There is no perfect political union, but unity is necessary

Posted to the web: 21/01/2009 21:58:18

THE deadlock in talks between the Zanu PF and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations to push for a government of national unity (GNU) is a sum total of experiences from previous GNUs. It is also an instructive to all of us Zimbabweans about the challenges that lie ahead in terms of consensus mobilisation within government.

It is a shame that positions have become more important than the people’s lives and one can only hope that events will not conspire to take the initiative out of Zanu PF and the MDC-T and plunge the country into unimaginable suffering as Zimbabweans reach their wits end. In a politically volatile and desperate environment, no one is safe and desperate situations are known to call for desperate measures. We are sitting on the proverbial powder keg.

While we need to learn from other people across Africa and the world at large about finding solutions to our problems, we know as a nation what we need to do to in order to redeem ourselves in the most trying moments. We should never pretend for a while that a single group or political opinion or formation has ever been enough for our country.

President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai need each other as Arthur Mutambara observed, and more importantly, we need to find each other once more as Zimbabweans. There ought to be room for all of us to develop our country.

The liberation war of the 1960s and 1970s was won by the ordinary Shona, Ndebele, Tonga, Kalanga, Zanla and Zipra forces united to end decades of unjust, white minority rule. We lost that spirit of unity when we started fighting each other for positions soon after 1980, turning the same guns that liberated us against each other. The brutal killings of innocents in Matabeleland and the Midlands, as we know, did not end until 1987 when the late Joshua Nkomo agreed to united his PF-Zapu with Mugabe’s Zanu to form Zanu PF.

Some would argue that the political settlement of 1979 which involved the white supremacist leader Ian D Smith, Nkomo and Mugabe, and the Unity Accord of 1987 involving Mugabe and Nkomo taught Zimbabweans lessons about partnerships in government and the inherent pitfalls of such political alliances. Therein lie the seeds of the success and failure of the current talks between Zanu PF and the MDC -- fear of being swallowed.

However, the idea of letting bygones be bygones after political conflict was a model that South Africans further developed through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and that is what might hold the key to the possibility of success for the current talks between Zanu PF and the MDCs.

If amnesty was good for the white Rhodesians in 1980, it should be good for Zimbabweans today. Those involved in Gukurahundi atrocities, Operation Murambatsvina and the June 27 presidential run-off violence are naturally very worried about being made to account at foreign and domestic tribunals, so the talks ought to address these issues to close a chapter as we did in 1980.

The current Zanu PF and the MDC comprise of former Zanla, Zipra and white Rhodesian elements that participated or were in the background of the GNUs in 1979 and 1987. These people know what worked and what did not and they can appraise the efficacy of the GNU that is being proposed in Zimbabwe today through the SADC mediation on the basis of understanding the actors involved.

The only hope for Zimbabwe now is that Zanu PF has not decided to go it alone and form a substantive government without the MDC because that would escalate our problems to a new level. At the same time, the MDC is still available for discussions because they understand that their future is better in a proper GNU than outside.

The stalling of the crunch talks is a nightmare from which Zanu PF and the MDC-T should wake up from before it is too late. What does the failure of the talks mean for Zimbabwe? It means that our leaders have not learnt from those African leaders who have travelled the same path before. And if our leaders continue on this current ruinous path, they may very well both miss out on the top prize as Zimbabweans reclaim their destiny.