MDCs digging own graves

Tabani Moyo
September 01, 2011
fist published by Kubatana.net 

The dust of the government’s hollywood lifestyle is refusing to settle down. It cannot settle down especially when the people are living in such a sea of poverty. However, the development has shown beyond reasonable doubt that the MDCs are stuck in an omnibus syndrome to governance. The mimicry politics have taken over the voice of reason as the so called ‘democratic change merchants’ stampede for the gravy train.
I happened to bump into three ministers one from the MDC and two from the MDC-T riding in their new filthy lucre. The windows where lowered, music loud as if to attract attention from the public in the exhibition of a newly acquired status. The status of a polished league of gentlemen/women I guess. I said god forbid. These are not business people who have the leeway to do whatever they want with their profits, but public officials ridding on the poor taxpayers’ hard earned income.

What happened to the so called paragons of virtue, those who saw everything wrong about public officials abusing state funds on luxuries? The virtue seems to have sublimated during the ‘opposition’ times, as the train gets more gravy laced, the elements of virtue are crucified on the altar of public suffrage. As we stand no single minister has declined the offer of these fuel guzzlers, their consciences are clean and their declaration of intent manifest that they are still in a struggle for a better Zimbabwe!

Personally, I don’t have a problem with ZANU PF being implicated in this bangle, we as a people know of its heinous deeds. That’s why the people of Zimbabwe risked limb and life in forming and supporting an alternative vehicle to rid the rot in ZANU PF. It becomes confusing when the line between ZANU PF’s actions and those of the MDCs becomes blurred. 

20 million on luxuries! 

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is set to increase the utility cost of delivering energy. The public hospitals have collapsed, children this summer shall die of mosquito bites, the industry performing below 30%, women failing access basic sanitary facilities and our education system turning into an elitist platform among other things.

With the above cacophony of problems, we have learnt that ZANU PF and the MDCs can actually unite in ‘looting’ from the poor. The current blame shifts between Minister of Transport, Infrastructure Development and Communication Nicholas Goche and the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti should not be tolerated to continue stealing our intellectual space in the papers. The decision to purchase the goodies is a collective one from the cabinet which the three parties are represented. 

In this process there is no room for afterthought. The three parties could not agree at cabinet level on the need to increase civil servants salaries but unanimously agreed to squeeze harder the drying pockets of the taxpayers.


As I stated before such are the pitfalls of proximity to state power it exposes the cravings which were going to manifest themselves soon after the ‘opposition’ takes total control of state power. We are better off with some of these happenings are unfolding at this juncture of our cultivation as a people. The MDCs only got into office two years ago; they are already leaving the lives of movie stars or the English premier soccer stars. One can only remind the MDCs of the calamity of approaching this ‘struggle’ with omnibus gloves. It gives the impression of a false sense of ‘arrival’, a false sense of destiny. The ministers believe, their yearnings have been achieved, hence the need to amass as much as they can before sporadic cabinet reshuffles. These state trappings are dangerous for the same people who came up with these platforms or movements can still do the same and push aside primitive ‘accumulativists’ into political dustbins.
Tabani moyo is reachable at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Commercial radio licenses – beware of wolves in sheep’s skins

By Tabani Moyo

On 27 May 2011 the improperly constituted Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) called for applications for two free- to- air national commercial radio broadcasting services. A national free- to- air national commercial licence refers to a profit making broadcasting entity that transmits an un-encoded signal throughout Zimbabwe.

Notwithstanding the fact that the legality of the board which called for these licenses is heavily disputed, one also needs to examine the wide reaching nature and effect of this call for licenses.
Due to the non-transparent manner in the management of the broadcasting signal administered in this country, chances are high that the smokescreen call for the licenses will become an extension of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)’s monopoly.

For example the Zimpapers stable applied for a license in line with the permanent secretary George Charamba’s advice at the organisation’s strategic retreat held in Nyanga early this year. If Zimpapers is granted the licence, it will fit well into the propaganda manufacturing mills of Zanu PF ahead of the elections which will augur well with the government’s intention to maintain state monopoly of the airwaves.
Given that scenario the BAZ’s impartiality and sincerity will be put to severe test considering that Radio Voice of the People (VOP) which was bombed by ‘unknown persons’ on 29 August 2002, is also among the applicants for the two commercial radio licenses. As for the other applicants, it can be anybody’s guess as to who their sponsors are.
The euphoria and excitement that accompanied the call for the applications in question might at this stage be premature.

be wary
On 6 July 2011, the infamous duo of Tafataona Mahoso and Obert Muganyura who are the BAZ chairperson and chief executive officer respectively, painted a misleading picture on the state of incapacity to regulate the prospective new players in the broadcasting sector.

The duo was quizzed on why BAZ had opted for only two licenses in the category of commercial broadcasting contrary to its submissions to parliament in 2009 that the regulator was going to give priority to community radio stations. Muganyura claimed that the regulator had conducted a survey in 38 centres in Zimbabwe and that those surveyed had said BAZ should prioritise commercial radio stations ahead of community radio broadcasters.

One can only wonder as to whether the survey was ever conducted notwithstanding the methodology that was used during the so-called survey which was conducted in a veil of secrecy.  What criterion was used in determining the 38 centers surveyed and how reflective are they in terms of the nation’s preferences?

In the same meeting Muganyura confirmed that the country has capacity to license 56 community radio stations as per his position and plan submitted to the same Committee in 2009. Why then is Muganyura and his comrades in the Ministry of Information, permanent secretary George Charamba and Minister Webster Shamu reluctant to give the people of Zimbabwe their space to access and disseminate diverse views through their own community radio stations.

the ruse of broadcasting and state security
The paranoid Zanu PF personnel stationed at the Ministry of Information and those at the Zanu PF headquarters have been peddling misleading statements for too long that broadcasting is a state security concern hence the need to keep it tightly controlled as a monopoly. This is a misplaced notion because the people of Zimbabwe know better that broadcasting is a developmental agent which, if freed will positively contribute to our knowledge index and nation building.

Jonathan Moyo, George Charamba, Webster Shamu, Tafataona Mahoso and Obert Muganyura among others of like thinking, should sober up and realize that Zimbabwe is not their private entity but it belongs to its inhabitants. To this reality, they need to wake up and smell the coffee on what’s happening elsewhere – private broadcasters and community radio stations continue to mushroom and proliferate throughout the region and Africa as a whole save for Zimbabwe and Eritrea.

In 2008, for example, the DRC had 41 radio stations and 51 TV stations in Kinshasa alone out of a total of 381 radio stations and between 81 and 93 TV channels throughout the country. In 2006/7 Benin had 73 radio stations while Uganda has more than 120 and Mali 200. South Africa has an aggregate of more than 1000 TV and radio stations combined.

the monitoring incapacity myth
Muganyura argued that the regulator did not call for applications for more licenses because it does not have the capacity to monitor and control the new players in the country.

Everyone knows that this office has become an office of excuses on why it has been failing to issue licenses for new players since 2001. However it never occurred to me that it could one day fall this low and shallow in its deceptive tendencies.

If BAZ does not have capacity to monitor and control new players one will be quick to ask how the government managed to intercept and shut down Capitol Radio on 5 October 2000? How did the government intercept Radio VOP signals leading to the arrest of the radio station’s six trustees in 2006? It equally sobers one’s mind how the same government is intercepting and jamming external radio stations such as Voice of America’s Studio 7, SW Radio Africa and Radio VOP from broadcasting in Zimbabwe. That argument is pedestal.

Zimbabweans are not a gullible lot. All they are asking for is their right to speak and freely express themselves thus fulfilling the founding aspirations of the liberation struggle which the current government is collectively failing to uphold.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Independence: a reality check

By Tabani Moyo

ON APRIL 18, 2011, Zimbabwe turned 31 -- marking three decades of ‘self-rule’ and independence from the white supremacist regime of Ian Smith.

It is imperative for the present generation to introspect on the trials and tribulations that we as a people have experienced and attempt to make a proclamation on the course of direction which we must pursue.

In his 1979 book, Unity and Struggle, Amilcar Cabral said: “We must avoid the obsession of some comrades that everything is spoiled, everything is over if they should leave the posting where they are. Nobody is indispensible in this struggle; we are all needed but nobody is indispensible.

“If someone has to go and goes away and then the struggle is paralysed, it is because the struggle was worthless … this is without mentioning cases of other comrades who think when they are transferred, they are going to die, because they have already established all conditions for working in one spot and are called upon to go to another. What blindness! As if our land were just a little corner! This shows a lack of awareness of the real reason, the aim and characteristics of our struggle.”

Our struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe was not fought by Zanu PF alone. It was Zimbabwe’s struggle for self rule and independence, and all living in it fought and felt it. Its aspirations, hopes and dreams were aimed at ending all forms of discrimination, facilitate equitable access to the country’s resources and the greater enjoyment of a peace of mind which comes with such freedoms. It was never a personal struggle -- each and every man and woman played a part in ensuring that the settler regime was dismantled.

With the coming of independence in 1980, the nation lost its way in the euphoria of the black administration coming into power. We literally surrendered our rights into the hands of other men to define and chart the course of our destiny. In this, we allowed man and woman to build fiefdoms and empires of immortality aimed at self preservation as opposed to serving the nation

Personalities grew in stature and the national image dwindled. As Cabral clearly stated in his historical narratives, we need to deal with the ‘irreplaceables’ in our body polity.

The Southern African Development Community through its organ Troika on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation seems to have struck the correct code. What it did on March 31, 2011, was to remind the political leaders of Zimbabwe on the virtues of the liberation struggle which they were fast forgetting.

Impliedly, the resolutions seem to point to the fact that the concept of sovereignty comes with responsibilities for the state actors.

The main challenge which confronts Zimbabwe today is too much investment in personalities. We are fast moving towards creating cults in our political leaders. Our artists are now relegated to dedicating their creative prowess in praise singing. It’s like the country pulse at one moment is on pause as dance, song, poetry and other forms of art congest media prime time slots in a bid to immortalise the mortals. Truly, these are not the founding principles on which the liberation struggle was waged. What the country fought for was the freedom to choose and other freedoms including living in peace.

Zanu PF has lost its legitimacy and mandate to see through the aspirations of Zimbabweans. The MDC factions, on the other hand, seem to be trapped in the political methodologies and facing challenges in interpreting the stage at which we have reached in the journey of the liberation struggle. This is a stage of understanding the realities of the nation, managing to lead the nation from the realities and providing practical solutions to these realities.

There is need for an overhaul of our politics, drifting away from the personification process towards a configuration of Zimbabwe where every man and woman is equal.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Zanu PF listening to its own voices

 TABANI MOYO | HARARE - Jan 26 2011 17:13
The political dust of 2010 is refusing to settle down. It won’t settle any time soon if 2011 is to proceed the way the President of the Republic, Robert Mugabe, has started.

He returned home from his annual sabbatical, this time he had taken a break in the Republic of Singapore. He returned on January 23, 2011 and was quick to announce that the general election would take place this year with or without a new constitutional order.

Having spent a good month away from the political temperatures of the troubled south of Sahara republic, I think the President was missing a good slogan. 

That he has the powers to dissolve Parliament, even the powers to cause war or peace is nigh.

Elections in this country will not come that easily given the cascading regional and continental effects attached to them.

The main problem which seems to be a default impediment in Zanu PF is that it is listening to its own voices and celebrating the “melodies” of the same.

The danger associated with such an approach is that it usually leads to sad endings. It has the ability to negate the voice of reason and proceed on the dangerous grounds of a false preparedness for an election as announced by the party leader upon his return from holiday at the airport.

It always rattles my thinking why a party with a huge pool of academics continues to operate on the margins of the same mistakes at the turn of every electoral season.

This is a sad notion. Electoral readiness in Zanu PF’s language means it has activated its functionaries of violence against the supporters of its opponents. 

I have not heard or seen any attempt at winning the hearts of the electorate except from Vice- President Joice Mujuru.

The rest of the party functionaries are busy issuing threats against the electorate. Times are changing. Violent campaigns are a liability in present-day politics.

This explains why we have every reason to be worried when the media reports outline that a terror campaign has been triggered in Budiriro, Mbare and other suburbs by the soldiers.

We are concerned why a party which has recited with vehemence its readiness for an election will unleash the uniformed forces on a people.

The army’s role is to defend the country from foreign invasion and neutralising forces of aggression, not descending on the citizens it is supposed to protect.

If the country is not at war and the force feels underutilised, it has a role to maintain the country’s roads, and social service through assisting in the development of the nation by providing manpower in the construction of dams, schools and hospitals among other things.

Unfortunately the party has been stuck with the old order politics of congesting civilian activities with the uniformed forces as a power retention mechanism. It’s stuck in the old politics that high military and uniformed forces visibility in communities is synonymous with party invincibility.

This is why the soldiers are reported in the media to be terrorising citizens and the self-styled war veterans reported to be doing the same to the electorate.
In this matrix of Zanu PF confusion on what the election will bring to its doorstep given the developments in other nations, the facts of the matter will remain as follows:

The comical constitution- making process will only end if ever it does come to an end around November – December 2011 or spill into 2012;

The afore-stated prevailing, 2012 will be a year of political contests as parties will be reacting to the outcome of the constitution-making and strategising for the election; and

The probable date for the next election can only be early 2013 or late 2012.

There is no merit of thought in Zanu PF calling for an election this year given the fact that it has many options to test its popularity before an election.

These options rest in the referendum and by-elections. If Zanu PF cares to listen to other voices outside its own in the likes of the Mbare “Chimurenga” Choir self-praise songs, then you will be rest assured that there is no election this year contrary to the President’s pronouncements on the 23rd upon his arrival at the airport.

However, like other suicidal beings you cannot rule out a nosedive from that side of the earth. The “academics” will read what they want to hear and proceed tracking the corpse like that defiant fly only to be buried with the very same corpse.

Whether Zanu PF is going to come up with sound policies in its manifesto or not, the country is tired of a political hegemony.

This has been expressed at every election with the last one calling for regional and continental intervention through the establishment of the GNU.

It is therefore one thing to call for an election and another to sustain the pressure which comes with such a call. It is no longer the President’s prerogative alone to call for an election.

The region has a huge stake in it. There must be sufficient evidence of compliance with its guidelines on elections.

It must also be noted that the MDCs should not be equally comfortable with the protest votes they have been receiving over time given the fact that they are now part of government.

The way the issue of the civil service has been handled leaves a lot to be desired among other things. It only takes a relay of mistakes on their part for the urban centres to be apathetic.

We remain guided by the dictates of time, the best way of divining the fortunes of the future.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com 

Charamba — what misleading statements

TABANI MOYO - Nov 21 2010 16:50 

Permanent secretaries of media and information across the globe generally mislead. Zimbabwe’s Information and Publicity permanent secretary George Charamba is no exception.

It’s a virtue which he has perfected over time.

In his submissions to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Communication Technology, he presented his opinion as fact that the current broadcasting infrastructure does not allow for new broadcasting entries in an industry which is characterised by state monopoly through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-11-21-charamba-what-misleading-statements

The need for a political rebirth

TABANI MOYO | HARARE - Nov 10 2010 20:22

There is a chilling debate which is going in circles in Zimbabwe on whether the country will be subjected to the next general election next year or not.

President Robert Mugabe fired the first salvos when he made a public decree that the elections will be held early next year so that his party can kick the MDC out of government.

He was responding to the MDC moves calling upon the United Nations, European Union and South Africa not to recognise the appointments of ambassadors by President Mugabe.

The cold war’s merits and/or demerits will constitute another debate for another forum.

The new frenzy on the need to hold elections next year raises more questions than answers. The two political parties are in agreement that Zimbabwe is ripe for an election next year.

President Mugabe impresses that he wants to stop MDC “nonsense” in government whilst the MDC posits that an election will see them gaining state power as Premier Morgan Tsvangirai was once quoted in the press arguing that he had agreed with Mugabe that the loser should accept the results forthwith.

I hold a position that if an election is to be held next year, it will be a symbolic election aimed at attaining a ritual process which entails the sacrifice of innocent blood without a befitting reflection of the voting patterns.

In such a case one will ask if it is necessary for the nation to be subjected to such a symbolic process which does not lead to any meaningful change in the people’s lives.

Within this realm, the political order would have taken the people of Zimbabwe for granted that they are going for an election when the result, on the other hand, of that same sham will be maintaining the status quo.

Is going for an election after the expiry of the GPA wrong?

The most pressing question under such a scenario will be whether the political parties are wrong to argue for an election after the expiry of the GPA or not.

The answer is never simple but the most ideal situation is that of dragging the political parties in the government of the day kicking and screaming to work together and ensure meaningful reforms to our body politic rather than subjecting the populace to another political nightmare of an election which will lead to another negotiated settlement.

Why then go through the terror of an election when all the signs and intents show that there will be a negotiated settlement after the elections if the institutions that run the election are not transformed?

The political parties should negotiate before this looming election to extend the life of the GPA to 2013 and attempt as much as is possible to sanitise the national institutions running the elections before the next plebiscite.

If one were to land from space today, s/he will be forgiven to think that the political parties have since realised that they can’t work together yesterday.

They will insist that the solution to this incompatible set-up is the holding of an election next year, deliberately forgetting that the reason for the set-up of the present- day government was due to an inconclusive election.

The political order holds that the people of Zimbabwe are already on the touch line anticipating for the next orgy of political contestations. In this country contestations are not founded on a battle for ideas — but they also sublimate into organised physical “socio-politic-militant” orientation.

There is no priced answer for anyone who attempts to answer whether an average person in Zimbabwe is ready for an election or not. The rhetoric of ending the span of the GNU next year is non-attainable though it is the most ideal one under normal circumstances.

It is a virtue of insanity to believe that the country is ready to hold a national election when it is theatrically failing to hold a genuine constitution-making process.

The pretence to hold an election by the political actors as a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis is tantamount to sanctioned state barbarism targeted at killing its people.

It’s an attempt to expose the people of Zimbabwe to the June 27 2008 organised state killings.

As a people of Zimbabwe the state has the role to protect its own. In this case an election at this moment is not one of them.

The political nonsense that is stealing national debate of enriching people’s lives should be stopped forthwith from both sides of the political divide.

It therefore smacks of hypocrisy that the president of the republic calls for an election when the present-day

electoral groundwork is characterised by the following:

• ·         A chaotic voters’ roll, littered with ghost voters

• ·         The impartiality of the electoral body being questionable

• ·         The muted stagnancy in the security service sector reforms

• ·         Single party domineering on the state media

• ·         Unaccounted for funds flowing from our precious minerals, which have the capacity to fund insurgent activities

• ·         Limited information of the number of youth graduates from the Border Gezi training centres who can easily engage in acts of fanning violence at the click of a button

• ·         Unreformed national institutions

But are the political parties ready for an election, notwithstanding the fact that the people of Zimbabwe do not want them anyway? I for one strongly hold that the political parties are not ready on the following grounds:

• ·         There are better platforms for them to measure their respective political parties’ support such as the referendum and the long overdue by-elections which are likely going to take place next year

• ·         It threatens party cohesion. The respective party vultures will use the opportunity to partially address the succession politics through jostling for factional representation in Parliament.

• ·         The scary picture of the last abortive election of June 27 2008 is still haunting party supporters specifically MDC supporters in the rural constituencies such as Manicaland and Masvingo

• ·         The threats of cutting short the terms of office of the serving legislature remain a threat for Zanu PF specifically and double-barrel candidate fielding threat for the MDC.

• ·         The “constitution making process” provided a clear indication for the people of Zimbabwe that “anything” can happen and those who terrorised the people during the June 27 2008 inconclusive election took centre stage in organising chaos during the so-called constitution-making process.

If any political party insists on holding the election under the current electoral system, then it should go on a solo expedition reminiscent of the one-man presidential runoff.

The horror of state-orchestrated violence of June 27 2008 should never be allowed to recur again in our national politics.

This is what the average person holds that if these institutions which are supposed to guarantee their safety are not transformed they will watch helplessly again as terror devours their beloved ones.

We therefore need a constitutional surgical process that will usher in a political dispensation that is tolerant and responsive to the people’s needs.

This way we can safely migrate from the transition to a political set-up that is legitimate through an election that is under the supervision of Sadc, the African Union and the international community.

Above all, the political order of the day should start appreciating the type of messaging and conditioning they are preparing this country on, that we as a people will never know of peace but perpetual party line conflict.

The political parties, which are a mythical creation anyway, are going to subdue the country into perennial combat as long as the parties exist.

This nonsense must be stopped — we are tired of it. When these political parties “chose” to work together they knew very well what they were getting themselves into.

One can therefore only conclude by calling upon the political leaders of the day to stop exposing the nation to dangers of organised killings, abductions and torture under the guise of holding an election with predetermined results.

The country is tired of the political leaders pretending to be holding an election when they are not.

A proper election is run by strong institutions in an enabling environment. Zimbabwe deserves peace and stability.

Above all, we can’t be a barren country which keeps on bothering other nations on how to run our own affairs through our actions of poor leadership and non-adherence to the documents which we authored ourselves. Our system needs a rebirth.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

No more plastic balls

By Tabani Moyo

Nhamo Mhiripiri, in his short story entitled No More Plastic Balls creatively narrates the pains of transformation from childhood to adulthood. He captures the growing pains of young boy ‘caged’ by the strict rules of his household – one day the boy broke the chains, tasted freedom and died with it.

After what seems to be a land slide victory for President Mugabe at the 30th SADC summit in Windhoek, Namibia, one need to unveil the missing links in the MDC’s political approach, where it is coming from and where it is headed to avoid the same fate befalling it at the next regional grouping meeting in 2011.

This is on condition that the 30 days ultimatum issued for the resolution of the outstanding issues will lapse without consensus amongst the parties vis-à-vis the SADC Troika on Defence and Security failing to put closure to the ‘outstanding issues’.

As a matter of fact, the MDC is losing the momentum and goodwill it had gained after the 11 March 2007 calamity when the Save Zimbabwe Campaigners were bushed in Highfields forcing the African Union, through SADC to intervene and mediate in resolving the Zimbabwean crisis.

The following key issues should be dealt with:

• It should start building political activity that is aimed at throwing surprises to ZANU PF so that it gains ground for bargaining

• Fill in the missing gaps in its politics through going back to its founding documents, The National Working People’s Convention of February 1999

• The need to maintain and repair bruised ties with its founding alliances

• Moving away from the myth that its ready for an election, its a reactionary statement to ZANU PF’s equal myth that it is also ready for an election

I read of the ‘verbal war’ amongst the MDCs and Zanu PF on who is slowing down the full implementation of the GPA soon after the SADC meeting with sadness. ZANU PF’s stance was clearly building on its political resolution of its congress held on the 11th of December 2009 that it will stall any progress if the MDC does not call for the removal of sanctions. This is coming after the same Zanu PF left the MDCs moving in circles after throwing ‘songs/jingle’ on the national broadcaster.

Its a pity the MDC doesn’t have any political activity in place to force ZANU PF to give in to its demands. So the MDC will be left whimpering back to SADC calling for its interventions. This is rather sad given the fact that ZANU PF left the summit having convinced the regional grouping that its one of the towering figures on the region with documented political history in the grouping’s liberation credentials. The new chairperson Pohamba and his SWAPO have a clear position on its support for ZANU PF.

The onus therefore lies in the MDC to strengthen its structures and formulating democratic and peaceful activities that will force ZANU PF to rule the country through negotiation, rather than the current unilateral governance style. This is given the fact that ZANU PF is working in a reverse chronological mode – its goal clear, to kick the MDC out of government through testing its capacity to stand its ground. The responses by the MDC on the other hand are showing that its only reacting but not managing to match the challenge.

This is irrespective of the fact that the people of Zimbabwe gave the movement the mandate to be in office, ZANU PF is showing its adversaries that it can do it with or without the mandate of the people. It therefore calls for strong leadership to embark on strategic political activities that neutralises such a hegemony. This is not done through issuing a gamut of statements to the press but the opposite is true, when the press pick up the stories from a systematic political campaign that seeks to move away from the rather intangible concepts of change to delivering real change to the people’s lives.

Revisiting the working people’s convention

If one is to measure the performance of the MDC in government, s/he has to benchmark it with the declaration of the Working People’s Convention of February 1999. This is the declaration which tasked the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) with the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It is therefore imperative for the movement to self introspect and reset its buttons in line with what it committed itself to, namely:

I. The writing of a people’s constitution be initiated with immediate effect through a constitutional commission not based on presidential/partisan appointment, but defined by and accountable to a conference of representatives of elected, civil and other social groups

II. A peoples’ constitution as a reflection of a national value system should be accompanied by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with the unresolved aspects of our past that hinders national integration.

III. The right to minimum standard of health inputs (food, water, shelter) and health care be defined and entrenched in the constitution, guaranteed and funded on an equitable basis by the state through its mobilisation of national resources.

IV. Mechanisms should be put in place to equitable and efficiently distribute public, private and household resources for education to enhance the quality of education and to review the education curriculum and support services provided to better prepare children with skills needed to tap the economic and employment opportunities in the next millennium

V. A housing policy should be developed that integrates housing development across the country, matches community efforts and resources with state, employer and institutional resources.

VI. Media freedom should be enshrined in the constitution, supported by an independent Media Commission and by laws providing for public rights to access to information and for curtailment of government control over interference in the media.

The six (6) randomly picked from the 15 resolutions of the convention glaringly shows that the document is gathering dust in the mind of its authors. The resolutions address issuesunder the armpits of the MDC controlled ministries except the Media.

Our health system is not working. Our beloved ones are dying daily, like flies due to the lack of expertise and the cost of accessing the system. The same is true with our education system. The students are half backed, to those still managing to access it whilst the educators are highly disgruntled. Housing remains a distant dream.

The constitution making process is a fallacy with the drivers of the process pretending to write the country’s supreme law. In essence, the political parties are campaigning to the people of Zimbabwe so that they reiterate their manifesto positions rather than facilitating for a platform for the people to air their view.

Guided by the founding principles rather than principals, the MDC can start building on a lasting political activities that bring real change to the people of Zimbabwe than reacting on daily basis to ZANU PF’s political drill.

Where are the founding alliances?

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and ZIMRIGHTS were the mass based organisations which were at the conception stages of the MDC.

The onus is on the MDC to appreciate that alliances work for its collective good and stop viewing the alliance members as enemies because they insist on the founding principles. ZANU PF taught the MDC a historical lesson at the just ended summit that it might differ with its alliances in the region but when push comes to shove, what brought them together takes precedence over differences.

This is the time for the MDC to mend its ties with the founding alliance members and forge genuine processes that are aimed at reviving the commitment to the national working people’s convention which is supposed to come up with lasting political activism both during and after the inclusive government

Ready for an election or politicking

There has been a lot of grand standing pertaining to the Zimbabwe’s election being held next year, 2011. Broadly the three political parties are not ready for polls in 2011. Specifically the MDC is not ready for an election next year basing on the following scenarios:

• It cuts again the tenure of the legislature before end of office

• It subjects the party to primary elections which in themselves are nerve threatening to the internal cohesion vis-a-vis the party’s congress/conference in the same year

• The institutions that are supposed to safeguard transparent and free elections are not yet transformed

• Its fast facing disgruntlement from the founding members such as the teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers and the broader civil service which to this date still earns allowances of less than USD200 when school fees in government institutions are ranging around USD 700 per semester.

Having noted a wide range of issues affecting which confronts the MDC today, one can only impress on the party that the era of plastic balls is gone. Survival in this highly contest state arena calls of deliberate efforts towards coming up with political activities to confront ZANU PF at every turn and stopping the attitude of running to mom SADC like cry babies without matching the opponent on home ground.

Tabani Moyo is a journalist based in Harare. He can be contacted on rebeljournalist@yahoo.com