To ‘stack the deck’ - to arrange something so that it is unfair to someone.

The mediated talks continue as I type. They are obviously going to extend beyond any deadline, and I doubt whether any lasting agreement can be reached and/or kept.

This morning I read on the internet that the Joint Operations Command (JOC) that ostensibly runs (ruins?) Zimbabwe on a day-to-day basis will be joining the talks.

Now, I find this objectionable and decidedly against all things ‘fair’ in Zimbabwean politics.

The mediated talks are between Mugabe’s party, ZANU PF, and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). They are not for other bodies to join. If the JOC is to have a voice in the talks, then why not also include the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)? And whilst you are about it, what of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)?

How is it that Mugabe’s big mate, Thabo Mbeki, who is meant to be mediating over the talks, is allowing ZANU PF to bolster their position at the conference table, but is against any participation by any body that stands for the people, the constitution and the law of the land?

Does Mbeki really believe that we will not notice as he changes the playing field? Does he really think that we are that naive?

Mbeki is pro-Mugabe - that much we know from Mbeki’s own mouth. And the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) say that Zimbabwe is an African problem which will be solved by Africans. Okay - I have no query with that, but when two months after Mugabe was re-elected into office in a sham one man election, whilst the Parliament of that country is yet to be convened, are we going to sit back and watch Mugabe fiddle the books and rework the numbers so that he comes out on top… again?

He calls the government in Zimbabwe ‘democratic’. Since when is the systematic killing over one hundred MDC activists construed as ‘democratic’? Since when is the failure of Mugabe to convene Parliament construed as ‘democracy’? Since when is his re-appointment of his Cabinet construed as ‘democratic’ - especially when at least two people in his cabinet lost their Parliamentary seats at the end of March?

Just when was Mugabe actually going to allow Zimbabwe to be ruled by a government of the people’s choosing?

Mugabe leaves nothing to chance. The slashing of ten zeroes from the currency is all planned well in advance to throw the population into a panic. The failure of the talks to even abide by one of the more simple objectives is planned well in advance.

The parties agreed that each would issue statements denouncing the post election violence. Not one of the three participating parties have issued one word about the ongoing violence.

Mugabe has a death-like grip on the helm of the country, and is steering it into the abyss, into a future that is laced with corruption, theft, corruption, violence, political ineptitude - all things that are synonymous with “ZANU PF” and “Mugabe”.

The deck is stacked in Mugabe’s favour - and the people of Zimbabwe wait for him to play his ‘winning’ hand.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man