Change

The party has become quite adept at this crooked dealing over the years – they have had more than enough practise. It seems nothing is going to stop them now. But on the other hand, Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC are going into the deal as novices – unskilled in the art of skulduggery and power manipulation. They are like the proverbial babes in the wood.Mugabe has made no effort to create an environment that fosters mutual trust among the partners in this new government – a marriage of incompatibles if ever there was one.

MDC activists are still languishing in jail – denied the medical treatment they so badly need after being tortured by Mugabe’s goons. And today, when the brave women of WOZA took to the streets of Harare once again to demand love not violence and democracy instead of oppression, they were yet again arrested and thrown into prison for “disturbing the peace”.The partisanship of the police and the judiciary, which for some time now has been heavily compromised, is perhaps the major obstacle facing the courageous Tsvangirai and his team of stalwart activists. Many of them have been badly beaten by Mugabe’s goons and spent time in Zimbabwe’s filthy and disease-ridden prisons.

The power-sharing arrangement that has taken months to stagger to this week’s finale, is not what most Zimbabweans expected or wanted. It is unfair, unjust and does not represent the will of the people as expressed in the March 2008 general and presidential elections. However, this is where we are now - thanks to the craven partisanship of the southern African regional leaders and indeed of the AU.

Only one thing is certain – change has begun and will not be turned back.