Tendai Biti was hurried and haunted
out of Zimbabwe and he almost escaped to Zambia only to be nabbed at the last
minute and brought back to Zimbabwe. He has been telling us his adventure and
we will, no doubt, hear the story retold hundreds of thousands of times.
“Firstly, Biti said he dramatically
escaped abduction at his offices last Wednesday when he addressed a Press
conference,” reported News Day.
“He
claimed a fleet of about 15 unmarked cars, some with South African number
plates, tried to block him, but one of the lawyers at his law firm jumped onto
the drive way and made it impossible for the suspected abductors to execute
their plan.
“Biti
said he went into hiding, but his family members and friends were later
subjected to harassment that they were yet to recover from.
“Biti told the court that the
security agents at the border post manhandled him, but he escaped with the help
of a group of women who came to his rescue.
“He
said the Zambian police had a torrid time restraining his alleged “abductors”,
adding after his escape he spent a night in a police toilet with colleagues as
his pursuers bayed for his blood. He was eventually arrested after three
gun-wielding soldiers with balaclavas stormed the Zambian police station,
before being taken back to Zimbabwe in breach of a Zambian court order blocking
his deportation.
“The State allege that the accused
“acted in common purpose, connived and hatched a plan to enter into Zambia by
evading immigration clearance from both Zimbabwe and Zambian authorities”.”
I am not here to retell Tendai Biti’s
adventures but to condemn his reckless greed that has landed this nation in
this fine economic and political mess. I am here to moan the six innocent
Zimbabweans shot dead by soldiers in the aftermath of 30 July 2018 flawed elections
and the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who will pay dearly the consequences
of yet another rigged elections.
These elections should have never
taken place, not without first implementing the reforms designed to stop Zanu
PF rigging the elections. The elections went ahead because Nelson Chamisa, Tendai
Biti and the other MDC friends dragged the nation into these elections. I blame
these MDC leaders for what happened before, during and after the 30 July 2018
elections.
I feel sorry for Biti’s family and
friends for all the harassment they have been subjected to but has no sympathy
for Tendai Biti and co. Indeed, I am furious at Biti and his MDC fiends,
because it was their breath-taking incompetence and downright betrayal that has
landed us into this mess!
After the blatant cheating in the
March 2008 election when Tsvangirai’s 73%, confirmed by Mugabe himself in a classical
Freudian slip, was whittled down to 47%, just enough to force the run-off,
after six weeks of cooking up the figure. Followed by the worst case of wanton
violence and barbarism to force the people to vote for Mugabe in the run-off.
It was clear there was no chance of Zimbabwe holding free, fair and credible
elections without first doing something to end Zanu PF’s overwhelming carte
blanche powers to cheat and rig the elections.
SADC leaders forced Robert Mugabe
to agree to the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) which was
tasked to implement the democratic reforms designed to take away Zanu PF’s
draconian carte blanche powers to deny the people their basic freedoms and
human rights and to stop the regime cheating and rigging elections. The task of
implementing the reforms fell on Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa
and the rest of the MDC leaders. They had five years to implement the reforms
and yet failed to get even one reform implemented. NOT EVEN ONE!
“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya
anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train good-life and not
to rock the boat!) Zanu PF cronies boasted at the time when asked why MDC
leaders were not implementing the reforms. Of course, MDC leaders sold-out big
time and it is about time that they are held to democratic account!
“Insanity,” said the great
Physicist, Albert Einstein, “is doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting a different result!”
Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa and the
MDC gang dragged into these elections knowing fully well that with not even one
democratic reform in place, Zanu PF will rig the elections. After 38 years of
rigged elections, MDC leaders dragged the nation into these election expecting
a different result, expecting to win rigged elections, not because they are
insane but more significantly their insanity is induced by greed.
MDC leaders were warning of the
sheer folly of taking part in elections with no reforms in place. “If you go
into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC
leaders warned Tsvangirai and company on the eve of the 2013 elections.
MDC leaders paid no heed to the
warning because they had their beady eyes on the few gravy train seats they
knew Zanu PF would give away as bait.
“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 (2013) elections,” explained Senator David Coltart, MDC
cabinet minister in the GNU.
“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.”
So Coltart, Tendai Biti and the
rest of the MDC leaders knew that the nation gained absolutely nothing from
participating in the flawed 2013 elections. Instead the nation was condemned to
another five years of Zanu PF misrule and economic meltdown.
Initially MDC passed the party
resolution not to participate in future elections without first implementing
the reforms. “No reform, no elections!” became the carrion call in the
opposition camp. But as the date of this year’s elections approached, greed
invaded the opposition’s minds like the swarm of locust, devouring every blade
of grass, every brain cell, leaving them impermeable to reason.
There is no discernible reason why
this year’s elections went ahead with no democratic reforms in place,
especially after what happened in 2008 and 2013. NONE! No nation can afford to
drag the whole nation into such perilous danger of another five years of
economic meltdown and political instability to gratify the insatiable selfish
greed of the MDC leaders.
Make no mistake about it, Tendai
Biti is thrilled to bit that he finally got a seat back on the gravy train; he
does not give a damn that these elections were rigged, the mindless violence
that followed, that the nation is now facing another five years of Zanu PF
misrule, etc. Only a few weeks ago, when he has garnering for the people’s
votes he promised “to die for democracy, for the cause” (a cause he forgot for
five years when he has hobnobbing with Mugabe). But when the Zanu PF thugs were
unleashed on the defenceless civilians neither Biti nor any other MDC official
anywhere to be seen.
If you are not angry with the likes
of Tendai Biti then it is because you do not understand how he and his MDC
friends sold-out big time in failing to implement the democratic reforms and
continue to drag this nation into unnecessary danger for selfish political
gain.
8 comments:
VP Chiwenga is being arrogant and there are three main reasons why he is doing this:
1) Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and he is one of those people who have enjoyed absolute power for 38 years now and he will fight to retain it at all cost. There is simply no way he was ever going to allow free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe knowing that was going to risk him and Zanu PF losing power.
2) Chiwenga believes that the regime's "Zimbabwe is open for business!" mantra is working just as he believes these elections were free, fair and credible - because the junta said so. He does not understand that investors do not give a damn about the junta says, they can see the country is still ruled by thugs who rig elections to stay in power. No investor is coming to Zimbabwe because no investor likes to do business with thugs.
3) The man has no clue of the seriousness of Zimbabwe's economic mess much less Zanu P's full role in creating that mess; even if he did appreciate the mess and its consequences on the ordinary people, I do not think he really cares. He loves absolute power too much to care about others.
Forcing this Zanu PF junta to implement the democratic reforms is the only peaceful means of getting junta to give up power peacefully. Chiwenga and his friends have tested power and they are not going to give it up without a fight!
@ Machavio
You are a Zanu PF apologist who has often found himself defending the indefensible and thus has often made a complete fool of yourself. You are at it again!
"Wilbert Mukori No Wilbert, don't peddle lies. The GNU was necessitated by the parliamentary election result which yielded no outright winning party which could make a government on its own, with the MDC-T having 100 seats, ZANU PF having 99,MDC-N with 10 seats and one Independent seat. That GNU never had this reform shit as its mandate. Liar, liar. Be ashamed of yourself," you said.
The truth is no one, not even SADC and AU election observers, would endorse Mugabe's 84% victory in the June 2008 run-off as a true reflection of the free and democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe given the barbarism and wanton violence Zanu PF had used to force people to vote for the tyrant. With no one recognizing the elections results there was no legitimate government in Zimbabwe and so the country had to either hold fresh elections or form a government of national unity, GNU.
With no reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections, it was clearly pointless holding fresh elections. SADC proposed the GNU in which, Zanu PF and the two MDC factions, the partners in the GNU, were tasked to implement the democratic reforms design to stop a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence of 2008.
SADC was the guarantor to the agreement and the regional leaders their best to remind Tendai Biti and his MDC fiends to implement the reforms but were ignored. Instead of implementing the reforms Biti and company were falling over each other singing praises of Mugabe. "Mugabe is the fountain of wisdom, the unflappable father of the nation!" said Biti.
"I am speechless in Mugabe's presence!" piped in Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
Of course, MDC leaders sold-out on implementing reforms during the GNU and they are selling out now by participating in flawed and illegal elections for the same of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait. These are all true and historic facts that Zanu PF propaganda cannot airbrush out of existence! And you are making a complete ass of yourself by denying these facts.
@ Marko Chikoma
"The writer must be reminded that even if the MDC had refused to go into elections citing reforms, the elections were going to proceed remember there are so many other fragment political parties of Zanu PF which were created to legitimize the flawed systems. Don't blame the MDC leadership for that unless you have a hidden point. Maybe you are Zanu supporter. ED pfeee . Stop being biased," you said.
So you do agree that by participating in the flawed elections MDC were per se "legitimizing the flawed system".
The follow up question you have to ask is why would MDC leaders risk their own money and the safety of their own family and friends - to say nothing of povo's freedoms and rights they are selling out cheaply because we know MDC leaders do not give a damn about the suffering povo - legitimizing a flawed and illegal process? The answer is obvious, there a few gravy train seats up for grabs.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb voting Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa all those year on the mistaken belief that MDC would bring about the democratic changes the nation needed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Little did they know, many still do not know to this day, that MDC sold-out on reforms during the GNU and have, ever since, been legitimizing a flawed process for selfish political gain.
The people of Zimbabwe are desperate for a way out of their economic misery and political repression these MDC leaders are telling the people they are bringing them bullet trains and economic boom when they know they are selling-out to Zanu PF for thirty pieces of silver. Someone must tell the people MDC are sell-outs masquerading as Holy Wood heroes!
@Zimpaper
"Operation Restore Legacy led to the resignation of Robert Mugabe who had ruled the country for over three and a half decades. It ushered in a new political dispensation that has brought with it hope for a brighter future" you said.
Only a Zanu PF apologist would say such nonsense and lo behold the article was penned by "Zimpaper"!
Operation Restore Legacy was a military coup - forget all the nonsense of it being a military assisted transition, there was nothing new with transiting from a dictatorship to a dictatorship - an act of high treason and it is naïve to believe any good was ever going to come out of it, especially when those staging the coup were only doing so to seize absolute power for themselves.
If anyone was ever in any doubt that the coup removed the dictator Mugabe but left the Zanu PF dictatorship unchanged then the elections of 30 July 2018 and the events that followed have spelt it out loud and clear. Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by ruthless vote-rigging thugs.
Foreign investors and lenders have read the message and will shy away from Zimbabwe. Apologist can witter all they want about "a brighter future" but with none of the much needed foreign investment to kick start the country's comatose economy the future will remain grime!
Mugabe has dragged the nation into this hell-on-earth with his de facto one-party dictatorship. Instead of helping us end the dictatorship, operation restore legacy has plunged the nation even deeper into this hell by turning a covertly military dictatorship into an overtly and in your face military dictatorship. Half the cabinet after the coup was ex-military personal for Pete's sake who have taken off their military uniforms but kept their military rank just to remind us all who they are!
Some of foreign election observers are returning home. We are still awaiting their preliminary reports.
Where these elections free, fair and credible?
The answer has to be a NO! How can the elections be free and fair when the authorities could not produce something as basic as a clean voters' roll. It has since emerged that no fewer than 10 polling stations had more that 100% voter turnout and some even had more than 200% voter turnout.
And yet we also know that many registered voters were denied the vote because they turned up at the wrong polling station. In 2013 nearly one million voters were denied the vote because they details were in the wrong constituency voters' roll. This time a lot more people were denied the vote since it was a polling station bases voting, one and half million voters at the very least.
So with 1.5 million out of the 5.6 registered voters, 26%, denied the vote how is it then possible that so many polling stations still had over 100% voter turnout?
Of course, these elections were rigged and anyone, especially from democratic nation, who says otherwise will be lying. I would want to see the individual say they would judge similar elections in their own country free, fair and credible if what they observed happen in Zimbabwe was repeated in their own country.
How can these elections be free, fair and credible when ZEC has failed to produce something as basic as a clean voters' roll?
Now it turns out that no fewer than 10 of the polling stations achieved the impossible feat of having more that 100% voter turnout! Some station even had more than 200%. This is even more shocking since at least 1.5 million voters were denied the vote because they turned up at the wrong polling station since voting was by polling station only.
The mistake MDC leaders made was to agree to go into these elections with no reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging. It beggars belief that anyone with half a brain would agree to go into an election with no voters' roll. And yet that is exactly what MDC leaders did!
Having foolishly agreed to contest in these flawed and illegal elections, MDC have their work cut out to prove the elections were rigged with no voters' roll, etc. Their case is based on ZEC failing to add the votes, by then most of the vote rigging was done and dusted!
Derek is right, our rural folk are not citizen with a free and democratic vote but they are nothing more that subjects in a feudal system whose vote is no more theirs than the land was the property of the tenant. We have all heard of stories of opposition supporters who have had their homes and property destroyed and booted out of the village or worse. Last week, the social media was awash with photographs of a burnt out shell of an opposition's homestead.
What is disappointing here is that people like Derek readily agree Zanu PF is running a modern day feudal system in which the rural voters are nothing more than serfs they, nonetheless pretend there can still be free, fair and credible elections under these dark-ages conditions. That is just nonsense!
Biti told the court that a female representative in Buhera had reported how she was raped and threatened after refusing to sign another V11 form and how most of their male election agents would be sodomised, specifically in Mutoko.
"I felt that the regime which had had just seven months in office had escalated the abuses. There was massive onslaught on our election agents," Biti said.
"In Buhera, a woman was raped after refusing to sign another V11 form. We were also getting reports of onslaughts on our people being sodomised and raped across the country specifically in Mutoko, but nothing has been done by law enforcement agents in those respects."
These are crocodile tears! Tendai Biti was warned hundreds of thousands of times that, without first implementing the democratic reforms, Zanu PF will rig these elections, denying millions of our people a meaningful say in the governance of the country and subjecting many to intimidation, harassment, beatings and some people may even lose their lives. This is exactly what has happened.
The only reason Tendai Biti and the rest in the opposition camp refused to listen is because they knew Zanu PF would give away a few gravy train seats during these elections. Biti and company were after these scraps and did not give a damn that the price the nation at large would pay was unacceptably high.
Tendai Biti was one of the few opposition members to get a seat back in parliament, senate or on the local council and that is all they cared about! He is shedding buckets of crocodile tears about the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are set to suffer the consequences of another five years of Zanu PF misrule.
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