Zim back from brink as Tsvangirai calls off boycott

So whats the 'almighty SADC' going to do after 15 days? absolutely useless!

I hate to say I told you so but I will say it anyway. Tsvangirai has got no issue he was just craving for a little attention. Ultimatums from Tsvangirai and MDC are like someone pointing an unloaded gun at you or an owl passing off its ears as horns.

This is a guy who realised that he had overreacted and was trying to find a less embarassing climbdown from his pedestal. We always knew he would comeback without any changes having taken place. The diamonds are selling, the rains are falling and Tsvangirai has comeback to his senses. What more could Zimbabwe ask for?

"What more could Zimbabwe ask for?"

The death of Mugabe?

Fungayi, say hi to Blair for me please.

the mind boggles with Fungayi's continious defence of Mugabe and the Zanu PF. Maybe the brain has softened with too many colonial luxuries and 1st world benefits. wonder when last he was in Zimbabwe and had a reality check!! Or maybe he is talking about a completely different country to the rest of us!!!

I hold no brief for the MDC party, but Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his party have just pulled Zimbabwe from the brink of total collapse. I think Fungai and his ilk should see the bigger picture.

After the 30 day ultimatum Mugabe will have won another round of endorsement from the upcoming ZANU congress and will have no more excuses of "...pressure from the hardliners..." to duck his responsibilities in the GNU.

Give a mad man rope. He will hang himself.

The alternative for Zimbabwe is too ghastly to countenance.

Blair is of no fixed abode at the moment Sinudeity. Don't worry death is everyone's final destination. At least Mugabe will have left a positive mark on Zimbabwe's landscape. You can call him names just like you did Nelson Mandela, what's new with you white folk.

The important thing here is that Tsvangirai has come to his senses in realising that his demands are trivial to the task at hand. He has also realised that the label he carries at the moment of being cozy with white folk does not do him many favours in the grand scheme of things. We praise him for this realisation and hope from now on his decisions are for the national good not selfish pursuits like jobs for Bennett and friends.

Fungayi: What positive Mark has Bob left? That people have land? Plenty of dirt to eat? Stylishly shaped whip marks, or cigarette burns? A pretty, but worthless currency? No democracy to speak of, as I demonstrated last night.

The day Bob dies, will be the biggest party in Zimbabwe ever. Im looking forward to the day, that I can return to Vic falls, and dance on his grave.

the only party that can tame ZANU is ZAPU it has stood the taste of tuime and knows how to deal with this party that split from it and won a tribal vote at the expense of a national vote.....so ZAPU must start planning the running of the country with its very important policy of devolution of power like in SA

Yet again, true to form of being a chameleon, Tsvangirai has pulled off another stunt. MDC-Ters must start looking elsewhere for a more consistant leader.


@Fungayi you asked: What positive Mark has Bob left? This is a wrong question since Bobston has not left. The question should read, what positive mark is Bob still focussed on?


Answer: (1) Meaningful Black Economic Empowerment and Success: After Bob's succesful/positive land redistribution exercise (some noted dissatisfaction aside), Bob is now focussed on equipping the new farmers for increased production. Land redistribution remains the best ever black economic empowerment strategy. (South Africa has tried various perumations of BEE without much success!)


2. Education and ICT: Sunedeity this is the same Bobston who has championed the schools computerisation project - (the quality of the computers from Bob is well beyond those from the donor community!), he will continue this project! From 1980 Bob, against all odds, sought and achieved to significantly improve Zim's education - and today Zimbo's wherever they are enjoy this pole position (ask Deputy PrimeMinister Mutambara). Bob as President will ensure the education sector is not neglected.


3. Fountain of Wisdom: All young leaders are out of their depth against our colonial masters. Therefore seniors such as Bob serve as good advise / check points for the young leaders on foreign issues and how they influence domestic policy. In the WEST leaders not removed from office but fade away - no wonder in the USA seniors e.g. past Presidents are always in the background!

One could go on and on...,

@ Somhlaba Mthunzi - you are right and wrong. ZAPU can tame ZANU from it being a minority party. In the current GNU, the kingmaker is MDC-M with its minority control of Parliament. But if you are thinking along the lines of the havoc of early 80s where ZAPU aligned ex-combatants decided to play Zimbawe's UNITA or Matsanga then this is not the mature way to go.

Ooppss why is it Zim's alternatives to ZANU-PF are led by chameleons? Tsvangirai ex-ZANU-PF and now MDC-Ter, Dagengwa ex-ZANU-PF and now ZAPU reincarnated? Well Mutambara is the only exception!!

While waiting to dance on Mugabe's grave can you start with Ian Smith's Sinudeity or Rhodes's? Or is it disrespectful because they represent your ilk's interests?

Temba Hove if you are expecting a bigger picture from Tsvangirai good luck. As for so called ZANU PF hardliners, that's just MDC-T's comfort toy to deflect their from their ineffectiveness. There is no such thing.

MDC-T is just bunch of opportunists without any strategy whatsover but just the desire to get to power. They exepct someone else to come and do it for them. Tsvangirai should focus more on the job of being Prime Minister of Zimbabwe than looking for reasons to disengage or pull out. Zimbabweans have already demonstrated that they are happy with the GNU. They do not really care whether Bennett was deputy minister or in prison because that doesn't put food on their table. They do not give a damn whether Gono is governor or Tomana is attorney general as long as they can get food in the shops and hospitals are functioning. This is what most of you PC warriors can't comprehend.

Yeah but there isn't food in the shops and hospitals are not functioning and thats the problem!!!

Education has been cancelled.... the teachers have been striking more than teaching and exam enrollment numbers are down 55%... There is no such thing as a Zanu-PF hardliner = I am not a Nazi... I am more like a Jew - complete with my very own patch of the promised land and human rights violations!

Megan Holden when was the last time you were in Zimbabwe? You must be living in 2008. Go to Zimbabwe and see for yourself don't listen to all those giving this grave image. Shops are full and hospitals are working. Just yesterday my brother was at one of the hospitals with his young daughter. People are spoilt for choice in the shops.

And so Mugabe has done it again..!!! Pitiful SADC.

Penny Whistle blame it on Tsvangirai you can't keep on wrapping him in cotton wool. He has serious shortcomings that cannot be overcome by just blaming Mugabe and SADC. You can only say pitiful or spineless MDC-T.

There are many of us who said this marriage of convenience would be a nightmare for the very naive Tsvangirai. And after nine months of hell the bride Tsvangirai was back with her own people accusing the groom, Mugabe, of being a “dishonest and unreliable partner”.

So the bride has gone back to her husband after some “marriage” counselling. It would have been prudent of the abused to have stayed with he people the thirty days ultimatum given to Mugabe to implement the outstanding issues. Still Tsvangirai, always one keen to make the marriage work, has gone back.

The truth is a power sharing agreement signed by the parties gave Mugabe all the dictatorial powers. Any meaningful power Tsvangirai exercise, he will have to depend on Mugabe’s magnanimity and good will. A megalomania like Mugabe being magnanimous?! The lasted crisis was cause by Mugabe refusing to honour the few and really insignificant concession Tsvangirai had wringed out of the dictator in the GPA. Tsvangirai is in for some months of frustration and tears.

It is not Tsvangirai but the people whom I am concerned about. This GNU will never bring any democratic reforms the nation so desperately needs. Mugabe will neither allow the new constitution to have the democratic checks and balances nor will he want free and fair elections at the end of the GNU’s term. Mugabe will not preside over the demolished of Zanu PF’s repressive political system that has served him so well in securing his own iron grip on power and ensuring there was no regime change!

And as long as Mugabe remains in power Zimbabwe’s economy will remain firmly root in the hell-hole the nation been stuck in for years now. The misery and suffering this has all caused is truly heartbreaking.

You are correct Wibert. Zanu PF will never allow elections to be contacted in a free or fair enviroment because thats where their survival is. The GPA is on paper so SADC is saying honour what you have signed. We have witnessed all in the past and you can see that they are unrepentent. These people who praise Bob benefit from this crisis. Now that SADC have set a deadline we are there to watch what will take place. Mugabe is used to dictatorship and now they is power sharing he still in the old times.

Megan Holden:

We have not had any "1st World Benefits" from the very first moment we dealt with the north. What we have seen is 1) toiling for nothing - slavery, 2) colonialism 3) racism and now 4) global warming, we are the worst affected.

Are these your idea of 1st World Benefits that you have afforded Africa curtesy of you generosity perhaps?

see,the problem will always be with pple who view the world thru press reports.i have been her in zim thruout the whole time that we have had this crisis.i have lived in chinhoi,the university of zimbabwe,bindura, harare,chitungwiza as well as plumtree and i have seen a lot of what this crisis has done to pple's lives and livelihoods.it is a pitty that most pple that have had the privellage of the media to comment on our crisis are either foreigners or citizens who have the resources to run away when they could not bear it anymore.thru the years ihave seen pple being touchered, beaten up at political rallies,sleeping in the open for weeks with all their belongings and babies ,pple starving in queues for basic supplies that will only be available the following week.queues for cash that was money in the morning but getting worthless buy the hour.i could go on and on but the point is ,to the average zimbabwean since the day they had a prime minister in office and a new finance minister they had the opportunity to re-plan their lives,buy what they can afford at the nearest shop.the pple do not really need to know the technicallities or the detail of how this was done but all they see is an abundance of basics in the shops and in what seems to have been for ages they see a steady and constant fall in prices of the same.the average zimbabwean sees no one else's hand in all this apart from morgan tsvangirai's.they could be right or wrong depending on how u want to look at it but the fact still remains.the man has been (to the pple) their saviour and its as simple as that.suddenly they feel that the sunctions story is nolonger relevent to them becuase there are pple whole still mantain that we r under international sunctions but still pple's lives have gratelly improved in the last 6 months or so.they realize how difficult it has been for the party to impliment these drastic changes.policies and all do not really matter to them but when prices of basics here become comparable with all other economies in the region thats real good news to the pple and they know it was no coinsidence that when the MDC got into gvt things have gone this way.
Lastly to my brother fungai where ever u r,on a party, scholarship,foreign mission or whatever it is pliz don't abuse the privelleges that u have had for personal or what ever selfish gain there might be to it.
i know u r as hard working and self respecting as most zimbabweans back here at home,zimbabwe deserves better leaders than all those zanu hardliners and u certainly know that-if u are at all still zimbabwean .

This Fungayi should be added to the list of 'Outstanding Issues'. You are the only person who still believes that great-grand- fathers can run a country. Your resistance to change is disturbing. I suspect you have a mental problem. Get a life.

Hey Bantu my comments are aimed at Fungayi's hypocracy: Glorifying Mugabe from his home in the land he so despises; England!! He is the one benefiting from this not the rest of the people suffering in Zimbabwe.

Tate' own thought

You piece is one of the best I have read for a long time. I hope you afford us the opportunity to hear from you more often.

I do not think there is anyone in Zimbabwe or outside who having seen Zimbabwe's shops empty would not appreciate the sense of relief the nation feels at seeing the shops full again. Still Zimbabwe has a long, long way to go to get out of this hell-hole the nation finds itself in; it would be a fatal mistake if we were to seat on our laurels now.

The question I would like to ask this GNU is after nine months in power is filling the shops all they could have done? I really think there is lot more the GNU should have done and it is not even talking about it. According to an article in today’s Mail and Guardian Zimbabwe made US$ 43.8 million from diamond sells last year. How many millions is Zimbabwe losing in lost revenue from the booming illegal diamond mining in Marange? Why it is that no one has been arrested for all the mayhem and murders in last year’s June elections? Zimbabwe’s only chance of preventing the same happening again is by having the thugs arrested and thus show that no one is above the law.

We should not only be thinking of our bellies and be content there is food in the shops. We should also think of the millions of our people who can not buy this food because they are unemployed. Unemployment is a staggering 90%. We should also think of our basic political right the denial of which is the root cause of our political and economic nightmare today.

Bantu Nzira
The forum you're writing on is a first world benefit...There had to be a trader to trade slaves, it's not just the north's fault that your own brothers were prepared to sell your ancescestors and besides the Arabs also had a penchant for slaves yet they come from the Middle East.If there's no benefit derived from the north then why does Air Zimbabwe not use locally produced aircraft to fly it's passengers who live in the diaspora because they can't get a decent livlihood in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. The "Nzira's" you use and indeed the country's boundaries were the development of your colonial past and racism is a two way street and a very convenient political tool for some.