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GNU-Negative solution to the problem at hand
Mutsa Murenje
May 20, 2009

A wrong way of doing the right thing often produces wrong results. This was my forthright and honest response during my student days when my University lecturer, the one who was taking me for Social Policy and Administration in my third year asked our class about the extent to which the land reform programme in Zimbabwe could be said to be justifiable. I explained that land reform in itself is a good thing especially if those doing it have no ulterior motives. If it-s meant to redress past imbalances and injustices it-s okay, but if it-s an excuse by the incumbent leader to hold onto or to overstay in power then it-s totally wrong. The land reform programme a.k.a the Third Chimurenga was carried out for wrong reasons and it was disastrous. It was a colossal flop! It was a negative solution to the problem at hand. We had a drought of governance and this required urgent relief not by way of illegal farm invasions but by simply stepping down. Kungobvuma kuti ndatadza kutonga, just that mufunge. In the same vein, I am tempted to think that the issue of the Government of National Unity-GNU in Africa (for we also have it in Kenya as a coalition government, in fact it started right here!) is a negative solution to the problem at hand. One may well ask: What does he mean by this? What I mean is this . . .

What gave birth to the coalition government in Kenya was the tribal conflict that followed a rigged election of December 2007 and the GNU in Zimbabwe is also a result of the ugly brutality that we experienced when Robert Mugabe was defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai in the harmonised elections of March 29, 2008. In other words, in both cases, these creatures i.e. coalition government and/or GNU are products of abnormal circumstances- fraudulent elections. Rigging of elections is perennial in the body politic and it means that this phenomenon is here to stay. But is the GNU really the way to go? Does it solve our problems? If so, to what extent and with what results? A lot shall surely be revealed shortly in the subsequent paragraphs.

Allow me, dear readers, to bring to the fore the fact that coalition governments in Africa are by and large an attempt to deal with the drought of governance that we have had over the years. Inyaya yekuda kubvisa umbimbindoga (dictatorship). But believe me, they are not in any way an existential solution to the problem alluded to above. In the words of Aristotle (384-322BC), "Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit, we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts." Mrs. Ellen G. White offers a long-lasting solution to this problem, not that she wrote about dictatorship or governance but she had this to say: "We must guard against undue severity toward the wrongdoer, but we must also be careful not to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. There is need of showing Christ-like patience and love for the erring one, but there is also a danger of showing so great toleration for his error that he will look up on himself as undeserving of reproof, and will reject it as uncalled for and unjust" (The Acts of the Apostles). We can-t achieve democracy by accommodating tyranny in our midst. Ndiro dambudziko reGNU! This is the major problem that we have with this GNU!

I honestly don-t think that the GNU is the way to go in Africa. It is a costly waste of time and resources. It rewards losers at the expense not only of the people but also of those who would have received the mandate to rule the people for the authority of the government only comes from the will of the people. Those who would have lost the election should just leave politics. People like Arthur Mutambara, Welshman Ncube, Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, Robert Mugabe, Patrick Chinamasa and many more lost the elections, they were rejected by the electorate and they have suddenly assumed important positions in the inclusive government. What are we teaching the world-s future generation i.e. the youth?

The GNU in Zimbabwe conceals and camouflages the reality that Mugabe et al are on their way out whether they like it or not. They have played their part at times not as well as they might have liked to but times have changed. Pave kuda vamwe pasteering wheel. Panoda new blood and Tsvangirai as I said in my earlier contribution entitled "Tsvangirai is a noble leader" is the only political mogul who can unfetter us from the fetters of the Zimbabwean tyrant-Robert Mugabe.

Do you know how it feels like to work with people who have always labeled you a stooge, a puppet of the West, an intellectual midget and an indecisive leader? For your own information, the former ruling party (ZANU PF) has used the label 'opposition- as the blackest of indictments, as synonymous with the word 'enemy-. To brand someone 'a member of the opposition- is tantamount to saying he/she is trying to overthrow the government. My hunch is that there hasn-t been a 'recalibration of mentality-. We know in painful detail and through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. No one gives up his privileges without a fight and Mugabe won-t leave Ikulu (Kiswahili for State House) without a fight! Will he leave anyway? Mugabe will not leave because he wants to die in power. In fact, he is using the GNU to reinvigorate his dictatorship. Bad habits die hard and sometimes they don-t die at all.

What is likely to happen especially in the case of Zimbabwe is that we will have yet another inconclusive or rigged election and this has serious unforeseen and unfortunate consequences for us (compare parliamentary election results for 2000 and 2005 and you will understand what I am talking about). Honourable Tendai Biti has been very forthright on the GNU when he said that: "The honest, the truth of the matter is that there has been no decent progress to date and that there is no time for excuses . . . .." In fact the people are complaining that the GNU has actually done more harm than good, instead of addressing the plight of those who were affected by the violence people are thinking in one direction-that of self-aggrandisement, ndofamba nemota yakadii, ndogarepi, mwana wangu odzidza kupi? This is happening when the very people who voted for 'us- are starving, unemployed, on their deathbeds etc. Not only that, instead of engaging each other as equal partners some have emerged superordinates and others are subordinates or junior partners. Tinosvikepi when we are expecting elections soon? Is this peaceful disagreement?

Instead of working as partners we have become competitors. In Kenya for instance, people are saying they no longer have in place a mechanism for checks and balances. Yes because there is no opposition. Corruption as a result has become rampant and there is a lot of disagreement between the President and the Prime Minister. One says this and the other that. I am reliably informed that there are major differences over new laws between ODM (Odinga-a party) and (PNU Kibaki-s party). Ko muZimbabwe mune opposition here? Tiri kuendepi? Tigodii? Another issue is that we have a bloated cabinet and we wonder where the money to pay these people will be coming from! Or it-s public revenue as usual?

From my Principles of International Law Course I was able to learn essential issues concerning conflict and its resolution. I am a devotee of pacific settlements of disputes. Negotiation, arbitration, conciliation and reconciliation, mediation, dialogue etc are all essential elements in so far as the resolution of disputes is concerned. One good thing about the animal called GNU is that it has been able to return social, political and economic normalcy to our society. But the consequences are greater. I wish I could go beyond this but unfortunately I can-t so I end here at least for now. But I leave you with this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: "If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values . . . " The struggle continues unabated. Aluta continua!

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