By Gift Mashoko
Being power hungry is like a curse as one does almost anything to get power. This has been the case with MDC Alliance party leaders Nelson Chamisa and MDC Alliance deputy National Chairperson Tendai Biti who have become so desperate for power and now want to subvert the will of the people by calling for a transitional government so as to be accommodated in government.
Chamisa and Biti’s call for political dialogue with President Mnangagwa have become so frantic after discovering that press conferences and demonstrations are not yielding anything. Instead of waiting and planning for 2023 elections the desperate MDC leadership want to get into government through the back door and by force.
MDC Alliance produced a petition which they handed over to Parliament, the presidency, SADC Chairperson Hage Geingob of Namibia and African Union chairperson Paul Kagame. In the petition MDC Alliance said a Transitional Authority is the only viable way back to political legitimacy. The legitimacy they are questioning is that of President Emmerson Mnangagwa who in actual fact won the presidential elections free and fair.
One should advise the MDC that with the issue of “illegitimacy” they won’t get any takers, worst still with the regional bodies which have already certified the July 30 election as free and fair.
Recent media reports have been claiming that President Mnangagwa and Chamisa are in talks for a Government of National Unity (GNU). Some publications have gone as far as claiming that some ZANU PF members said it is true because of Tendai Biti’s links with USA. Vice President Kembo Mohadi has dismissed these claims. He instead said the opposition MDC Alliance were welcome for discussions, but not for a GNU. ZANU PF has two thirds majority in Parliament unlike in 2008 when the GNU was formed and that is reason enough for ZANU PF to now justify their unwillingness to have a national transition authority. President Mnangagwa won the elections with more than 50% majority and so MDC Alliance should just accept that and move on.
In an interview with a journalist from Zimbabwe Independent, Elias Mambo on ‘On the Headlines’, Biti said “Attend to reforms and dialogue, Emmerson Mnangagwa needs to pick up the phone and call Nelson Chamisa.” What is so special about MDC Alliance and Chamisa that President Mnangagwa has to speak to Chamisa yet there are several other opposition parties which have accepted their loss and moved on? Chamisa will have to wait longer for that call, because President Mnangagwa has moved on from the election and is busy with the reconstruction of the economy.
Biti alleges that President Mnangagwa is an amateur yet he has been in Government way longer than any of them and knows his way around. If anything Biti brash talk will scuttle any chances of talks if ever they were any.
It seems Biti thinks he now has the crown of glory after some pronounced him the most powerful politician in Zimbabwe. This came after US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Matthew Harrington said, Zimbabwe should drop charges against Biti, dictating further conditions for the dropping of the illegal sanctions.
Once bitten twice shy, ZANU PF knows all too well the MDC shenanigans in the inclusive government and would not want a repeat of the same. MDC just have to wait for the 2023 elections as the back door into Government is firmly shut.
