Whereas in the sport of mud-wrestling the emphasis is on entertainment rather than debilitating an opponent, in the Zimbabwean mud pit, the grapplers are engaged in mortal combat. The mud is so viscous no one can wade out of it.
The Global Political Agreement (GPA), on the basis of which the GNU was set up, was supposed to be an instrument with which to return the country to normality.
When it was signed in September 2008 Zimbabwe had gone through a crucible; hundreds of people had been murdered in the run-up to the presidential run-off of the previous June.
The Year 2008 has become the worst year in the history of the country in terms of the people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. Economic historians said the economy had sunk to 1950s levels.
The populace was facing starvation in both urban and rural areas. Empty supermarket shelves became symbols of the total collapse of our economy. The food shortages were also a result of the collapse of commercial agriculture — the mainstay of the country — which happened since the land reform exercise had been implemented chaotically beginning at the turn of the millennium.
Zimbabwe had reached a crossroads; the international community rejected the results of the presidential run-off poll and the country couldn’t move forward. It was with a huge sigh of relief that Zimbabweans welcomed the news of the signing of the GPA. It at least promised a new beginning. It set out a roadmap on how the country could move forward.
A people-driven constitution-making process was to be the first step followed by a referendum on the new constitution and then a free and fair election to come up with a government that would be recognised at home and abroad.
But the process has completely gone off the rails and plunged us into the mud pit we find ourselves in today.
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There are two main grapplers in the pit, Zanu PF and MDC-T; the first is as clean as any mud wrestler can be while the other is the perennial underdog: the David who has not the fighting chance against Goliath.
Violence which drove the international community, particularly the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), to act in 2008 has resurfaced with a vengeance, threatening to surpass all past levels. It has written finis on an effort at national healing, reconciliation and integration, a process that was another cornerstone of the GPA.
The violence has thrown us back two years. Once again no one is safe in their homes. Marauding Zanu PF activists are rampaging across the land destroying everybody and everything before them. Like in the past, they have all the state apparatus at their disposal; they are not just above the law, they are a law unto themselves. The police, whose duty it is to protect the weak and maintain law and order, have abdicated their responsibility and, in a cynical twist, have perfected the art of turning the victims into the aggressors.
But there must be some grand plan behind all this. May be Zanu PF thinks if it bludgeons the MDC-T into submission, the latter may quit the GNU leaving it to take over all the functions of government. When this happens, Zanu PF would then call a sham election which it will win. Obviously the MDC-T would be only too aware of this stratagem and would never quit the GNU.
What we are seeing now is nascent resistance from the MDC-T. Reports indicate that some members of the MDC-T are beginning to fight back out of frustration. They cannot expect to win, because they have no police or army backing them. What is frightening is the possibility of the situation getting out of hand leading to the escalation of violence.
The government has become dysfunctional. President Robert Mugabe has not returned from his annual leave and the extent of his ailment is open to conjecture. So, cabinet is not meeting and crucial decisions have been shelved. The country has ground to a halt.
Mudslinging, naturally, has become part of the game. A look just at one issue — civil servants’ salaries — demonstrates the extent to which the government has become bogged down in the quagmire.
One party promises diamonds money to up the salaries of civil servants, the other says the money does not exist.
It turns out the whole civil service remuneration issue has become a political issue. President Mugabe hoped to score a political point anticipating the elections he says will be held this year.
Zanu PF chiefs of spin are accusing the MDC-T of unwillingness to increase the civil servants’ remuneration. They think the public workers can be so gullible as to believe them.
It also turns out that Finance minister Tendai Biti was right in saying diamonds money is not finding its way into government coffers. He has called for an investigation into the way money from diamonds is being handled; it is within his rights to do so as the holder of the Finance portfolio.
But the resistance he is getting from Zanu PF cabinet ministers points to something sinister that Zanu PF is doing. Questions have always been raised on how diamonds from Chiadzwa are being auctioned and whether the proceeds have not been siphoned off by corrupt Zanu PF officials.
There will never be any movement forward if government continues to operate this way; Zimbabwe will remain literally stuck in the mud while Zimbabweans watch with increasing frustration.
Sadly, the contest has been left only to the two wrestlers; the other political parties seem too insignificant to intervene. Zapu’s top priority seems to be to re-establish itself as a full-fledged national political party so it would rather watch the contest from the sidelines than intervene.
The battle of the two professors is getting nuttier by the day and may send the party reeling into oblivion. Simba Makoni’s role in Zimbabwean politics has faded after being dented by claims by one of his former lieutenants that he was a Zanu PF project.
And now the million dollar question: how to get the country out of the mud pit?
