Friday 22 June 2018

"Only ED deserves your vote," argue Mavaza - fool, ED is rigging the elections, he has veto P Guramatunhu

People like Dr Masimba Mavaza have such poor memory, they forget yesterday’s troubles with sleep. “Kukangamwa chezuro nehope!” as one would say in Shona.

“The world believes that only ZANU PF has the policies that will protect and advance the lives of ordinary people. Only ED will invest in skills and training. Only ED will build the homes so urgently needed. Only ED can be trusted with our children's education. Only ED can make work in this country pay. In less than six months the face of Zimbabwe has changed for better. The civil servants had their pay increased and nurses had their grievances solved,” he wrote.

Yes, ordinary people like Mavaza who cannot remember what happened yesterday much less these last 38 years will be foolish enough to trust President Mnangagwa and his junta with their lives. The rest of the world would not do so because they know Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because of Zanu PF.

Except for Robert Mugabe, Professor Jonathan Moyo and one or two others booted out of the party following last November’s military coup – the rest of the world call it a coup because it was a coup, but the coup plotters have convinced the naïve and myopic to it was a military assisted transition – the same faces who have been in power for the last 38 years are in power today. They have presided over the economic rot and, worse still, have used all manner of vote rigging dirty tricks including brute force and mass murders to make sure Zanu PF remain in power regardless of the economic rot and the tragic human suffering it brought.

Last November’s coup was called “Operation Restore Legacy” because it was about wrestling power from Robert Mugabe who wanted to hand it over to his wife and her G40 faction. President Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and all those constituting the core of this junta regime, the Lacoste faction, who had been the bulwark of the Zanu PF dictatorship, staged the coup to ensure they retained power.

Yes, President Mnangagwa has ditched some of Mugabe’s flagship policies like the indigenisation law and has hit the ground running in wooing the West and foreign investors. “Zimbabwe is open for business!” has been his cockcrow each time he opened his mouth.

He has also spoke endless about “a new political dispensation” and promised to hold free, fair and credible elections; even he must have realised that Zimbabwe could not be open for business as long as it remained a pariah state. But by refusing to implement even one democratic reform to designed to take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche dictatorial powers, he once again proved to the world that, post the November coup, Zimbabwe was still a nation ruled by thugs.

The flood of foreign investors that the regime was cocksure was coming has failed to materialize. Only day-dreamers like Dr Masimba Mavaza are still hanging on to the illusion of mega deals, jobs for everyone, etc. An illusion because with no foreign direct investment to kick start the economy now in a comatose state Zimbabwe is going nowhere.

President Mnangagwa and his junta are set to win these elections not so much because the regime has managed to hoodwink naïve and gullible people like Dr Mavaza into believing the regime has changed although this an important part. Zanu PF is set to win with a landslide victory because the party has managed to retain all its carte blanche power to rig the vote.

President Mnangagwa has done a great job in making sure the party’s thugs, war veterans and the state security personal who have been the root cause of all the in-your-face politically motivated violence are all on a short leash this time. Still the Chiefs, the war veterans, 5 000 soldiers and party thugs directed by Zanu PF National Political Commissar, Engelbert Rugeje, a notorious party thug in his own right, have been out to remind the people the wanton violence of 2008 will return if Zanu PF was to lose these elections. “Operation harvest fear”, as one analyst has called it.

However, Zanu PF is relying on the lack of free public media, ZEC has failed to produce a verified voters’ roll throwing the door wide open to all manner of vote rigging by NIKUV and the Chinese experts, the party has billions of dollars looted from the impoverished citizens to bankroll its varied and expensive vote rigging schemes, etc.

“If you go into next month’s elections, you will lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend on the eve of the 2013 elections. SADC leaders wanted the elections postponed so the democratic reforms agreed at the onset of 2008 GNU could be implemented first.

Zanu PF has never held free, fair and credible elections, never; in all its 38 years in power. The regime has gone through the electoral ritual of voters’ roll, election manifestos, campaigning, voting, vote counting, etc. but only to confirm a pre-determined outcome – a landslide victory for Zanu PF. This year’s elections are no different; “these elections are done!” as SADC leaders would say.

Zanu PF has always been careful to make the simple-minded Zimbabweans feel they have a vote and it counts. The reality is where the ordinary people had the vote the Zanu PF ruling elite have always seen to it that they have the veto.

President Mnangagwa and his junta are not offering any the economic magic bullet that will transform our bust economy into boom. The regime’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” call has fallen on deaf ears because the investors can see Zanu PF is still a party corrupt and vote rigging thugs masquerading as democrats. To vote for this junta on the believe it will bring economic prosperity is to go chasing a mirage!

But even if the junta was offering some workable economic policies such as ending corruption, just like some of Mugabe’s policies were good; there is no guaranteed that the junta will follow through and implement these policies. Indeed President Mnangagwa has promised to end corruption but in all his nine months in office, he has yet to arrest one corrupt official. How can he deal a telling blow to corruption when he, VP Chiwenga and many others in the junta are themselves corrupt!

If these elections are not going to resolve Zimbabwe’s economic mess, they should resolve the political conundrum, the curse of rigged elections, the curse of veto that trumps the people’s vote, which is the root cause of all the economic problems.  

“On the 30th of July, only ED deserves your VOTE,” Dr Mavaza argue.

Even after 38 years of rigged elections, the penny has yet to drop that the vote only counts when elections are free, fair and credible. Where elections are blatantly rigged, as is the case in Zimbabwe, the ruling elite have the veto. So, before you get all excited about these elections and whom the people should vote for, first take away the ruling elite’s veto! What is the point of casting a vote when you know someone will veto it if they so wish!

These elections are about restoring the people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe, restoring the people’s right to a meaningful vote by taking away the ruling elite’s veto.

President Mnangagwa has promised to hold free, fair and credible elections, to restore the people’s meaningful vote and give up Zanu PF’s veto; he and his junta must deliver or step aside.


Holding free, fair and credible elections is the only sure guarantee for competent and democratically accountable government. The greatest mistake this nation has ever made was to allow Zanu PF to rig elections and get away with it time and time again. The greatest challenge of this generation is to make sure that no one, absolutely no one, this junta Zanu PF regime or anyone, ever again rig the elections and get away with it!  

8 comments:

Patrick said...

Zanu PF has the election in the bag what is happening now is allowing the ordinary people go through the routine, the campaigning, attending rallies, election manifestos, etc. to satisfy the naive and gullible that this is a normal elections. Normal elections are free, fair and credible, Zanu PF is rigging these elections and is using the election retual to give these flawed elections a measure of legitimacy.


How can these be free and fair elections when ZEC has failed to produce something as essential as a verified voters' roll!!!!!


People must demand that these flawed elections be dismissed as null and void now and not have to wait for voting day!

Patrick said...

The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has announced plans to bring together political leaders contesting in the elections to make a public commitment to peace by signing a Peace Pledge.

Retired Justice Selo Maselo Nare Chairperson of the NPRC told journalists that the move aimed at ensuring that political parties preach peace and they encourage their members to adhere to peace before, during and after the elections.

So what are these political parties supposed to do if someone fails to honour the pledge? Of course, this will never work! We need to stop wasting time and resources on these useless gimmicks. We need to implement the democratic reforms designed to give the Police the power and authority to investigate, arrest and charge all those who break the laws and the peace.

What a foolish and bloody waste of time and money paying these NPRC idiots. The Police have failed to stop politically motivated violence because Zanu PF thugs are above the law, everyone knows that. For one who is supposed to know the law Justice Nare is a real idiot!

Patrick said...

Zanu PF is going through the routine of holding rallies, issueing a manifesto, etc. knowing all the time that those activities are irrelevant because the party is rigging the vote. The routine is only important in creating the smoke screen that these are meaningful and normal elections. Only the MDC idiots think they have a chance of winning an election in which there is no free public media, no verified voters' roll, Zanu PF can loot billions of dollars from the people to bankroll its vote rigging activities, etc.


These elections are flawed and illegal are should not be even be taking place! No Zimbabwean in his/her right mind should have anything to do with these elections because any involvement will only give the process legitimacy!


People must start demanding that the elections be ruled null and void now and not have to wait until the voting day to say it!

Patrick said...

Could not agree with you more.

SADC leaders advised that the elections must be postponed so the democratic reforms, agreed at the onset of the GNU, can be implemented. With no reforms in place, Zanu PF has all the dictatorial powers to rig the elections it is IMPOSSIBLE to have free, fair and credible.

The real tragedy here is that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are dragging the nation into elections they know are flawed. Yes Zanu PF is rigging the elections but it is MDC who are providing them with the smoke screen cover! The sooner the people of Zimbabwe realise that MDC are now running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, the sooner they will know to demand reforms before the elections.

It is insane to take part in elections knowing the whole process is flawed and the vote will be rigged, especially after 2008 when Zanu PF's vote rigging expertise was second to none! Of course, it is insane to keep trying to win rigged elections!

Patrick said...

@ Rodwell Nhira

ED was at the heart of the Zanu PF regimes that have governed this country for the last 38 years, he was cabinet minister and Robert Mugabe's right hand man throughout for Pete's sake. So why did he let the nation go to the dogs all these years? Only a fool whose brain has long turned into fat would believe the nonsense that only Robert Mugabe had all the power and his ministers were nothing more than helpless grade-one pupils!

It is nonsense to suggest that it took 37 years for ED and his coup cabal to realise that Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous tyrant and only then did they boot him out. The suggestion becomes idiotic when one acknowledges that it was none other than ED and his cabal who did most of the looting and vote rigging to keep Mugabe in power.


ED has promised to end corruption; he has been in power for the last eight months and yet has failed to arrest even one corrupt official! He cannot end corruption because he is corrupt himself. He was name in the UN report as one of the Zimbabwean leaders who looted diamonds in the DRC. He has never dared to deny it because he knows that it is true.

The most important thing here is for Zimbabwe to end this failed political system where the people are powerless and so the ruling elite do as they please. President Mnangagwa has promised to end the Zanu PF culture of rigging elections by holding free, fair and credible elections. It is clear he was paying lip-service to the promise. He, like Mugabe, does not want to be held to democratic account by the people and that must end and end now!
We can agree to differ on who has better economic policies and who will fulfil them but what we must agree on is that the right of the people to a meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe must be restored now. Not in the future, not in the next elections; now! If ED cannot deliver free, fair and credible elections, then we must find others who will do so.
Zanu PF will not be allowed to get away with another rigged elections; that is not a threat but a statement of fact!

Patrick said...

So ED has spend the last 38 years "messing around in politics", true enough we all know he is one of the richest individual in the country from the decades of looting and he did Zanu PF's dirtiest vote rigging assignments including the mass murders during Gukurahundi. Now ED wants the nation he is going to finally concentrate on development. What has brought about this Damascene transformation, the nation would want to know?


Whatever Damascene transformation President Mnangagwa and his junta have experienced it was partial and very selective because whilst the junta has embraced with both arms the need for economic change they have resolutely refuse to accept any meaningful political change. So this Zanu PF junta is offering us economic change but strictly on their terms, they are not only demanding that they must be in power but, worse still, that they retain all their dictatorial powers including the carte blanche powers to rig the elections.

Zanu PF is promising economic prosperity but we, the people, are still not allowed to have an meaningful say on whether they believe the junta can do this or not. We are stuck with this Mnangagwa led junta just as we have been stuck with the Mugabe led dictatorship.

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for the last 38 years the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyranical Zanu PF dictatorship. The real challenge before us is how to end the dictatorship and finally, finally give the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

Zimbabwe Light said...

Well instead of giving ED the vote someone has decided to give ED the bomb.


After 38 years of rigging elections the only way to get Mugabe out of office was a military coup and, by extension, the only way to get the vote rigging and coup staging Zanu PF cabal Zanu PF out of office is bombing the lot to kingdom come. If Mnangagwa and his cabal can justify the November coup as a military assisted transition then so can whoever tried to bomb the Zanu PF thugs.


President Mnangagwa has stubbornly refused to implement even one reform, the regime is rigging these elections as readily as it has rigged past elections. Those who refuse to hold free and fair elections and thus allow peaceful transition are, per se, opting for the violent change.

The Bulawayo bomb failed to bring about a change of government but President Mnangagwa and his junta can be 100% certain that there will be another attempt, and another until there is regime change. With unemployment at 90%, 3/4 of the people living on US$1.00 a day, etc. there is no doubt that regime change is long over due.


The people of Zimbabwe are being given a impossible choice to either live and die in abject poverty or to seek change by the only means let to then - street protests or coup! By refusing to hold free and fair elections, the junta is forcing the nation into a tight corner.

The nation has the chance to turn away from the abyss by making sure these flawed elections are declared null and void.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Mike Tawanda


"He (ED) has touted free trade principles and opened up the country to unprecedented investment, which is paying off in an increase in jobs and growth," you say.

The nation was told there would be a flood on foreign investors following ED's "Zimbabwe is open for business!" call. That has not happened. By failing to keep his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections ED has made it clear that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. No investor in his/her right mind would ever want to do business with thugs!