Tsvangirai insists on talks

As the country grinds to an absolute halt, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe is intent of having dialogue with ZANU-PF outside of parliament. Since Monday when treason charges against Tsvangirai were dropped, local media have been reporting on numerous attempts by the opposition leader to get to the dialogue table with his nemesis in government. From the Daily Mirror:

"MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is reportedly intensifying efforts to meet President Robert Mugabe to find lasting solutions to the political and socio-economic woes bedevilling the country through courting ruling party bigwigs to arrange for a possible meeting with the Head of State.
Impeccable Zanu PF sources claimed that about three to four weeks ago, Tsvangirai made attempts to meet President Mugabe using prominent people within Zanu PF’s inner circles.
“We have heard that Tsvangirai is making efforts through our senior party officials to speak to President Mugabe,” Zanu PF insiders said.
“However, we don’t think at this point in time he will succeed, because the focus has changed from talks to the issue of the Constitution.”
Speaking to journalists at his Strathaven home in Harare on whether he had indeed made overtures to see the Head of State, Tsvangirai said he had been doing so for the past five years, but would not be drawn to elaborate on the latest moves."

The Financial Gazette is saying the same thing in this article,

"MOVEMENT for Democratic Change (MDC) president Morgan Tsvangirai has accused President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF of persisting with an "ostrich mentality" in refusing to embrace international mediation efforts to end the country's ruinous political stalemate.

"This ostrich mentality must end," said Tsvangirai. "Mugabe is running out of time and I hope my protagonists in ZANU PF are aware of the precipice.
"The burden has shifted to Africa to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe. Resorting to hard-line positions and populist posturing denies Zimbabweans the golden chance to capture their experiences for translation into shared ideas, shared knowledge and national unity," said the MDC leader.
Tsvangirai said given Zimbabwe's pariah status in global politics, the MDC fully understood President Mugabe's growing frustration with "a tired political defence mechanism, which has begun to give in to reason, international exhaustion and fatigue."
"Taking potshots at the United Nations, the AU, the European Union and other goodwill institutions for suggesting corrective action to raise the international profile of Zimbabwe is a futile exercise that is loathed by the people of Zimbabwe and shall get us nowhere.
"Given the seriousness of our plight, let us avoid embarrassing ourselves by attacking and trading off sanity and international advice for short-term political expedience," he added."

The MDC having failed to engage the public enough to achieve their goal (regime change) which is different from the desires of ordinary citizens, must now be content to play second fiddle to ZANU-PF with hope to engage them. The MDC desperately needs to interact with someone if the validity of their role on the nations political agenda is to remain viable.

This will not work Mugabe has already said he does not want to negotiate with the MDC. Unless something drastically changes, the MDC have isolated themselves such neither their anatagonist's government nor the suffering Zimbabweans need them anymore. Their lofty goals for regime change, without meeting addressing the concerns of the poor, have andwill continue to amount to naught.

The MDC could change that if they authentically rendered themselves at the service of the Zimbabwean people.

Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Crisis, MDC, ZANU-PF, Mugaber, Morgan Tsvangirai,