"We enjoyed serenity of politics during the GNU. That spirit must come back. It must come back.
"I pray to the church, that the church must be on their knees each day of their lives and pray for the unity for the people of Zimbabwe," Mudenda said to rapturous applause.
Mudenda added: "I believe that the spirit of the late Dr Tsvangirai which we celebrate through her daughter today shall be reflected in our national politics.
"Don't forget that when the Government of National Unity was formed, Dr Tsvangirai did not look at positional politics, he looked at national politics and what that brings to the people of Zimbabwe."
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was about allowing Mugabe and Zanu PF to have a soft landing. SADC knew that the tyrant and his thugs lost the 2008 elections. Instead of demanding fresh supervised elections which Mugabe and Zanu PF were going to lose and be utterly humiliated the regional body proposed the GNU so Zanu PF could stay in power another 18 months or so. SADC leaders were confident Mugabe and Zanu PF would lose the next free, fair and credible elections.
What SADC leaders did not know was that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. MDC leaders were the ones tasked to implement the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections were free, fair and credible. The GNU was chalked to last 18 months in the end it lasted 5 years and still MDC leaders failed to get even one democratic reform implemented. Not one!
Robert Mugabe saw to it that Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders were granted all the trappings of the gravy train lifestyle; ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a former white owned farm for Welshman Ncube, a $4 million Highland mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough, MDC leaders forgot all about the reforms.
SADC leaders reminded MDC leaders of the need to implement the reforms but the latter did not hear with their snouts in the trough and their ears full of all the agreeable granting from their mates. SADC leaders made one more desperate attempt to have the 2013 elections postponed until the reforms are implemented.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza explained to Violet Gonda.
“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.
“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”
Again, SADC leaders’ advice fell on deaf ears, Morgan Tsvangirai et al went on to participate in the 2013 elections with not even one reform in place. Zanu PF went on to rig those elections.
Morgan Tsvangirai and some of the losing MDC candidates complained about the rigged elections, SADC leaders took their revenge, they ignored the complains. In any case it was a half-hearted complain because some of the MDC leaders who did win the few gravy train seats were happy.
Mugabe and Zanu PF had realised that as long as they allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats they will have the opposition participating in the elections no matter how flawed and illegal the election process got. This is exactly what happen in last year’s elections. ZEC even failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll and still Nelson Chamisa, who had taken over as leader of MDC after Tsvangirai’s death, and the rest participated in the elections regardless.
By allowing Zanu PF to rig elections and stay in power this has left the country stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime for 39 years and counting with the consequence of the serious economic meltdown. Decades of criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources through gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have destroyed the country’s economy.
When Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections he was cocksure his government would deliver economic recovery. This has clearly not happened. The regime is calling for the formation of another GNU in the hope that it will do better in reviving the comatose economy.
“I have the key to unlock the economy!” Nelson Chamisa has often said. All nonsense!
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. No investors would ever want to do business with thugs. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery.
Zimbabwe would NOT be a pariah state if Tsvangirai and company had implemented the democratic reforms during the last GNU.
The way forward is for Zanu PF to step down. There will not be another soft landing for the party because the party’s love of power insatiable it cannot be trusted to implement the democratic reforms. The nation needs the political space and time to finally implement the reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections.
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, the regime is illegitimate and must step down. By hanging on to power the regime is holding the nation ransom and that is totally unacceptable.
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