The two political parties signed the MoU on Monday that would enable the parties to negotiate the future of the country but some are of the view that the opposition MDC led by first round winner and the country’s favourite, Morgan Tsvangirai (photo) should exercise maximum caution because Zanu PF is capable of doing anything.

Before the signing of the pact, MDC formation had said they would not enter into any negotiations with Zanu PF after the incumbent was declared winner in the June 27 presidential run off he was contesting against himself. After the sham election, the MDC said if Mugabe was committed to talks with the opposition, he should have stopped the presidential run off election.

During the pre-SADC mediation talks about the conditions of holding free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, President Mugabe snubbed the agreed conditions and announced the March 29 harmonised election without the consent of other negotiators from the opposition.

However, the 1987 unity accord signed between Zanu PF and PF Zapu is a clear example that Zanu PF cannot fulfill promises but wants to benefit from other parties.

The Unity Accord came after more than 20 000 innocent civilians perished during the Gukurahundi debacle. The civilians were brutally massacred by a crack unit of Zimbabwe National Army which had received its military training from North Korean instructors.

The accord was expected to bring a raft of changes and end the turbulence environment that had engrossed the country.

Among the issues which were brought before the table was the return of all PF Zapu properties which had been confiscated during the Gukurahundi era and the mounting of Dr. Joshua Nkomo, then the founding leader of PF Zapu on Main Street in Zimbabwe’s second largest city Bulawayo but twenty one years after, nothing has been done by the Robert Mugabe regime which on Monday claimed that they were committed to the talks and bring a new chapter in the history of Zimbabwean politics.

Judith Todd in her book, Through the Darkness: A life in Zimbabwe notes that the only thing that has changed since the 1987 unity accord is the name and the face of the unity facilitator, then it was Zimbabwe’s hapless president Canaan Banana.

Now twenty years after the 1987 Unity Accord, Zanu PF and MDC party signed the MoU of engaging in dialogue and end the economic and political malaise that has gripped the country for a number of years.

Instead of Banana facilitating the talks to establish another agreement, it is a South African President Thabo Mbeki who has been widely condemned by African and the international community for failing to resolve the stalemate in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe in power since 1980 to deliver the goods of the hard won Independence but regret his own version was declared winner of the one-man-presidential race after Tsvangirai boycotted because of increasing violence against his own supporters.

However, Zimbabweans need to be reminded that the battle for restoring peace and tranquility in the country is still on because Zanu PF has made numerous broken promises since Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980.