Hold talks under a tree, in remote mountains Zanu-PF and Mdc

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By Zivisai Chagaka Deputy Chief sub editor

THE political agreement being thrashed out between Zanu-PF and the MDC formations in the comfort of air-conditioned hotel rooms won’t come up with a solution that will reflect and satisfy the aspirations of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe, a top politician has said.

Speaking in a no-holds-barred interview recently and as the talks enter a decisive stage in South Africa today, Cde George Rutanhire, who was the director of the commissariat in Zanu and Zanla during the liberation struggle and presently a senior member in Zanu-PF, said that the negotiators to the talks should be taken to a remote location in the countryside and be left there to talk if progress is to be made.

"A good agreement should be held out there deep in the bush," he started. "If progress is to be realised, the talks should be held under a tree, out there beyond the Mavhuradonha mountains, in the parched Musingwa riverbed, where the negotiators have to dig up the sand for water to drink and scrounge for wild fruits such as masau for their lunch under the scorching heat of the Zambezi Valley, I am sure in just two days, they would come to an agreement."

Cde Rutanhire, who is one of the signatories to the Mgagao Declaration document that thrust President Mugabe into the leadership of Zanu in 1975 after Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole had "sold out" the revolution, said "that’s the general feeling of all the progressive people of Zimbabwe about this whole farce about the talks.

"We don’t want to be tormented by people who are talking on full bellies, itself a result of the First and Second Chimurenga. What it means is that these people are not serious about the talks. We have not had a functional government for virtually a full year and this situation is untenable."

The former Member of Parliament in Mashonaland Central Province, between 1980 and 1985, said just because the talks are being held by people on full stomachs "and are even fattening their pockets in the process, they don’t see the urgency of concluding the talks.

"The people of this country are sick and tired of this dilly-dallying in concluding the talks. The disagreements and shifting of goalposts would appear like that of jealous women married to one husband. What it means is that these people are not serious about the talks."

The former Deputy Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture (1982-1984) dismissed allegations of intransigence against Zanu-PF, saying "this country was brought about by Zanu-PF and the party has a continuous programme to develop this country.

"The peace we enjoy in this country is a result of the party’s clear developmental programmes. The MDC’s programmes are hidden — they are not open. When we look closely at the MDC’s programmes, we can see that they are not their programmes, but they are being used by our former colonisers and we cannot accept that." Asked why Zanu-PF is so committed to the talks with the MDC, which it has branded a party of "sell-outs", Cde Rutanhire — who also served as Government Chief Whip between 1985 and 1990 — said the majority of the MDC supporters are Zimbabweans who have been made to believe that the party is genuinely Zimbabwean.

"If you look at it carefully, you will find out that the party is made up of former Rhodesian operatives who masterminded the formation of the party and funded it. But because there are so many Zimbabweans who have been made to believe this is a genuinely Zimbabwean project, Zanu-PF believes that if it sits down with them and works with them, some day they will see the light."

He castigated some who have left the party to join the opposition. These are people who pretended to be true revolutionaries, but are now showing their true colours.

"It’s the work of the Rhodesia Front intelligence. These people were sent to spy on the revolution by the enemy’s intelligence against the people of Zimbabwe. They can be found in Government, Parliament or in any leadership of a revolutionary party — such kind of people are there.

"Some think they are hidden, but they are known."

Dispelling connotations of "decay" in Zanu-PF, the Mashonaland Central Zanu-PF provincial secretary for gender and culture instead laid the blame equally on MDC for "defiling the air we breathe".

"Zanu-PF does not decay because it is a revolutionary party — the revolution doesn’t go bad."

But does the Mashonaland Central provincial political commissar of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) think that the revolution has been betrayed at all: "Absolutely not!

"The revolution is still continuing and it is still going to be carried forward by true revolutionaries only — and these will be seen by their work on the ground. Of course, some people would like to portray it as having been betrayed, but it has not been betrayed by the true revolutionaries."