I can understand why millions of ordinary Zimbabweans have embraced President Mnangagwa and his coup-cabinet as the real thing, the answer to all their prayers to be liberated from the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyranny of the last 37 years. These are simple people who believe that all the corruption, vote rigging, etc. were the work of one-man, Robert Gabriel Mugabe; and thus removing him, would ended all their problems.
One expects someone sober, learned and sophisticated as Ambassador Philippe Van Damme to know that corruption, incompetence and tyrannical tendencies of the Zanu PF dictatorship was not doing to disappear overnight just because Mugabe was no longer President, particularly when the reins of power have been passed on to the thugs who had carried out all the dirty work. The Zanu PF dictatorship was more than Mugabe, its figure head. Indeed, the removal of Mugabe was nothing more than a black mamba shedding off its old coat; it is still a deadly snake.
The first thing President Mnangagwa and his coup plotters did after forcing Mugabe to resign was share out the spoils of power. The appointment of known political thugs like Commander Chiwenga, veteran of Joint Operation Command (JOC), the Junta responsible for all the vote riggings and 2008 coup to stop MDC getting power, as VP. Air Marshall Perrance Shiri, another JOC veteran and Gukurahundi commander, is now Minister of Lands.
Major General Sibusiso Moyo, the man who will go down in Zimbabwe history as the coup spokesman who woke up the nation at 04.30 am on 15 November 2017 to announce the putsch but insisted it “was not a coup”. He is now Minister of Foreign Affairs. Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of the rogue war veterans who have played a major role in imposing the Zanu PF dictatorship on the nation; they firmly believe that whilst everyone else has a vote they alone have the veto on who rules Zimbabwe. He is now President Mnangagwa’s special advisor!
President Mnangagwa appointed retired Lt. General Engelbert Rugeje to the very influential position of ZANU PF national political commissar. Rugeje is a liberation war veteran who, like his fellow rogues Mutsvangwa, Jabulani Sibanda, not only believe Zanu PF’s divine right to rule but have ruthlessly imposed their dogma on the populous. Rugeje earned his notoriety in the 2008 elections when he spearheaded Zanu PF’s Operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) in Masvingo Province.
Retired Lt General Engelbert Rugeje, reminded the nation at large why he is Zanu PF Political Commissar, entrusted by President Mnangagwa to carry out the very important task of mobilising the people to ensure Zanu PF landslide victory using the party’s tried, tested and proven-to-work strategies.
"We are getting towards important elections this year,” Rugeje reminded the people at Mawungwa Business Centre in Gutu, according to the Masvingo Mirror. “I came here in 2008 when things were bad. I don't know where Masvingo had got this spirit and I came and sorted things out.
“I came back again in 2013 and led the campaign team and I moved around the province addressing rallies and the results were impressive and this saw the current Party president giving Masvingo the post of political commissar. I expect you to give Zanu PF all seats in Masvingo now that I am full time in politics."
All talk of free, fair and credible elections; thrown straight out of the window!
“Chiri mumusakasaka chinonzwira!” (Those with ears, let them hear!) Even the naïve simpletons have ears; they cannot say they did not know the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF before the coup is still the same after the coup,
“If really what he (Rugeje) said, needs public condemnation by @zanu_pfleadership! Intimidation incompatible with commitment 2free& fair elections.” Was the twittered response from the EU Representative to Zimbabwe Philippe Van Damme.
I am shocked that the Ambassador is so naïve, to doubt Rugeje would boast about Zanu PF’s culture of vote rigging and wanton violence when President Mugabe himself has publicly edged and praised the party thugs and none of them had any qualms carrying these heinous acts. Worse still, is the ambassador really that naïve to believe “public condemnation by @zanu-pf leadership” would be enough to deliver free, fair and credible elections?
For the umpteenth time, ambassador Damme; Zimbabwe will have free, fair and credible elections on one condition and one condition only – all the democratic reforms are implemented before the elections. So far President Mnangagwa has paid lip-service to free elections by making empty promises whilst doing nothing to implement even one token reform. Indeed, by surrounding himself with the party’s hardliners, the veterans of the party’s vote rigging and wanton political violence he is showing that he has no intention of holding free, fair and credible elections.
3 comments:
SADC leaders have already said Zimbabwe should not hold elections without first implementing the democratic reforms and now the EU are suggesting the reforms are not necessary as long as Zanu PF talk of free and fair election, they do not have to do anything else, just talk about it. It is high time Zimbabweans take the problem of good governance with the seriousness the matter demands. If we did that it will be clear that EU’s position is nonsensical, we need all the reforms implemented BEFORE the elections are held.
There is no doubt that President Mnangagwa know that there is simple no time left for his regime to implement the reforms, even if they had the political will to do so. The EU, if they were paying any attention, knows time to implement the reforms has run out. We know there will be no meaningful reforms implemented BEFORE the elections and therefore can say with certainty the elections will NOT be free, fair and credible.
“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done,” SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends in June 2013. We can say the say thing today six months before the elections.
The campaign now is not to contest the flawed and illegal 2018 elections. MDC did not pay heed to Zanu PF’s warning in 2013 and all they did by participating is give the process the modicum of credibility. It would be folly to allow MDC and the rest of the opposition drag into yet another meaningless election. We know the opposition participated in the July 2013 elections out of greed, as David Coltart admitted in his Book.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
If we cannot stop MDC and the other opportunistic opposition politicians taking part in this year’s flawed elections then we must see to it that the world knows they are participating out of greed and they have no political credibility. NONE!
@ Msipa
You have not said who what tasks the administration will be asked to perform in the interim period, who will be constitute that administration, who will supervise the said administration, etc. You clearly have not thought this one through because if you did you would have realised that if the SADC supervised GNU accomplished nothing what chance will a GNU in which Zanu PF is boss have of doing anything useful.
If we are going to have a GNU then it must be because Zanu PF failed to deliver free and fair elections as happened in 2008!
The people of Zimbabwe were so glad just to see the back of Mugabe they hugged Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest of the coup plotters; forgetting or forgiving or both that these are the thugs who had imposed Mugabe on the nation and kept him in power all these years. Some people were already talking about giving President Mnangagwa a chance, to prove he was not a different man from the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant Mugabe.
Everything Mnangagwa has done in the last two months has pointed to one thing - that Mnangagwa and his regimes are seasoned thugs. The evidence is piling up and the people of Zimbabwe will soon know it is folly to pretend Mnangagwa was an innocent, honest and decent man who was for 37 years under the spell of the evil Mugabe. People will know the coming elections will not be about giving President Mnangagwa a chance to prove him but rather about stopping the regime entrenching himself into power.
The last thing we want is to allow Zanu PF to get back into power with all its vote rigging powers intact because Mnangagwa and company will use these powers to entrench themselves just as they have done these last 38 years. The nation has had to wait 37 years plus a coup to finally get rid of Mugabe.
We should have got rid of the whole Zanu PF cabal and can still do so by insisting on implementing the reforms before holding the elections. Mnangagwa is blatantly refusing to implement reforms for no other reason than to keep Zanu PF's undemocratic strangle hold on power. It is imperative that we do not allow him to get away with it!
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