Some years ago, following the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe, the loser of that election, Robert Mugabe declined to concede defeat to his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.
After a protracted standoff, SADC came in and sent as its chief emissary, the then South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate between the two Zimbabwean sides.
Bizarrely, Mbeki gave himself two weeks to settle a dispute that had been simmering for close to a decade.
The result, as expected was a disaster, not only for the winner of the election, but moreso for the ordinary Zimbabweans whose will, which they had emphatically expressed through a ballot was overnight thrown out through the window.
In setting the tone of his settlement, Mbeki put at the centre of it all not the country and its people, but rather the future of Mugabe, the loser of a popular vote.
Right from the beginning Mbeki obsessed himself with Mugabe’s fate and never missed an opportunity to deride Tsvangirai for turning himself into what he derisively called a tea boy of the Western interests.
No mention, not even in passing was made of Zimbabwe as a country and its people.
Mbeki took a decision that for his deal -later called Global Agreement – to stick, status quo had to be retained.
That meant assuring Mugabe of power, its trappings and the luxuries that come with being a State President.
Mugabe ÔÇô a leader of an illegal regime that had just lost an election and that was also killing its people was allowed to come to the negotiating table as state president while Tsvangirai, the winner was made to come to that table as a beggar. Once done, the deal fully ensconced Mugabe as President, and Tsvangirai was made a lame duck Prime Minister.
In the end Mugabe was immensely pleased with the turn of events ÔÇô as indeed was Gilbert Mangole, one of the high priests of a BMD faction that did not want a Congress re-run when he emerged on one of the local radio stations this week.
Mugabe had lost an election, but owing to Mbeki’s mediation efforts was allowed to keep his position.
Mugabe was immensely gracious to Mbeki.
Preceding that election, Mugabe had unleashed a wave of violence through his thugs to literally torch anybody he perceived to be his opponent.
The world was shocked by images emerging in Zimbabwe which showed Tsvangirai’s face dripping with blood after he had been attacked by militias that passed for Mugabe’s security services.
All people of good-will were later on to be equally shocked by the Mbeki negotiated agreement.
He was accused of being a novice on such complex and hefty matters ÔÇô as indeed detractors have already started to accuse the UDC leadership.
Eager to stem violence against his followers, Tsvangirai was forced to settle for much less than was due to him.
But ever since that deal, Tsvangirai’s popularity has been on a downward spiral.
His followers that had elected him State President in 2008 have never forgiven him for being arm-twisted by Mbeki into accepting that which was neither in the interest of Zimbabwe nor the people of that country.
I was reminded of the tragedy of Thabo Mbeki in Zimbabwe this week when we heard UDC pronouncement on their proposed settlement for BMD impasse.
The UDC ruling this week was a literal echo-chamber of what Mbeki did in Zimbabwe in 2008.
As was the case with the people of Zimbabwe in 2008, the interests of BMD members were totally lost in the debris of so-called power-sharing verdict by the UDC this week.
Just as Mbeki’s deal was driven by his deep-seated contempt for Tsvangirai, so too was UDC settlement driven by antipathy to Gaolathe Ndaba by some among its leadership.
A UDC leader has this week called Ndaba Gaolathe “Daddy’s Boy.”
This could easily be a direct line adopted from Thabo Mbeki when he called Tsvangirai a tea boy of western interests.
When it finally arrived, the UDC verdict prescribed power sharing. So too had been the Mbeki settlement in Zimbabwe.
It was a decision by a people bent on pleasing everybody and annoying nobody.
Hard decisions were avoided. And easy routes were chosen.
The upshot of it has been that they got everything wrong.
UDC will in future pay a heavy price for this.
To his credit, Ndaba Gaolathe has chosen to reject the power-sharing deal that would have sent him down the Tsvangirai political path.
Mbeki’s prescription resulted in irreparable damage and tragedy for Zimbabwe.
Had Gaolathe accepted the UDC verdict it would have been a terribly bitter pill to swallow by many of his followers to share power and indeed space with a few but menacing machete-wielding people who over the last few years have caused them, their leaders and party so much pain, humiliation, inconvenience and discomfort culminating in grievous body harm in Bobonong.
Politically, power-sharing in the BMD would have been not any better either.
Under such a deal, Gaolathe would have had to settle for what is far less than what is due to him, as given to him by the BMD members.
For the country, agreeing to such a deal would have created a bad precedent that in future stone-throwing, machete-wielding thugs would deem it acceptable to take control of a political party and its followers through the use of force as it happened in Matshekge, Bobonong.
What the UDC prescribed for UDC is not an element of democracy. It’s a recipe for political tyranny.
It empowers and encourages thugs to use violence to take control of political institutions knowing that there will later on be artificial settlements that legitimize the power that they failed to earn through the ballot.
The solution to BMD impasse was a simple one ÔÇô it laid in giving the power back to the people and calling on them to express it at a Congress re-run supervised by an independent organ.
UDC failed to do just that. They chose to humiliate Gaolathe.
In the end it was not Gaolathe that the UDC betrayed, but rather the members of BMD that had so passionately supported UDC over the years.
