“It is now a year since Zimbabweans voted
in the last harmonized elections on 30th July 2018,” read the MDC statement.
“We reiterate that the results of the
Presidential election as announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
and as endorsed by the Constitutional Court; were not a true reflection of the
will of the people. We further maintain that according to our computation, our
candidate Advocate Nelson Chamisa emerged as a clear winner in the contest.”
The country, indeed the whole world at
large, considers this as yet another example of MDC obdurate and obstructive stupidity.
The Americans, the Commonwealth, EU and
many other international nations and organisation have all dismissed last year’s
elections as farce and a mockery to all that democratic elections should be.
“The (Zimbabwe) electoral commission
lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,”
stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission final report.
“The final results as announced by the
Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate
traceability, transparency and verifiability. 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.”
The EU and anyone else of note never
considered MDC’s claim that Nelson Chamisa won the presidential race for two
basic reasons:
a) The whole election process was full of flaws and illegalities;
ZEC failed to produce something as basic and fundamental to democratic elections
as a verified voters’ roll, for example. It is a mystery that anyone with any
common sense even agreed to participate in such elections when it was clear
Zanu PF would rig the elections. The whole election process was not free, fair
and credible and so all the results were null and void. Why MDC chose to accept
the election process as valid and only to reject some selected results
including the presidential race results is beggars belief.
b) Even if one was to accept whatever twisted logic MDC used to justify
overlooking all the flaws and illegalities in the election process, still no
one could ever accept MDC’s claim that Chamisa polled more votes than Mnangagwa.
Both Chamisa and ZEC for Mnangagwa failed to produce all the V11 forms, a
summary of each candidate’s vote count by polling stations. About 10% of the
V11 forms were never made public although this is a legal requirement just as
producing a verified voters’ roll was a legal requirement. Of course, it is
nonsensical for anyone to accept Chamisa’s or ZEC’s figure when one cannot
verify or trace any of the figures.
Anyone familiar with Zimbabwe’s checked
political history was not at all surprised that MDC and the rest in the
Zimbabwe opposition camp participated in last year’s elections even though ZEC
had failed to produce something as basic as verified voters’ roll and all knew
Zanu PF would rig the elections. The opposition candidates also knew that Zanu
PF would be giving away a few gravy train seats as bait. It was these seats the
opposition were after.
“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,” admitted MDC Senator David Coltart in his
book.
“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.”
Four of the main MDC factions did form a
coalition just before the 2018 elections and still they participated knowing
fully well that Zanu PF would rig the elections for the same reason as before –
greed for the scrap gravy train seats on offer.
The only reason MDC has decided to accept
the election process as free, fair and credible but reject the presidential
result is to take advantage of the fact that everyone else of note dismissed
the election as a farce. MDC is offering Mnangagwa “legitimacy” in return for cabinet
positions for Chamisa and one or two other MDC leaders.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF party are
illegitimate because last year’s election process was flawed and illegal and
therefore could not produce a legitimate winner. With no legitimate government
Zimbabwe will then be compelled to appoint an interim administration whose
primary task would be to implement the necessary democratic reforms to stop
this curse of rigged elections.
But by participating in the flawed and
illegal elections and then MDC bargaining legitimacy for a share of the spoils
of the rigged elections, the opposition has given Zanu PF some modicum of political
credibility. This has undermined those demanding that Zanu PF must step down on
the grounds the regime is illegitimate. This is why MDC’s contradictory claim
to have won presidential race is not just stupid but worse still an obstruction
to the pressing matter of implementing the reforms and ending the curse of
rigged elections.
12 comments:
There is an inherent contradiction in MDC’s position here. The party believed Chanisa won the presidency and does not recognise Mnangagwa as the legitimate president. Many people have no problem with Mnangagwa being illegitimate since they have dismissed the whole election as a farce. MDC’s proposal that the party and Zanu PF can meet and agree on some power sharing arrangement and between them agree on the composition of the new legitimate government is problematic in that it is not in the powers of the two political to confer legitimacy unto themselves.
Any election process in which there was no verified voters’ roll; 3 million potential voters in the diaspora were denied the vote (compared to 5 million who voted); in which the rural voters, 60% of the 5 million, were reduced to little short of medieval serfs beholden to Zanu PF; etc. can never ever be judged free, fair and credible. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime is illegitimate because the election was not free, fair and credible. The ration way forward is for the nation to elect an interim government to implement the reforms and hold fresh elections.
For the two principal players in the rigged elections to decide amongst themselves the way forward is a nonsense since they are the ones who landed the nation in this mess in the first place.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has repeatedly failed to hold free, fair and credible elections for the last 39 years. The country has a chance to appoint competent individuals to carry out this key task.
It is clear that both Zanu PF, by imposing itself as the legitimate government, and MDC, by offering Zanu PF a way out of the illegitimacy on condition the regime shares the spoils, are trying to impose themselves on the nation. The promise to implement a “robust reform agenda” is rejected because the two parties failed to implement even one reform during the last GNU. After 39 years of holding this nation to ransom, all attempts to continue to do so will be resisted!
It is most disheartening that the people of Zimbabwe have risk life and limb to elect MDC politicians into public office on the understanding the party will help dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and now it is none other than MDC that is helping Zanu PF to stay power!
In signing the 2008 Global Political Agreement negotiated with the help of SADC, was the closest Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs came to losing power. The real tragedy was that the MDC leaders failed to get even one meaningful reform implemented in five years. Not one!
“We got in the inclusive government and just sat there, spent five years in there. We came out without doing anything," admitted Nelson Chamisa, the new MDC leader after a decade of denying they had sold-out during the GNU.
Paul Themba Nyati, the MDC leader in the news clip has yet to admit that MDC sold-out. Mugabe bribe the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office; the limos; generous salaries and allowances; a former white owned farm for Welshman Ncube (the leader of the MDC faction to which Nyati belonged); a $4 million mansion for Morgan Tsvangirai, the of the main MDC faction; etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough MDC leaders forgot about implementing the reforms.
When Mnangagwa failed to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2018, Zanu PF was once again under pressure to step down. Sadly it is once again the MDC sell-outs who are helping the regime off the hook. MDC is offering to declare the Zanu PF regime legitimate regardless of the fact the party rigged last year's elections. And in return Chamisa is demanding that Mnangagwa appoint him and a few other MDC leaders ministers complete with the usual gravy train perks!
Thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans have lost their lives in the fight to elect MDC leaders like Paul Themba Nyati into power on the understanding the MDC leaders will bring about the democratic changes the nation has been dying for the last 39 years. It is heart breaking that MDC has failed to bring about even one meaningful change in 20 years of the party's existence.
Worse still, it is infuriating that it in none other than MDC leaders who are undermining efforts to get the reforms implemented by giving the Zanu PF regime the modicum of political credibility it does not deserve by participating in flawed and illegal elections, for example. So to fight for democratic change we now have to fight not only Zanu PF thugs but MDC sell-outs too!
Chiwocha, who holds a business studies diploma from a college in the capital Harare, says his hopes have been cruelly dashed.
“I graduated in 2012 and I have not had a job. I thought after winning the elections, Mnangagwa would fix the economy and all who had qualifications would get jobs.”
Whilst one can have sympathy for the rural voters who are nothing more than serfs and have no choice but to vote for Zanu PF it is impossible to feel sorry for individuals like Chiwocha who voted for Zanu PF freely. By the time people voted, 8 months since the military coup, it was already clear that Mnangagwa had no intention of holding free, fair and credible elections. It was clear the Zanu PF dictatorship was still firmly in place and Zimbabwe was to remain a pariah state. No one had any excuse to expect Mnangagwa to revive the economy because no one would invest in a pariah state!
Zimbabwe is in this sorry state because, sadly, the country has more than its fair share of really naïve and gullible people who follow blindly like sheep. After 39 years it is fair to say the nation had many, many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but wasted them all. The country’s main opposition party, the MDC, has had many chances to dismantle the dictatorship but sold-out. Even now with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans still fail to see MDC leaders for the incorrupt and incompetent village idiots they are.
As a rule of thumb, nations get the government they deserve. We, in Zimbabwe, certain deserve this corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and utterly useless opposition parties, some130 of them contested the flawed and illegal 2018 elections.
As long as the country’s electorate remain naïve and gullible like Chiwocha this country is not to escape out of the hell-on-earth it is stuck in. Understanding what is going on in the country requires a little effort on the part of the people, those who are too lazy to think deserve to suffer.
Poor Chamisa, he is so corrupt and incompetent all his plans and strategies have fallen flat on their faces at the first huddle and so in a desperate effort to get people to follow him he is presenting his plans and strategies as divinely inspired. He is going through a 7 day countdown of Biblical Joshua marching round Jericho right now before calling out on the nation to join him in the street protest to demand that Mnangagwa appoints him, Tendai Biti and a few other MDC leaders minister in a new GNU arrangement.
The last GNU in 2008 accomplished nothing as Chamisa himself was forced to admit two weeks ago after a decade of denying. In the new GNU MDC leaders have even less political power than the 2008 one it is naïve to believe the arrangement will implement any reforms. The arrangement is to secure gravy train seats for Chamisa and his friends at the expense of the masses MDC will be selling out once again. How can God ever be associated with a scheme for the few at the expense of the impoverished and long suffering masses!
Chamisa the Biblical Joshua, whatever next!
It was not until the late 1990s that many Zimbabweans finally accepted that Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends were corrupt, incompetent and, worst of all, vote rigging and murderous thugs. By then the Zanu PF dictatorship was well established and its corrupting influence was deep rooted in society. There was a nation wide consensus on the need for democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but uprooting it was not going to be a walk in the park.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends formed a new political party and named it the Movement for Democratic Change; to capitalized on the already popular national clarion call of democratic change. People have risked livelihoods, property, life and limb to elect MDC leaders into office on the understanding they would bring about the democratic changes. Sadly, that was not to be.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent; they have had many, many golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship but have wasted them all. During the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC had their best chances ever to implemented the reforms; they "sat, ate and did nothing" as Chamisa himself finally admitted.
I totally agree with you that Zanu PF rigged last year's election, the regime is illegitimate and the most logical course of action is demanding that Zanu PF step down to allow a competent interim authority to finally implement the democratic reforms. MDC's counter proposal of a Zanu PF and MDC GNU is a waste of time as we all know that it will never implement the democratic reforms. Never! Chamisa et al are calling for this new GNU because they want another chance "to sit, eat and do nothing!"
It took 20 years for Zimbabweans to finally admit Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends are corrupt and murderous thugs. In all its 20 years on the political stage, MDC has failed to bring about even one democratic change and right now the party is the one helping Zanu PF stay in power. How much longer will it take before Zimbabweans finally wake up to the reality that Chamisa and his MDC friends are sell-outs undermining the national agenda of democratic change and free, fair and credible elections?
How much longer can this nation endure the economic hardships brought on by the 40 years of Zanu PF misrule?
A new GNU will give Chamisa and a few MDC leaders a chance to get back on the gravy train as cabinet minister but will achieve nothing else. If the 2008 GNU failed to get even one reform implemented it is naive to expect this new and weaker GNU to do any better.
Zanu PF rigged last year's elections, we should be piling the pressure on the regime to step down.
The last GNU was SADC providing a soft landing for Mugabe and Zanu PF but with a good chance of getting the reforms implemented if MDC had not sold out. This new GNU is MDC providing a soft landing for Zanu PF again and worse still knowing fully well there is no hope in getting any reforms implemented. None!
The economic situation in Zimbabwe is dire with unemployment a nauseating 90%, health care all but collapsed, 3/4 of our people living on US$30 or less a month, etc. The country needs solutions to end this curse of rigged elections and move forward. The proposed new GNU is just another time wasting gimmick. One only hopes that Zimbabweans will see MDC leaders for what they are - sell-outs - and stop following them like sheep to the slaughter!
In a cryptic post on Twitter on Tuesday, MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti said a radical paradigm shift was required.
"There comes at a time in the history of any struggle where a radical paradigm shift is required. Section 59 cries out loud .Our people are suffering , poverty , shortages ,hyperinflation , corruption and the collapse of social services decimates our people #Itistime," posted Biti
Section 59 of the Constitution states that, "Every person has the right to demonstrate and to present petitions, but these rights must be exercised peacefully."
Meanwhile, Biti, reacting to the party's recent loss in the Lupane East by election, said they needed to formulate a strong policy to woo rural voters.
"It is true that there is a lot we could do better in terms of our rural strategy and rural effort. It is true that we may need to redefine our deployment strategy. But we lost #Lupane East to an uneven and unequal electoral playing field. We lost to selectorate, to coercion and capture," he said.
MDC leaders will continue to participate in those elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happen to be because of greed as David Coltart readily admitted in his book.
In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, gave details of how Zanu PF flouted the electoral rules, it clear the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and fair. Meanwhile talks of uniting the two MDC factions to fight the elections as one were going nowhere.
“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.”
Right now MDC leaders are calling for nationwide demonstration to push the party’s demand to force Mnangagwa to form a new GNU in which they would have cabinet seats. The new GNU will not implement any reforms just as the old one failed to do the same.
There is a crying need for Zimbabweans to wake up to the political reality that MDC leaders are no longer interested in fighting for free, fair and credible elections for all Zimbabweans all they are after now is winning the few gravy train seats.
The nation should be pressuring Zanu PF to step down because the regime rigged last year’s election and it is illegitimate. It is none other than MDC leaders who are helping Zanu PF to remain in office in return for cabinet positions. Zimbabweans must wake up or they are going to waste the chance to effect meaningful change yet again.
The much anticipated MDC mother of all demonstrations is penciled to be held on the 16th of August 2019 a prominent journalist Hopewell Chin'ono has said.
"My Police sources have just told me that the MDC has served notice as required by the law, that they will be taking to the streets on the 16th of August 2019, in a protest signaling the beginning of the party's expected demonstrations against the low standard of life in Zimbabwe." the award winning journalist wrote on Twitter.
Said Chamisa, "Faith without works is dead. It is not time for us to be our own liberators."
What any thinking Zimbabwean out there would find totally objectionable about Chamisa’s call is his deliberate misrepresentation of his call for public protest as an act of faith, an act approved by God when that is just nonsense. Chamisa’s claim that “God is in these demos” is just as nonsensical as Grace Mugabe’s claim the “God anointed Mugabe to rule Zimbabwe!”
Mugabe was a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thug. Of course, it was blasphemous to suggest God would ever be associated with such an evil man.
Zimbabwe is still in this political and economic mess because MDC leader “sat, ate and failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the last GNU,” as Chamisa himself acknowledged last month. MDC leaders are seeking a new GNU for the same reason, to “sit, eat and do nothing!” whilst the majority continue to suffer and die. Of course, it is blasphemous that God approved the sell-out scheme!
Zimbabwe is a pariah state, ruled by some of the most corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging thugs the world has ever seen. Decades of criminal waste of the nation's human and material resources has left the nation in economic ruins and investors have shied away. When Mnangagwa rigged last year's elections he confirmed that the country was still a pariah state and the adventurous but ill-advised policies of his Minister of Finance have certainly triggered the run-away hyperinflation. It is clear the regime does not know what to do stop the worsening economic meltdown!
The only real solution is for the illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down so the country can finally get outside help to implement the political reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. We need to reset our political system and a clean start.
What most Zimbabweans have failed to appreciate even now with the benefit of hindsight is that MDC sold-out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. After a decade of denying MDC failed to implemented the reforms, Chamisa admitted it three weeks ago.
“We got in the inclusive government and just sat there, spent five years in there. We came out without doing anything,” said Nelson Chamisa.
In the 2008 GNU MDC had the majority in parliament and cabinet and, most important of all, Zanu PF had agreed to the implementation of the raft of democratic reform in the Global Political Agreement and SADC was the guarantor. Yet MDC still failed to get even one reform implemented.
In the new GNU Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament, senate and cabinet and there are no agreed reforms since Zanu PF maintains last year's elections were free, fair and credible. It is only the politically naive who will believe the new GNU will implement any meaningful reforms.
If we are serious about have the reforms finally implemented then Zanu PF must step down to allow the appointment of an independent body with the political will to implement the reforms. Zanu PF and MDC leaders failed to do so last time, let us try other people!
The idea that the very people who rigged last year's elections are the only ones competent to implement the reforms to stop another rigged election is ponderous and typical of the Zanu PF mentality that they are the only one competent to rule! We need to stamp out this foolishness here and now.
“Cabinet was informed by the Minister of Energy (Fortune Chasi) that an arrangement to unlock the supply of 400MW has been concluded with Eskom.
“In terms of this agreement, Government, through Treasury, has commenced the payment of US$890 000 per week towards the settlement of its debt to Eskom,” said Mutsvangwa.
Currently Zimbabwe is producing 403MW of electricity from its three stations, just over a third of its 1 400MW on peak demand
For the last 40 years Zimbabwe has done precious little to maintain its power generation equipment much less invest in new plant. The country has relied on imports and did not even have the common decency to pay its bills. Now the chickens have come home to roost. The country is facing economic meltdown with production set to fall in every sector of the economy, the country desperately needs some slack and having the debtors demanding their dues in the last thing the country wanted.
Where will Zimbabwe get US$890 000 a week to pay for electricity over and above all the other pressing needs! The regime can ask those looting in Marange and Chiadzwa to give up some of their loot – they are not going to like it but there it is!
Reza also persuaded Ndewere not to grant Mupfumira bail saying her alleged offences are contrary to what is expected of her as a minister.
He blamed the suffering of pensioners on Mupfumira saying they remain poorer because of corruption charges preferred against her.
“Nssa money had a purpose. The people who did not benefit at all. These are pensioners and to date, if we are to go to Nssa house you will find them in endless queues. The money they get is not even sufficient to take them back to Chiendambuya where they came from just to get that money.”
Mupfumira is facing criminal abuse of public office charges involving US$95 million.
It is heartening to hear Reza mention the real victims of all this Zanu PF looting, the pensioners who were forced to pay the contributions only for the money to be looted!
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