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Fears about Mutambara's entry into mainstream politics
Phillip Pasirayi
March 15, 2006

PROFESSOR Arthur AGO Mutambara’s entry into mainstream politics a few weeks ago, let alone his inaugural speech as the pro-Senate president of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has raised a lot of questions than answers regarding the future of opposition politics in Zimbabwe.

As a Zimbabwean academic-activist currently domiciled in the United Kingdom I have met people who celebrate Mutambara because of his sound academic background, having being schooled at both the University of Zimbabwe and University of Oxford. Despite the sound academic Curriculum Vitae (CV) some sceptics regard Mutambara merely as a political opportunist who has seen an opening in a splintered opposition and seized the moment.

My assertion is that because of a highly iniquitous and intolerant political culture that does not respect academic credentials in Zimbabwe, Mutambara’s entry into politics, moreso through the Welshman Ncube-led pro-Senate faction is going to work to the disadvantage of the shrewd former student leader. The research that was conducted by non-governmental organisations such as Crisis Coalition (CC) and the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) reflected that the majority of the people of Zimbabwe were opposed to the Senate elections. The outcome of this research was confirmed by the voter apathy that characterised the elections.

The number of people who turned up at Morgan Tsvangirai’s anti-Senate rallies and subsequent statements made by the churches, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) opposing the Senate elections can also be used as a measure of the level of people’s disappointment with the Senate elections held in November, which the faction that Mutambara leads participated in.

Many commentators who have written about the MDC split have not been able to lay bare the fact that Mutambara no matter how gifted academically and politically , his contribution to opposition politics will be ineffective at least for now and in the foreseeable future.

If not careful the fiery former student leader will be less effective and risks going into political oblivion. Mutambara defines his political project as "the delegitimisation" of Zanu PF and embarking on a mass mobilisation struggle to unseat President Robert Mugabe’s government. In the interviews that Mutambara has given to the press so far he has said that he admires Tsvangirai and accords him the respect as MDC founder President. It is surprising to many that Mutambara sounds so articulate in his Pan-Africanist, anti-British, anti-American and other social justice niceties that Zimbabweans have been bombarded with by President Robert Mugabe in the last few years.

In his first week in office as leader of the pro-Senate faction, Mutambara has shown a lack of understanding of MDC ideology of social democracy which emphasises justice, equality and freedom. The reason why Zimbabwe is experiencing a deep-seated crisis is not because the international community has betrayed us but that upon attainment of independence in 1980 we placed too much faith in President Mugabe who to us was a leader committed to social and economic progress.

The problem with MDC at the moment is not that its leaders are opposed to land redistribution or that the party will surrender the country back to the former colonial master as soon as it assumes power. These are fictitious stories that have been peddled by the Zanu PF government to justify its ill-conceived policies and to de-legitimise the MDC. By attacking the US, Britain and the European Union, Mutambara must be careful not to play to the gallery and thereby rendering himself illegitimate both at home and abroad. Because of the critical humanitarian crisis that confronts us as a nation we need friends, not only in Africa but even beyond as long as we are able to define the parameters of the friendship. Zimbabweans do not eat the empty rhetoric of Pan-Africanism and will not accept proposals to de-link with the most industrialised world which currently is doing so much to ameliorate their humanitarian concerns such as the provision of Anti-Retroviral drugs, food, medicaments, to mention but a few.

In Tsvangirai and Ncube or any other MDC leader , I see a nationalistic and sincere leadership of the opposition that is only being vilified and denigrated daily by a hostile , partisan and apartheid media , a media that is hell-bent on portraying the opposition as a bunch of puppets.

Mutambara must realise that the labelling of MDC as a retrogressive movement and as a puppet party working with imagined outside forces to effect regime change is simply cheap propaganda that is peddled by all the State-affiliated newspapers and the national broadcaster, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings. Infact it is part of unwritten government policy and the editorial policy at all public media outlets , including the now Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)-controlled Daily Mirror to attack the leadership of the MDC and always portray it in negative light.

The call for sanctions that Mutambara and Paul Themba Nyathi want to disassociate themselves from does not make the MDC a puppet party. The sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are a legitimate tool in international law that can at any time be invoked to deal with errant members of the international community like the government of President Mugabe.

Sanctions are one of the arsenals at the disposal of the international community, invoked to force compliance or effect behaviour change. The sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are smart sanctions which are meant to hurt a certain group of people in this case the ruling elite and in the case of Zimbabwe the reprisal includes a travel ban on members of the Zanu PF inner circle and freezing their assets abroad. It is unfortunate that these sanctions are now affecting the masses that are obviously not the targets. The fact that the sanctions are affecting the public does not in any way make Zanu PF reformed and the need for those sanctions to be removed.

It is wrong for members of the pro-Senate faction to continue appearing in the news and mislead the nation that the call for sanctions was Tsvangirai’s and that the MDC never had it as their policy. The call for targeted sanctions is a legitimate one because the Zanu PF government has continuously stolen the ballot and committed serious atrocities such as the Matebeleland and Midlands Gukurahundi massacres perpetrated to a defenceless citizenry whose sin was to have voted for the late veteran nationalist and Vice President Joshua Nyongolo Nkomo.

Mutambara must not work on the assumption that the people of Zimbabwe regard the MDC as a puppet of the whites and a bunch of neo-colonials. The fact that something has been continuously said and repeated by our perverted radio and television does not sanitise it. The people know that what makes the MDC and its leader Tsvangirai puppets is opposition to land reform on the basis of the thuggery through which it has been executed and a series of human rights violations committed during the Fast Track Land reform programme.

Mutambara must realise that the same media is the one that has started portraying him as a violent person who led violent demonstrations at the University of Zimbabwe and that he is "American" because of his US permanent residence status. The media in Zimbabwe, especially radio plays a fundamental role in shaping political opinion. If Mutambara is lucky to appear in the news in Zimbabwe, he is going to be portrayed continuously as an American stooge and a violent former student leader. Should we then believe this because it has been beamed by ZBH when we really know that it is propagandistic and rhetorical?

Zimbabweans must not expect miracles to happen even with the entry into politics of one of Zimbabwe’s most gifted academic because of the inherently iniquitous system that is protected by an "unconstitutional" document that we continuously call the Zimbabwe constitution. There is need to mount pressure on the government to agree to constitutional reform so that any future contestation for political office, including the one that both Tsvangirai and Mutambara are eyeing is done in a manner that gives fairness to all players.

Without a new constitution and a complete overhaul of the media laws that give an unfair advantage to Zanu PF over other political contestants, the opposition will not make any meaningful impact in Zimbabwe at the moment. Both the political careers of Tsvangirai and Mutambara are in Mugabe’s hands because of the current split in the opposition which will see the party going back to the High Court to seek a settlement on who is entitled to use the Chinja/Guqula slogan, the open palm symbol as well as determining who should retain the name of the party.

*Phillip Pasirayi is a human rights activist.

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