”Cde President, you personally stretched out your hand to the
opposition after Zanu PF’s July 30 landslide victory. But the opposition spurned that hand,” said VP Constantino Chiwenga at the Annual Zanu PF People’s National Conference.
opposition after Zanu PF’s July 30 landslide victory. But the opposition spurned that hand,” said VP Constantino Chiwenga at the Annual Zanu PF People’s National Conference.
“You have since withdrawn the well-stretched hand. All of us follow, principally those of us in Parliament are very happy that our Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs (Ziyambi Ziyambi), acting in his capacity as leader of the House (in Parliament), sent a clear signal of paying back the opposition in the hard coin they have tossed us. They have chosen to disrespect our leader who is the Head of State of our nation (President Mnangagwa).
“We have no reason to handle them with the respect they have voluntarily rejected.”
This is just Zanu PF flexing big bully muscle! The party blatantly rigged the elections denying over 3 millions Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote; refused to release the verified voters’ roll although this is a legal requirement; refused to free up the public media; in its affidavit submitted to the Con-Court, ZEC had three different vote tally results, proof the figures had been cooked up; etc.
All the international election observers have dismissed the elections as flawed and illegal. Even the British who had been bending over backwards to help Mnangagwa regime to be accepted back into the world community ever since last November’s coup, could not gloss over the blatant vote rigging. The outgoing UK Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ms Catriano Laing’s, parting shot to the regime was “the electoral playing field was not level”!
“The electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” EU Election Observer Mission said in its final report.
“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
If the elections had “failed to meet international standard” there is only one conclusion: Zanu PF rigged the elections, the party does not have the mandate and therefore the regime is illegitimate.
MDC Alliance should have never agreed to participate in these elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Nelson Chamisa et al are only joining “Zanu PF is illegitimate” bandwagon for the selfish purpose of wringing gravy train concessions from Zanu PF.
Even if Nelson Chamisa had acknowledged Mnangagwa as the winner of the recent elections without the Con-Court challenge; that would not have made all the glaring flaws and illegalities go away. The EU Observers’ conclusion that “the elections had failed to meet international standards” was based on the observed glaring flaws and illegalities and not on what Chamisa did or didn’t do!
“We have no reason to handle them with the respect!” This is an ominous threat that all who knows Zanu PF’s history would be very foolish to dismiss.
Zanu PF’s hunger for absolute power and the political influence and wealth it has brought is insatiable. The party has shown again and again that it will do whatever it dimmed necessary to secure power be it rigging elections and even shedding innocent blood. Zanu PF has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship.
The shooting of seven civilians on 1st August 2018 was to quell the protest against another rigged elections and a timely reminder the regime would not hesitate to shed more innocent blood in its drive to hang on to power, regardless of it being illegitimate.
Zimbabweans must now brace themselves for the the double whammy of the economic hardships from the worsening economic situation, on the one hand. By rigging the elections Zanu PF has just confirmed Zimbabwe is still a pariah state and thus killed all hopes of any meaningful economic recovery. Investors, local and foreign, do not do business in a pariah state.
On the other hand the nation will be subjected to increased political repression. The worsening economic situation will force the people to protest their suffering and Zanu PF, fearful of losing its iron grip on power will step up the political repression.
Zanu PF blame MDC Alliance’s refusal to acknowledge Mnangagwa as the winner to justify its “shoot to kill” against the nation, a case of collective punishment. As far as Zanu PF is concerned it is “paying back the opposition in the hard coin they have tossed us!” This is just the classical case of the bad wolf, up stream, accusing the lamb of mudding the water!
Like it or not, Zanu PF thugs now know they will never revive the economy and so they have given up all hope of winning free, fair and credible elections. They are in power and are going to hold on to power by rigging elections, period.
If we are serious about reviving the Zimbabwe economy then we must be firm and resolute in our demand for good and accountable government. When we say we demand free, fair and credible elections, we must mean it and there is no better way to show that than punishing those who rig elections.
Zanu PF has rig elections for the last 38 years and we have allowed the party to get away with it. There can be no better time to stop the rot than now. Zanu PF rigged the 30 July 2018 elections rewarding the thugs with high office is the most foolish thing we can ever do as the regime is now abusing state power to impose itself and consolidating its dictatorial rule.
Zanu PF rigged the elections, the party must be pressured to step down. This is the only way out of the political and economic mess Zimbabwe finds itself in today.
14 comments:
Last November's coup was to stop Mugabe from booting out Mnangagwa and the rest top brass in the secrocrats out of power. There is no doubt that some in the security services will feel left out but there are not that many. If there is any discontent in the security service it will be because Zanu PF is imploding!
What must be remember here is that the last coup did not change the economic situation in the country.
The worsening economic situation is the biggest driving force for political change.
Professor Douglas Mpondi of African Studies Association, Atlanta defines “Chinhu chedu” as, ” an opinion by a specific group of people in a political party or in a country’s political battlefield that ‘them’ or an individual they want has the absolute right to lead the party or the Country.
After being in power for 38 years, it is little wonder that Zanu PF now believes the party has the right “to rig elections”. The party will never reform itself out of power as Professor Jonathan Moyo rightly pointed out. “You can’t expect us to reform ourselves out of power,’ said the Professor. Having rigged the elections the party has seized the levers of political power and would not step down. And so the country has found itself caught between the rock and the deep blue sea, like Homer’s hero Odysseus. Zanu PF will neither give up power nor implement the reform necessary to stop it rigging power and thus perpetuating its stay in power.
As we now know, letting Zanu PF rig the elections and stay in power has been a costly mistake because this has allowed mismanagement and corruption to grow and spread to the point we are today with the economy in total ruins and the nation at the edge of the precipice. Zanu PF is itself imploding because the party thugs are fighting amongst themselves, the party is doomed to sink into the abyss. The choice before us is to force Zanu PF to let go its strangle hold on the nation is thus stop the party dragging the nation into the abyss with it.
To huge cheers, Cde Mnangagwa — who is the Head of State and Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Forces — said: “Here is the message from Esigodini. Those who have ears listen, those with eyes see: Zanu-PF is boldly on the move.”
Can anyone remember even one occasion in the last 38 years when Zanu PF supporters have failed to cheer and applaud the party and its leaders? I cannot remember. Some of the so called “big ideas, big projects” such as the Batoka Gorge Dam have been on the cards for the last 40 years, Smith was planning to build the dam and would have done so if the civil war had not intervened. All Zanu PF has ever done is talk about the project, the country is in such a political and economic mess it is impossible to see how this regime will ever get such a project done!
“Zanu PF is boldly on the move!” There is only direction the country is going, deeper and deeper into the economic and political hell-on-earth Zanu PF has dragged the nation into. The country has had crippling shortages of cash, forex, fuel, food, medicine, etc., etc., warning signs that the economic meltdown is getting worse not better, but yet instead of doing something to stop the rot the idiots are celebrating disaster as success!
Cry, the beloved country for your already heart-breaking suffering is set to get even worse! The tragedy is the majority are totally helpless to do anything themselves to stop the rot because they have never bothered to understand what is going on. Ignorance is curse and the price for being ignorant can be very high – human misery and death!
An interesting and thought provoking piece, Tawanda. I would have given three cheers but will give it two instead because of one piece. “It (Zanu PF) has just won a two-thirds majority in parliament and it would take a miracle to upset that in the next elections. So, there is a big possibility that it will still be in power after 2023. It was always going to be an absurdity to start endorsing ED as the Zanu PF presidential candidate for 2023 now,” you said.
Zanu PF did not “win” two-thirds majority in parliament!
These elections were flawed and illegal, the party denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora a vote, ZEC failed to produce a verified voters roll and failed to produce the V11 forms so people could verified where its figures came from, etc. Zimbabwe government’s own appointed Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission said Chiefs, traditional leaders and Zanu PF operatives abused the state provided food aid and agricultural inputs to turn rural voters into nothing short of medieval serfs beholden to their overbearing landlords, Zanu PF.
The elections were certainly not free, fair and credible and Zanu PF rigged the elections.
I do agree with you that if Zanu PF remains in office till 2023 then we can be 100% certain the party will rig those elections too and extend its corrupt and tyrannical rule. The only such way to stop this is by demanding that Zanu PF step down.
Zanu PF rigged the 1980 elections. The party did not withdraw all its freedom fighters into assembly points as agreed in the Lancaster House talks and these individuals make it impossible for Zanu PF opponents to campaign freely in some areas and they warned voters the war would continue is Zanu PF lost the elections. The 1980 vote was a vote to end the war and therefore not a free, fair and credible elections.
The greatest mistake the nation made was to reward Zanu PF with high office after rigging the elections. It was a dangerous precedence and one Zanu PF has exploited for the last 38 years. If we are serious about getting Zimbabwe our of this political and economic hell-on-earth Zanu PF has landed us into then we must demand free, fair and credible elections and mean it.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the recent elections and to pretend otherwise is not helping our cause - fight for free, fair and credible elections!
"We should further entrench the rule of law and constitutionalism in the party and the country,” said Mnangagwa.
Well that is rich coming from someone who has just rigged the elections to perpetuate Zanu PF’s 38 years in power.
Mnangagwa and his junta are illegitimate and the only way out if for them to step down. Anyone who believes that Zanu PF will ever implement meaningful democratic reform to guarantee free, fair and credible elections is very naive. If Zanu PF is still in power in 2023 the party will blatantly rig those elections, of that we can be 100% certain!
"Behold the New. Change that Delivers!"
Yeah, right! What was new in MDC in participating in elections knowing Zanu PF would rig the elections? What changes did the party deliver in participating in rigged elections?
To take the country out of the present economic mess; Zanu PF rigged the elections and therefore it must step down as the party has no mandate to govern. Zanu PF will never implement any reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
As for MDC Alliance, stop mudding the muddy water with your clamouring for a share of the gravy train spoils. MDC will never get any democratic reforms implemented, the party failed to get this done during the 2008 GNU it is naive to believe they will do so now. MDC Alliance must step aside.
What Zimbabwe needs is an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible election. Neither Zanu PF leaders nor MDC leaders can be appointed into this administration.
"I'm differentiating that from an IMF financial programme which, of course, discussion of that, as we've said here before, would require the clearance of arrears by Zimbabwe to the other international financial institutions as well as an agreement with official bilateral creditors,” said Gerry Rice IMF official.
"So, we are looking at a staff monitored programme, but not at this point, the full financial programme for the reasons I just mentioned. …”
Zimbabwe is failing to get enough foreign currency to buy basic necessities such as fuel, medicine, etc. So where is the country going to get the money to buy these basic necessities and pay off its $2 billion debt arrears too!
We have a regime that is refusing to deal with real issues and preferring to deal with wishful thinking. It is refusing to accept that it blatantly rigged the elections and that consequences of its actions was confirming Zimbabwe as a pariah state that no one wants to deal with. The party is insist that it won free and fair elections and that there is a flood of investors pouring into the country and the country’s economy is booming!
Sadly, the people need fuel, real fuel and not imaginary fuel, to fill their cars. They need medicine, real medicine and not imaginary medicine, or they will not get better and, no doubt, many are dying!
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!
If there is one thing we can be absolutely certain on it is that Zanu PF will NEVER EVER implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. NEVER EVER! After 38 years of absolute power, these guys are now used to enjoying absolute power it is simply unthinkable for them to be out of power.
The long years of absolute power have allowed them to do many things they would otherwise have never done if it had ever occurred to them that one day they will not be in power and held to account for what they did.
Zimbabweans must accept the political reality that Zanu PF thugs are holding the nation to ransom. It is only when one has accepted this reality that one can begin to understand why removing Zanu PF from office, asking the party to step down, is not going to be a walk in the park.
Allowing Zanu PF to remain in office is not much of an option either because we can be certain on one thing the economic meltdown will only get worse and worse. The shortage of medicine, for example, is having an immediate result in increased human suffering and lost lives.
As a nation we have been condition to accept our suffering and even deaths stoically even when these things are man-made and should have been avoided. It is this weakness that has allowed tyrants to ride roughshod over us denying us our freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even our right to life.
People think they are making a painless choice in allowing Zanu PF to remain in power rather than confront the regime and face the consequence of the "shoot to kill" policy. The truth is the nation is paying dearly for having allowed Zanu PF to stay in power regardless of the vote rigging in terms of the over 30 000 political murders and the suffering and deaths cause by the economic meltdown.
It would make more sense to suffer and die fighting to end the dictatorship than to continue to suffer and die under the dictatorship with no hope of when it will all end because the dictatorship will never allow its own demise. Never!
“Zanu PF blame MDC Alliance's refusal to acknowledge Mnangagwa as the winner to justify its "shoot to kill" against the nation, a case of collective punishment. As far as Zanu PF is concerned it is "paying back the opposition in the hard coin they have tossed us!" This is just the classical case of the bad wolf, up stream, accusing the lamb of mudding the water!”
You are right Zanu PF is the big, bad wolf, up stream, s***ting in the water and then threaten the lambs down stream with death if they dared to complain about it. Except in this case, we must never forget that we are human beings, who have chosen to be as helpless as lamb before the big bad wolf. Yes, Zanu PF thugs have proven to be murderous thugs but we must never ever for get that they are mortals human beings, just like the rest of us.
Zanu PF thugs have tormented us so these last 38 years but only because the thugs have usurped our freedoms, rights and power and have abused that power to make our lives hell-on-earth! It is up to us to reclaim our rights and freedoms.
Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs and they know they rigged the elections to stay in power and now they will kill to hang on to power. The real tragedy here is the people are being pushed to demand meaningful change by the worsening economic situation and yet they also know the regime will shoot to kill just to remain in power. In the end people will revolt and innocent blood will be spilt. "Zanu PF ndeye ropa!" (Zanu PF is a party of blood!) as members have often boasted.
It is a great pity that the nation failed to get even one democratic reform implemented during the 2008 GNU when the country had the golden opportunity to do so! MDC leaders betrayed the nation big time and the nation is paying dearly for it!
Zanu PF will use the MDC's refusal to recognise Mnangagwa as the president as an excuse for using brute force to silence dissent. If is was not this excuse it would still have found another excuse; you cannot win with them.
It is the people who should angry that Zanu PF rigged the elections and yet it is the regime that is angry and will mete out the punishment on the people for daring to demand their right to free and fair elections.
The Minister of State for Masvingo Province, Ezra Chadzamira has warned overcharging retailers and wholesalers that they will lose trading licences if they fail to abide by the government’s pricing system.
Chadzamira told a Masvingo-based radio station some unscrupulous traders were deliberately sabotaging government’s economic revival programmes.
Zanu PF has tried to resist the temptation to reintroduce price controls and now it is clear it has failed.
The price controls did not work in the past and they will not work now. The problem of shortages or even higher black market prices are back.
The Motlanthe Commission report is out and it blame MDC for the violence, as many had expected.
It was a complete whitewash and a waste of time and resources!
Here we go! The country is facing serious financial problems and ED is increasing the cost of the country's already bloated public sector wage bill!
119 Army Officers promoted!
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