FORTHRIGHT Zanu PF politburo member and former Cabinet
minister, Tshinga Dube, pictured, has thrown the cat among the pigeons within
the ruling party by calling on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to form a
government of national unity (GNU) with the opposition to end the country’s
myriad challenges.
The respected liberation stalwart told the Daily News in a
wide-ranging and exclusive interview yesterday that another GNU would benefit
long-suffering Zimbabweans by focusing the country on fixing the economy —
instead of spending so much time on political fights.
This comes as the country’s economic crisis continues to
deepen, amid growing public disenchantment with the trajectory that Zimbabwe
remains locked in.
It also comes as political analysts have warned that
Mnangagwa is running out of time to fix Zimbabwe by holding broad-based
national dialogue, which they say will help to extricate the country from its
worsening rot.
Speaking in the exclusive interview with the Daily News,
Dube — the straight-talking former War Veterans minister and known supporter of
Mnangagwa — said Zimbabweans now needed to put aside their political
differences in the interest of the country.
“At the current rate, it will take a long time for us to
get it right. I have always said economics and politics are like two legs of
men. If the other leg is dysfunctional, the other leg won’t be able to walk
straight.
“You cannot have a good economy where there is no good
politics.
“I am … calling for a government of national unity, not
because there is a vacancy … but I feel it will make us focus on running the
economy only, instead of spending so much time fighting and squabbling over
politics,” the ever candid Dube told the Daily News.
“All these things we are hearing about abductions and
torture are caused by divisions, and they affect the reputation of our country.
“So, if they (politicians) can come together, all this will
be over … and we don’t lose anything as a nation. “But there are some people in government who feel that
maybe if this GNU comes into effect, they will lose their positions,” the
former Zipra bigwig further said.
“But we are not looking at that, we are looking at the
development of the country. Look at how neighbouring countries are fast
developing ahead of us. “Everyone here is thinking about power. Where have you seen
a country with 23 people aspiring to be a president?
“It’s not surprising that in the next elections, this
number may double up,” Dube added — referring to the record number of people
who stood as presidential candidates in the disputed 2018 national elections.
He also took a swipe at some of the people close to
Mnangagwa, whom he said were not telling the 77-year-old Zanu PF leader the
truth about the current state of affairs in Zimbabwe.
“There is an old phrase which goes like ‘show me your
friends and I will show you your character’. If these people are really genuine friends or advisers,
they should tell the president the truth and differentiate things that are
right from wrong.
“As I always say, before you advise somebody you must
always make sure that your interests are taken care of. You can’t advise
someone against your own interests,” Dube told the Daily News.
“The president has people he works with who include the
Cabinet, Parliament, advisors, politburo and central committee members.
“If all those people don’t see anything wrong, the
president will always think that everything is okay, because he can’t do it
alone,” he added.
This comes as Zimbabwe is in the middle of a gigantic
economic crisis which is stirring rising anger against the government.
The worsening economic and political crises also come as
Zimbabwe is fighting the double whammy of the deadly effects of the global
coronavirus pandemic and the regional drought that has left millions of people
in the country facing starvation.
Despite showing early signs of efforts to turn around the
economy, which had suffered from years of corruption and mismanagement under
the previous ruinous rule of the late former president Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa
and his lieutenants are now finding the going tough.
At the weekend, prices of basic consumer goods in the
country went up sharply — on the back of the collapsing Zimbabwe dollar.
And in a sign which further sums up Zimbabwe’s worsening
economic rot, the country is now once again experiencing acute fuel shortages —
despite the commodity being in abundant supply worldwide.
The shortages also come as international oil prices have
fallen to record low levels.
All this has caused
Mnangagwa to once again come under pressure to take the initiative to launch
national dialogue, to help end the country’s myriad challenges — which analysts
have warned could soon trigger civil unrest among fed-up Zimbabweans.
In 2009, Mugabe was forced into forming a GNU with the
MDC’s much-loved founding father, Morgan Tsvangirai, after the equally
hotly-disputed 2008 polls.
The short-lived GNU was credited with stabilising the
country’s economy which had imploded in the run-up to those elections.
In those polls, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe hands down. However,
the results were withheld for six long weeks by stunned authorities — amid
widespread allegations of ballot tampering and fraud, which were later revealed
by former bigwigs of the ruling Zanu PF.
In the ensuing sham presidential run-off, which authorities
claimed was needed to determine the winner, Zanu PF apparatchiks engaged in an
orgy of violence in which hundreds of Tsvangirai’s supporters were killed —
forcing the former prime minister to withdraw from the discredited race
altogether.
Mugabe went on to stand in an embarrassing and
widely-condemned one-man race in which he declared himself the winner.
Yesterday, Dube also dismissed government’s claims that the
country’s sickly economy was being solely driven by sanctions.
He also argued that Zimbabwe’s look-East policy for
economic recovery was untenable. “Sanctions are hurting Zimbabwe, but at the
same time we hurt ourselves. It is very easy to fight against sanctions.
“It’s not by conducting street marches or organising big
rallies against sanctions. It’s by looking at our policies. Some countries are
against some policies that we make.
“For instance, if some of the problems we have faced in the last few years are anything to
go by, we are signatories to certain treaties and … we have to stick to those
agreements. If we don’t, then it will be marked against us,” Dube said.
“I think the more we behave in an appropriate manner which
is acceptable internationally, the better chances for us to have sanctions
removed.
“Don’t forget that Rhodesia was on sanctions before we took
over the country for 15 years. The sanctions were only removed as soon as
Lancaster House agreement was signed.
“So, we must make sure that there are no people who are
working against the good of this country,” Dube further told the Daily News.
The former Makokoba MP also said it was wrong to look at
Eastern countries as Zimbabwe’s saviours for the current woes.
“I don’t think this policy is in line with modern policies.
We are now living in a global world.
“You really don’t have to look East or West, but look at
the whole world, especially where opportunities arise.
“For example, if you look East it means you are only
focused on the East, and you don’t focus on other parts of the world,” Dube
said.
“For example, we have our neighbours, South Africa here.
Their economy is far much better than ours. We can also concentrate on what we
can get from there,” he added. Daily News
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