting to that, let me unpack the so-called ‘‘illegal’’ appointments since Tsvangirai seems impervious to developments and advice which has even come from unlikely sources like ‘‘the only white man from Buhera’’, John Makumbe.

On ambassadors, Tsvangirai has since been snubbed by the same South Africa to whose president he addressed his ill-advised letter, the United Nations and his handlers in the EU, who had long accredited and have since indicated they accept the ambassadors deployed by President Mugabe.

More so, it has been pointed out to Tsvangirai that the ambassadors were not appointed but were simply redeployed since they are career diplomats, and that communication between countries is conducted through the ministry of foreign affairs not party leaders.

On provincial governors, Tsvangirai is not being truthful because in the letter that was drafted by MDC leader Prof Arthur Mutambara and co-signed by the three principals earlier this year, Tsvangirai agreed that the issue of the appointment of provincial governors would be dealt with after the lifting of the illegal economic sanctions. This letter was part of the report that President Zuma presented to the Troika, in Tsvangirai’s presence, at the 30th Sadc Summit in Windhoek, Namibia in August.

Then on judges, we all know President Mugabe acts on the recommendations of the Judicial Services Commission, and the judicial appointments in question were done above board.

In a bid to bolster his case, Tsvangirai even claims he should have been consulted on appointments made in August 2008, when he was in self-imposed exile in Botswana, as he played shy bride to joining government.

Now back to Tsvangirai’s intention to sue.

The MDC-T leader should know that he and his party also have obligations under the GPA. That agreement is not all about getting concessions from Zanu-PF.

In fact, the raison de’tre of the GPA is fostering an environment of political and socio-economic stability in readiness for elections. That environment can only prevail in the absence of the West’s illegal economic sanctions regime.

It’s no secret that Tsvangirai grovelled for the sanctions.

There is evidence galore that he not only called for the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe, but that his party’s legal department helped draft the ruinous US sanctions law, the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Ac that cut our lines of credit to multilateral lending institutions and foisted us with an artificial investment risk tag.

The sanctions brought untold suffering to millions of innocent people, many of whom died of otherwise preventable diseases like cholera and the opportunistic infections stemming from HIV and Aids simply because the Government’s capacity to fund the social services had been curtailed. Thousands of workers lost their jobs due to capital flight as companies closed and others downsized. Pensioners lost their savings to hyperinflation, a development that saw the British government airlift its pensioners resident in Zimbabwe to safety after their pensions and savings were rendered worthless by sanctions-induced hyperinflation.

We use foreign currencies today, for the simple reason that the sanctions claimed the Zim-dollar.

Surely Tsvangirai’s role in inviting economic war on the people in collusion with outsiders is a more serious crime than the alleged ‘illegal’’ appointments that even his own allies grudgingly acknowledge were above board.

As such Zimbabweans have a genuine case against Tsvangirai and his handlers for the losses, both material and human, suffered due to the illegal sanctions regime. Surely if Tsvangirai can sue over appointments, then President Mugabe and Zanu-PF can sue him for reneging on his GPA obligation to lobby for the lifting of sanctions and his continued dalliance with pirate radio stations condemned by the GPA.

While it may be difficult to sue Tsvangirai as an individual over the sanctions and while some may say the buck stops with westerners, it’s possible — once the locus standi has been established — to sue his handlers for imposing the sanctions with him and his party as first and second respondents, alternatively the suit can be against the MDC with Tsvangirai as respondent.

Trinity Engineering boss, Senator Aguy Clement Georgias has shown the way by suing the British government. Senator Georgias was, in 2005, barred by British immigration authorities from transiting through London to New York where he was to receive an international award on behalf of his company, Trinity Engineering.

The case, which opened at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in London on March 14 2008, has since been referred to the European Court of First Instance with Senator Georgias vowing to pursue it to its logical conclusion.

The case against the sanctions is bolstered by the fact that they were imposed outside the purview of the UN and in violation of multilateral pacts like the Cotonou Agreement; and as such they are a violation of international law?

Legal experts say the other option would be for Zimbabweans to come together in a class action against Tsvangirai and his MDC-T.

They can sue MDC-T and Tsvangirai for: Firstly, “specific performance” since the party and its leader called for the sanctions, they need to act specifically by calling for the removal of the sanctions. This is what the MDC-T has stubbornly refused to do despite being signatories to the GPA that bids them to condemn the sanctions.

Secondly, people can sue for damages but this would require quantifying the damage wrought by the sanctions and the specific losses suffered by the litigants.

This is where, in my opinion, the anti-sanctions lobby has been faltering.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why the government has not engaged economists and accountants to do a quantitative analysis of the effects of the sanctions over the past decade, which analysis can be compiled into a dossier to be used by our own ministerial team when it engages the EU and the US, and by our brothers in Sadc when they take the fight to western capitals?

The dossier can be used to expose the lies peddled by westerners and their lackeys about the sanctions.

I throw this challenge to Zanu-PF. Be scientific in your approach to the anti-sanctions drive. Present documentary evidence of the ruin the sanctions have caused. Such a dossier will also prove invaluable at election time.

Tsvangirai be careful, very careful what you wish for.

caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw