David Coltart comments on GPA talks
“Zanu and the Mutambara group simply do not know what to do. If they agree to do what the region wants, they are dead in the water.” Eddie Cross writing on his blog on the 21st November 2009 asserting that the MDC M is deliberately delaying the finalisation of the GPA talks.
This is an outrageously false comment about the MDC M which bears no relation to the facts.
We all in MDC M want the GPA implemented urgently and fully. We fully supported what the region asked for. I personally had a lengthy discussion with President Kabila’s principal advisor Mr Ilunga Ngandu on the 3rd November 2009 impressing on him the need to attend to all of the outstanding issues. My colleagues have done the same. I have been present in Cabinet and know what has been said by all of us there. Arthur Mutambara’s statement made when the disengagement started is a matter of public record. Indeed it was Mutambara who clearly articulated for the first time that the SADC communiqué issued in the January 2009 could not be ignored, something Zanu PF was trying to do.
And as for the allegations that MDC M are responsible for the delays since Maputo consider the following: Read more
It’s all coming back to me now
Usually when I endeavour to recall my early life in its entirety, I find that it is not possible. It’s like ascending a hill to survey the prospect before me on a day of heavy cloud and shadow and seeing at a distance, now here, now there, some feature in the landscape, a hill or some wood or tower or spire, touched and made conspicous by a transitory sunbeam while all else remains in obscurity. The scenes, people and events I am able by an effort to call up do not present themselves in order, there is no order, no sequence or regular progression - nothing , in fact but isolated spots or patches, brightly illuminated and vividly seen, in the midst of a wide shrouded mental landscape.
It is easy to fall into the delusion that few things thus distinctly remembered and visualised are precisely those which made a mark in my life, and on that account were saved by memory while all the rest has been permanently blotted out. That is indeed how our memory serves and fools us, for at some period of a person’s life, when in a rare state of mind, some scenes, people and events maybe revealed to us by a miracle that nothing is blotted out. Read more
Gearing up for a tough 2009 in Zimboland
The New year is upon us and, six months after the presidential elections, we still have no government. Everyone, Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, the South Africans, the Tanzanians (I did say everyone) says the same thing: a government in Zimbabwe is needed as a matter of urgency.
All of the above, except Mugabe, believe that the best government would be a GNU. Mugabe alone seems to be going the route of wanting a government all by himself. People fail to understand that, according to Mugabe, the MDC victory in March is not legitimate. He has told members of his party countless times that the MDC vote was “extracted” under duress from the people of Zimbabwe because of “sanctions” imposed on the country. Read more
And meanwhile Zimbabweans starve…
ZIMBABWEANS STARVE AS THE POWER-SHARING TALKS GO ON AND ITS LEADERS AND THE WORLD LOOKS ON WITH INDIFFERENCE
Some rural folk in Zimbabwe are now relying on wild fruits which are quickly running out. Quite a number of them have died from hunger and starvation. If only the goevernment had not banned the NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) who were donating food to the poor the number of deaths would not be that much.
The townsfolk have not been spared from this hunger and starvation mainly because of the low bank withdrawal limits set by the Reserve Bank Governor which make it immpossible for them to buy the highly priced food items as and when they need them. Read more
Solidarity is ‘Western’ for Ubuntu/Unhu
In my culture, when someone asks ‘how you slept and woke up’ in the morning, you respond ‘ndamuka kana mamukawo’ meaning ‘I woke up well if you did too’. This is an acknowledgement of the existence of other beings around you.
You acknowledge other people because they are part of you and you are part of them. It is an acknowledgement of the importance of life apart from one’s own and it is a profession of love and respect for what surrounds you. In other words you stand in solidarity with others by the way you respond to those around you. I believe I do not have a choice for who is around me and who to respect and this makes everyone and their existence important. This is not something I strive to be, it is what makes me proud to be Zimbabwean and African and it is what I am. That we grow up living in solidarity, believing in solidarity and paying solidarity to each other without thinking about it. ‘I am, because you are, because we are!’ We are one whole and one body Read more
