Owatalk

stan
I think Dabengwa's endorsement is good for Makoni but I still have some questions. When he says his move is not about regime change but leadership change what exactly does he mean? It appears to me like he is all about trying to replace Mugabe with himself and then try to make Zanu PF work. How can he do that for a party that has taken the country down to the cleaners over the last few years.

I think what he needs is a clean start and forget about Zanu PF. Getting people like Dabengwa on board is a step in the right direction and he needs to get some more people like him from Zanu if there are still any left and then build a team without much leaning to the current Zanu Pf.
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mbareboy
...I agree with the sentiments that at the Presidium level, the structures and mandates that one gets from his party are key, and to stand as an independent its not ideal. Effective change and leadership is done through all the governance structures.

To say I will be a one man band and show is contrary to modern day and democratic political philosophies. Zimbabwe is at a crossroads not only in terms of bankrupt presidency and leadership but also in terms of non-functional and ineffective national and local government institutions.

It will take more than a social and political revolution to get the structures going as they should again. And one man bands if not dictatorships dont work. What started as a lack of direction and conscience by Zanu degenerated into porous governance and Mugabe took advantage of that and in the absence of control and lack of accountability in Zanu, he seized the opportunity snd grew larger than the party itself.

It is Zanu that let us down because of their lack of substance. They were benefiting from the bankrupt and corrupt status quo that they enjoyed having Mugabe as their leader protecting and eulogising him. Now that Mugabe has become a monster to them as well, they want to substitute him with Makoni,............, what a shame.

I agree Stan, we dont want Zanu coming back through the back door. We want a complete change. It pains me that people with such intellect or it was just self promoted like Mandaza, Makoni can try to deceive the electorate and be selfish to the extent of ignoring the big picture of redoing the whole political , economic and social model for Zimbabwe, and try to perpetuate anguish by implementing cosmetic changes. Very unfortunate..........
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mbareboy
........to me, Zanu has morphed itself into a party that no longer respects its fiduciary duties and responsibility to the general masses, and has become accountable unto itself. It is a party where anyone who leads it has the chance to become a dictator, because that what the party wants.

If the Central Committee is ignored and doesn't hold the leadership accountable and the annual congresses becoming mere talkshops and rubberstamps, it would be interesting to see how Makoni can assume a larger than life character and bring back controls, checks and balances to an institution I believe is beyond repair. He still has to get the support of the provinces to elect him and the Central Committee to agree to forward his name to the Politburo, and thats where the bankruptcy of Zanu is rooted, buttressed by factionalism, tribalism etc.

Makoni is leading disgruntled members which means the core is still there, and in itself is a promotion of factionalism. Reading between the lines one can see he is nowhere near the critical mass that is needed to deal with the tribal politics that characterise the Zanu landscape if his so called heavyweight team is anything to go by, unless they will come out later.

His only card is that i think most of the old guard would want to go sooner rather than later and that opens up the leadership race. I would rather have an institution that self-regulates with working systems and controls than rely on personalities to conduct themselves in a way that doesn't promote self interest. Every successful and functioning democracy in the world is a result of having functional accountability and subjecting conduct to checks and balances.
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Tyndale
The most important thing right now is to get Bob out of power. There is not going to be a fairy tale story whereby Tsvangirayi wins in a free and fair election. The only people that only people that can wrestle power from Mugabe are those with access to the rigging machine.
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