Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tsvangirai & Mugabe: Impossible Characters

SADC is meeting for the umpteenth time to discuss the Zimbabwe situation. This time President Mugabe is holding hands with President Mothlanthe and not Thabo Mbeki. The SADC heads are meeting behind closed doors - once again - to thrash out a solution to the Zimbabwe problem. Once again, nothing will come out of this meeting, and President Mugabe will have free reign to do as he pleases in Zimbabwe.

The problem here is that President Mugabe detests Tsvangirai with passion, and until those two combatants are separated, nothing will come out of any unity talks. You see, politics is more than just about ideology and policy; it's also about personalities. Mugabe detests Tsvangirai; Mutambara detests Tsvangirai; Thabo Mbeki detests Tsvangirai; Kgalema Mothlanthe detests Tsvangirai; Jakaya KIkwete detests Tsvangirai; Armando Guebuza detests Tsvangirai; Tsvangirai's only ally is President Khama of Botswana - and he's a political nonentity.
When there is such a personality clash, then it's better - for the benefit of the nation - to bring in a different personality as head.

In Apartheid South Africa, it became obvious to the Nats that PW Botha would never concede to majority rule. That's why they roped in the relatively malleable, FW DE Clerk. It was the malleable De Klerk who chaperoned majority rule into South Africa.
If "Die Grote Krokodil" PW Botha had remained at the head of the Nats, with the support of his hard-line supporters in the security services (Constant Viljoen, Magnus Malan, Kobie Coetzee, Jannie Geldenhuys) then we will still be fighting for majority rule down South.

It's time for far-seeing MDC officials to survey the situation, take notes, and then come to their senses. For the benefit of Zimbabwe, they have to replace Morgan Tsvangirai. The opposition does not belong to him alone. Another leader will then be able to take his rightful place as PM in a unity government. Then we could sort out Zimbabwe's problems.

James Chikonamombe

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