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The problem with the MDC: Running with the hare and hunting with the hounds
Catherine Makoni
November 14, 2007

I have problems with the MDC. People have tried to convince me that the MDC offers a viable alternative to ZANU PF but I am yet to be convinced. There seems to be the sentiment that there should be change for the sake of it. I know a lot of people will view my opinion as almost treasonous given what the ruling party has done to us in the 27 odd years that it has been in power, but I think the truth needs to be said. We need to avoid a repeat of our history under ZANU PF where we were so euphoric after the victory in 1980 that we sat back on our laurels while the country went to the dogs. If we are to vote in the anticipated elections in 2008, then we should do so with our eyes wide open AND we should not expect any miracles. Nor should we let down our guard. Never again should a group of individuals entrench themselves in power the way the current ruling party has done. Ever. Not even the MDC. Or should I say, especially not the MDC.

But I digress. Back to what I consider the warning signs are far as the MDC is concerned. I will start with the obvious, the economy. The current economic problems that our country is facing should present a lot of opportunities for a party that knows what it is doing, to offer viable alternatives. I am not an economist so I will not venture to suggest what those alternatives are but I do know that the MDC has not offered us anything by way of alternatives. They have not suggested solutions to the economic crisis. They have not offered analyses. What they have done is react to the actions of the Zanu PF government by issuing easy political statements condemning the government-s actions. The MDC would have us believe that all that is necessary to set us on the path to recovery is for them to get into power. There is no suggestion of what plans they have put in place to put us on the path to recovery if they do get into power. Why then should I believe that they know what they are doing?

The MDC has been so preoccupied with brokering a power sharing deal with ZANU PF that it is little wonder that they are out of touch with the reality of people-s lives in Zimbabwe. To the extent that the MDC has not given voice to the problems that the people of Zimbabwe are facing, they have been guilty of aiding and abetting the establishment in its violation of people-s human rights. To the extent that they have not bothered to make an effort to convince the people of Zimbabwe that they are a viable alternative to ZANU PF, they have been guilty of taking us for granted.

  • It has been a few months since basic goods disappeared from our shelves. Factories that had been operating at a fraction of their capacity have now laid off scores off workers as a result of the price controls. The MDC is too busy "negotiating" to be bothered.
  • The Reserve Bank Governor promised that we will have goods in our shops by the end of October. We are now in November and still our shop shelves are empty. We have not had the benefit of the MDC-s thinking on this and indeed any of our esteemed Governor-s solutions. There will be nothing festive about the coming holiday season.
  • No one has problematised the fact that where the shops are not empty, they are now full of highly priced imports from our "sympathetic" neighbours and friends especially from our "honest" broker, South Africa.
  • Where a person is lucky enough to still be employed, the government it seems is determined to punish you for it by making you spend a minimum of five hours a day queuing for transport to get to and from work. Does the MDC have a plan to address the public transport system if it gets into power?
  • Our country is increasingly getting denuded of trees owing to the shortage of electricity. The deforestation is sad, but what options do people have? It is funny that transporting firewood has now been made illegal. So how are people supposed to cook when there is no electricity and there is no paraffin and there is no gas? Does the MDC have an environment policy?
  • The Manyame River is so choked full of raw sewage and industrial effluent that it is literally dying. This is where our drinking water comes from. But who cares that when you boil it for the recommended ten minutes, the water "breaks down", with slime rising to the top while some solid stuff settles at the bottom of your pot? The result? The diarrhoea outbreak in Kadoma a few months ago, and many others that have gone unreported. But how would the opposition know about it if they are busy drinking bottled water in some secret location in South Africa or some holiday resort in Zimbabwe?
  • Teachers went on strike for months, compromising the standard of education in schools. What is the content of the MDC-s education policy, if they have it?
  • Teachers and nurses were so poorly paid for a long time that they could not even afford to go to work, but no issue was made of it by the MDC.
  • A student from the University of Zimbabwe was reportedly murdered in the rented room that he was living in last week. Not a word about how the closure of the University Halls of residence has made thousands of students vulnerable to just this kind of tragedy. They are busy "negotiating" with the very people who ordered the halls of residence closed in the first place.
  • The HIV prevalence rate has reportedly declined to 15.6%. A lot of us are questioning how this is possible in a country where the majority of people are surviving on one meal a day. Where hospitals are empty, not because there are no patients, but where because the patients cannot afford the user fees, where there are no drugs, where even if the patient can afford to be in hospital, they are turned away either because the hospital has no electricity or it has no water. Where those nurses who can are leaving the country en masse and those remaining are just biding their time until they too can leave. Where people cannot afford laboratory fees but even if they can afford them, the machines are down and cannot be repaired due to shortages of foreign currency. How have we managed this fete, when we are constantly being told how for a lot of people, survival sex including among everyone from university students and lowly paid professionals to other unemployed people, is increasingly becoming a coping strategy?
  • Our erstwhile Minister of Finance announced that bras and panties are luxury items and therefore liable to the payment of import duty. Are we supposed to go about without wearing panties? The silence of the women-s wing was deafening but perhaps not surprising since that particular wing is in the grip of intrigue, infighting and vicious power-struggles. But then again, the other MDC formation was also silent. What was their excuse?
  • It seems we have all become inured to the sight of orphans roaming the streets looking for donations to pay school fees, or the deaths of people as they struggle to eke out a living. The country lost 35 people mostly women in a train wreck in Dzivarasekwa earlier this year. Numerous other people mostly women have been killed on the road while travelling to neighbouring countries to trade. There can be no doubt that the economic problems have increased people-s vulnerability to injury and death. But when the reports do come in, there is no shock and no outrage. We are not shocked when people resort to burying their dead at night because they cannot afford the cost of a burial plot in a council cemetery. All the while the opposition party that should be highlighting these problems remains mute. They are so afraid of upsetting the apple cart that they dare not speak out against these violations, or else they never had the capacity to speak out anyway.

OK, so let us assume that it is the politics that needs addressing, that they are politicians and they are therefore playing a political game. All indications are that even in this, they are being outsmarted and outplayed by wily ZANU PF. Take the negotiations that have been going on for eons. In these farcical talks, it is the MDC which has been bending over backwards to accommodate ZANU PF. How many times have the MDC been in Pretoria and ZANU PF has been a no-show?? The events of March 2007, deplorable as they were presented the greatest opportunity for change, for the MDC since the 2000 elections. Here was an opportunity to rally the masses. Here were the leaders for once, leading from the front and not ensconced in some hotel enjoying five course meals. The country was the cynosure of global attention. There was a distinct shift in the mood of the people in the country. We were all in the grip of an invisible force. For the first time since 2000, most of us dared to ask, could this be it? But no. The MDC instead of making political capital out of events tucked their collective tails between their legs and retreated to lick their wounds. The momentum was lost while the dear leaders cooled their heels in Pretoria, eager to negotiate a power sharing deal with ZANU PF.

What has followed in the months since then is a farce of Shakespearean proportions. The MDC in its collective wisdom, voted with ZANU PF to amend the Constitution. We needed to hear the MDC giving voice to the majority of Zimbabweans- rejection of the Constitutional Amendment Project. To this day not a single one of them from both formations has been able to explain why they decided to sleep with the enemy. It is ludicrous for a country with a population of 11 million and declining, to have a parliament of nearly 300 members, over half the size of that of the UK, with its population of 60 million plus. South Africa-s economy is the largest in Africa so they can sustain their 500 or so members. Our economy is a bare fraction of that and shrinking. We cannot afford to pay for a bloated House of Assembly and Senate created to give people in the MDC and ZANU PF an opportunity to loot and squander the meagre resources that the few working people in this country still generate. So why did the MDC do it? I reject the "gesture of goodwill" argument advanced by Tsvangirai. Who should be giving who a "gesture of goodwill" here? There has been no freeing up of democratic space, the government has continued to bash civil society activists and indeed by the MDC-s own admission, the beatings on the MDC-s own rank and file have continued unabated. So what goodwill has MDC had from ZANU PF? The only reasonable explanation in my mind, for the MDC-s actions is that they see an opportunity in these transitional arrangements to "get in on the action" so to speak. It is no longer about transforming the institutions but more about changing the faces of the people currently in power. The very problem we have been fighting for the past 27 years.

Now can someone tell me why I should have any faith in this party? Why should I put my future and that of my children in this party-s hands by voting for them come elections?

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