It came as a quite a shock when Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), called it quits on the election run-off between himself and Robert Mugabe. This act handed the election to Robert Mugabe who after running the country for 28 years as president, is looking to gain yet another term. While Tsvangirai’s act is commendable in wanting to stop all the violent attacks and intimidation of his support base, I disagree with him pulling out of the race as this now gives no hope to people of Zimbabwe.

This is from Mandhebvu quoting Aljazeera’s correpondent Haru Matasa when interviewing Morgan Tsvangirai...

Haru Mutasa: You have just announced that you are not going to take part in the run-off election for the Zimbabwean presidency. How do you think your supporters will react?

Morgan Tsvangirai: I think our supporters will support this decision, because our council is a representative of all the provinces at the grass roots level.

They are the ones we have to confront with this - on a daily basis they have to live with this violence [allegedly carried out by Mugabe’s supporters].

Therefore, when we took this decision, it was really an informed decision. I think it is in the best interests of our people.

If the Zimbabwean people were bad before they will be worse off now. Before he pulled out of the race Zimbabweans had a chance of overcoming Mugabe, even if the upcoming run-off election was rigged and handled unfairly, they still had some form of chance. Now they have to face the same tyrant with another term of office, without a shred of chance of anything being done about it.

It’s a hard decision to make, and Tsvangirai’s reasons are valid, but all it looks like to me is that he gave up, after so much fighting, with a week to go for the election. I don’t think he should have given up so easily, I know it is a hard decision to make but I feel that he could have made the same decision after the election. At least then, if Zanu PF won, which seems likely, it would look like he’s fed up with Mugabe’s tactics to hold onto power instead of the perception that he’s given up.

The fact of the moment is that the Zimbabwean people are left in the lurch with the only way out seeming to be the leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), who have been unsuccessful thus far. Pressure is also now being put on South Africa, especially, to take a hard-line stance and try to come up with a solution to the Zimbabwe problem. President Mbeki’s policy of quiet diplomacy is clearly not working, and he has to stand up to the plate and face a hard decision himself regarding South Africa’s position on Zimbabwe. Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa’s Rule Party, the ANC, has also come out to say Mugabe’s party, the Zanu PF has lost its way. In terms of South African politics, this shows another difference between the two ANC top dogs, Mbeki and Zuma, with Zuma shining again in terms of the media with his clear stances. One hopes that action would come of his words.

The Zimbabweans living in South Africa have an equally hard decision to face since the situation in their homeland seems unstable for some time to come. Whether they stay in South Africa and try to get re-integrated into their communities risking further attacks, or go back to their country which for now seems unchanged and with similar conditions of hardship under Mugabe’s rule. This is the choice they face… Morgan Tsvangirai, Thabo Mbeki and the people of Zimbabwe find themselves in the same situation, albeit in different contexts, between a rock and a hard place.

Many are worried over the situation in Zimbabwe now that Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out. Zanu PF have said that the poll will go on regardless, but I have no idea what they think it will prove. I hope that solutions are forthcoming for all of them soon and that we can finally see stability in Zimbabwe.