There is so much discord about who really wields power and much politicking about the whole matter is threatening to rip apart the fragile unity government, with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF plotting to pull out of the marriage of convenience, citing irreconcilable differences with his long-time rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Zanu PF is reported to be all out, amassing support countrywide, setting the stage for a bruising electoral showdown with its arch enemy, Tsvangirai — a battle that is likely to turn bloody and chaotic while the latter is accusing the country’s former ruling party of seeking to bulldoze the country into a tumultuous election without electoral reforms in place.
It may be possible that Zanu PF is just buying time, sensing its ailing leader is faltering and could fall at any time. The party faces a leadership crisis ahead of the plebiscite scheduled to take place later in 2013, certainly not in 2012 as Zanu PF bigwigs would want the nation to believe.
It is now widely accepted that the party cannot possibly win any free and fair election, but will once again lobby for another unity government in the hope of keeping its leader afloat as they await nature to take its course.
But then, what would happen if something were to happen to the President right at this minute? Possibly, the nation will be plunged into a bloody civil war, with Zanu PF politicians drawing swords against each other, seeking to find out who really should find his way to State House.
Factions that have been reported in the independent media as secretly conniving against each other will come out clean and Zanu PF willbe fragmented into miserable shreds, degenerating into the inevitable demise of the liberation party.
All the same, the current lame unity government should take note of this and gear up for a worst case scenario. While all the good things may be said about the present government, it is fair to note that someone was deceived by the political compromise that led to the formation of the government of national unity.
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First, Tsvangirai was made to believe that it was going to be a stroll in the park, having equal powers with Mugabe, but that was not to be.
Mugabe is in control even if people say the army has taken over. The state media sings every moment about Gushungo being at the helm and never have we heard them bragging about the army being in power or stating their recognition of the PM as the President’s equal partner in running the country’s affairs.
Even if the army may be giving instructions to Mugabe on how to run the country or vice-versa, the fact still remains: Zanu PF is in charge and Tsvangirai is being sidelined in all serious governance issues.
The Global Political Agreement, from the outset, indicated that the security sectors, including the military and the police, would execute their duties in a non-partisan manner, but alas; that only exists on paper.
MDC activists and politicians are constantly arrested and most are rotting in remand prisons across the country on trumped up charges while calls by the PM for justice to prevail have been to no avail.
The entire government of national unity was a calculated ploy to deceive the victors in the March 2008 elections — a well-orchestrated move to keep losers in power and avoid a legal backlash for alleged crimes committed against humanity.
BY JEFFREY MOYO CHARI
