"What will CCC boycotting 2023 accomplish?" - End Zanu PF dictatorship. CCC will never boycott because of greed. P Guramatunhu

 “What would CCC and ordinary Zimbabweans accomplish by boycotting the 2023 elections, especially when the regime can call upon Mwonzora and company to participate to give the regime legitimacy?

The Zanu PF government will never resign because Chamisa did not participate in the elections!” some one argued.

This is a good question.

The short answer is, if you know the electoral process is so flawed that getting 73% of the votes, as Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did in March 2008, is not good enough to win power and know that by participating you are only giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy the only rational option is boycott. Let those foolish enough to give Zanu PF legitimacy do so, NOT you!

The long answer entail explaining why the opposition have repeatedly failed to do the rational thing and boycott the elections. 

The 2008 elections were a water shed in, one, showing Zanu PF’s carte blanche power to rig elections but most important of all, two, in showing the party would not get away with the rigging. Both AU and SADC, for the first time in Zimbabwe’s history, refused to rubber stamp another Zanu PF rigged election. Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF were really shocked! 

Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF were told the Zanu PF government they had formed was illegitimate. They were forced to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the country’s need to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the de facto one party dictatorship, Mugabe’s life time’s work! A Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed and its primary task was to implement the reforms. 

Mugabe managed to bribe Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, the dictator’s GNU partners, with the trappings of high office; the very generous salaries and allowances, ministerial limos, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. And to show their appreciation MDC leaders throw the reforms out of the window. 

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train good life, they will never rock the boat!) boasted the Zanu PF cronies when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms during the GNU.

Zanu PF emerged out of the 2008 to 2013 GNU with all it dictatorial powers untouched, thanks to MDC leaders being corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. 

Still Zanu PF was extra careful to never again be denied legitimacy by SADC or anyone else and so the party has ditched the one party state macho image and adopted the multi-party democracy facade. Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections but was careful to let the opposition win some gravy train seats.

When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the 2017 military coup, he has pushed the multi-party democracy image by calling his administration a Second Republic, a new democratic dispensation and promised and insist 2018 elections were free, fair and credible. 

He has increased the benefits of winning the gravy train seats, last year he gave away the US$40 000 housing loan to MPs, which even Chamisa could not deny is a bribe. He also created the POLAD scheme to reward election losers. 

Zanu PF before the 2008 GNU was an iron fist. Post 2008 GNU year Zanu PF was an iron fist in a velvet glove!

Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections by failing to produce a verified voters’ roll, by denying 3 million Zimbabwean in the diaspora or 37% of the potential electorate the vote, by using wanton violence to frog match rural voters to vote for the party, etc., etc. These are all serious, iron fist, matters to justify boycotting the election and denying Zanu PF political legitimacy. 

Zanu PF is banking on the opposition participating in the elections regardless of the flaws, illegalities and wanton violence. The party knows the opposition leaders are greedy and breathtakingly incompetent, they have shown this to be so graphically during the GNU and the party knows there is no cure for greed or incompetence. And as long as the opposition participate is these flawed election in droves Zanu PF will alway have the velvet glove to hide the iron fist! 

Zanu PF will be forced out of office if it failed to get political legitimacy after the 2023 elections, we know that will happen because it happened in 2008! The real challenge therefore is getting the opposition in significant numbers to boycott the elections, their greed is insatiable. 

Chamisa et al are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections nothing, absolutely nothing, will to give up the 30 pieces of silver Zanu PF is dangling in their face. They know by participating they are giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship and the tragic human suffering it has caused. They know all these things and they still participate because they care more about the 30 pieces of silver!

Mnangagwa's latest revised super plan: "“Nyika inovakwa inorakasha ivenevayo imashefu namachaina!” N Garikai

 “Zimbabweans jam UK work visa applications” screamed the headline. 8 363 skilled and semi-skilled Zimbabweans were granted UK work permit in 2022 up from 499 in 2019. The truth is Zimbabweans have been leaving the country in droves since 2000 when the country’s agriculture sector collapsed and took the economy with it. 

If there was ever any doubt that President Mnangagwa’s “Nyika inovakwa nevevayo!” (Zimbabwe will be rebuilt by Zimbabweans!) super plan was dead in the water; the news that Zimbabweans continue to leave the country in drove ended all doubt. Who are the Zimbabweans rebuilding the country if they all continue to leave the country!

Many Zimbabweans have left the country to escape the consequences of four decades of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule that has left the country is economic ruins and a pariah state shunned by investors and lenders alike. The people have been stuck with the Zanu PF regime all these years because the party rigged elections. 

When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, he was cocksure his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” super plan would change the country’s economic fortunes. 

He was sure the change of leadership plus his promise to end corruption and hold free, fair and credible 2018 elections would end Zimbabwe’s pariah state status and open the flood gates of foreign investments to kickstart the comatose economy. He even named his administration a Second Republic and a New Dispensation, to underline the sea change brought on by the coup.

The truth is military coup had allowed the dictator, Mugabe, to be replace by another dictator, Mnangagwa, who then went on to make so token changes. This was just a musical chairs and no one, particularly the savvy and shrewd foreign investors, were ever fooled. Mnangagwa’s failure to stamp out corruption and to hold free elections in 2018 confirm Zimbabwe was still a pariah state.

“Zimbabwe is open for business!” was a lead balloon that never took off! It has taken two years or so for Mnangagwa to accept the reality there will be no significant foreign investment in Zimbabwe let alone the flood gate he anticipated. He needed a plan B.

If foreign investors would not help rebuild Zimbabwe’s collapsed economy, then Zimbabweans must do it themselves. And so “Nyika inovakwa nevenevayo” was born! It was a still birth!

Two years or so ago, the Zimbabwe government carried out a thorough manpower survey which showed the country had an 80% skilled manpower shortages in key areas such as engineering, education, health and agriculture. The irony is that the country’s continued economic stagnation meant the 20% or so skilled manpower available were under utilised! 

Of course, it is laughable to keep wittering about Nyika inovakwa nevenevayo when the country continues to haemorrhage skilled and semi-skilled people precisely because the country’s economy is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss! 

The only professions which have continued to do well in Zimbabwe in the last two decades are lawyers, politicians, pastors and local and foreign looters.

In 2016the late President Robert Mugabe talked of the country being swindled of US$15 billion in diamond revenue. In 2020 the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Dr John Mangudya, revealed the country was losing a staggering US$1.2 billion per year to gold smugglers alone. And last week it was reported the Chinese are exporting 500 tonnes per day of Lithium ore from Bikita, in Masvingo Province; contrary to a recent law banning the export of unprocessed Lithium. 

Zimbabwe is a pariah state and, per se, not attractive to genuine foreign and/or local investors and that has made it very attractive to looters. And they are robbing the nation blind! 

President Mnangagwa and his follow Zanu PF ruling elite and the godfathers of all the looting in the land. They are getting their share of the looted wealth and, most important of all, they are counting on their Chinese and Russian looting partners to help them stay in power. The country’s vast mineral wealth should be a blessing to the nation but it is a curse instead.  

So here is President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa’s Super Plan

 “Zimbabwe is open for business!”

“Nyika inovakwa  inorakasha ivenevayo imashefu namachaina!”

(Zimbabwe will be looted by ruling elite and the Chinese!) 

“A pilhagem continua!” (Looting continue!)

Pamberimberi neZanu PF! 

Chamisa et al are hell bent on participating in 2023 out of greed, but why are povo participating too? W Mukori

 Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections were a watershed elections in that Zanu PF’s power to rig elections was exposed in its ugliest and graphic details. 

Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, the country had never held free, fair and credible elections and all along the Commonwealth, AU and SADC had turned a blind eye to Zanu PF’s repeated failure to hold free and fair elections. In 2002 the Commonwealth finally decided to act, it suspended Zimbabwe from the club. SADC pressured the regime switch-off its infamous vote rigging juggernaut for the 2008 elections. 

The whole election process was conducted in peace and in a  transparent and professional manner, the March 2008 plebiscite would have been the first free, fair and credible election in Zimbabwe’s history if only Zanu PF had not disrupted everything.

When Zanu PF informers imbedded with ZEC advised the party leaders the opposition was going to win the elections, Emmerson Mnangagwa, by his own admission, reactivated the Zanu PF vote rigging machinery. ZEC was instructed not to announce the election results. The Zanu PF juggernaut took over.

The 210 parliamentary results were recounted and announced in dribs and drabs over the next six weeks. Morgan Tsvangirai’s 73% of the votes, by Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, took six to whittled down to 47%, enough to force a runoff. 

The Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut came alive during the runoff. The juggernaut, headed by Mnangagwa (normally headed by Mugabe himself) and the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services, otherwise called the Joint Operation Command (JOC) launched Operation Mavhotera papi (Whom did you vote for). This was a rhetorical question to punish the electorate for daring to reject the party and Mugabe in the March vote. 

Operation Mavhora papi was a military style operation with Zanu PF youths militia and war veterans assigned the role of the foot soldiers, harassing, beating and raping the electorate. The heavy duty tasks of beating, abducting and killing was carried out the  personal supplied and equipped by the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services. 

“What was accomplished by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” thundered Mugabe, stamping his approval and encouragement of Operation Mavhotera papi.

Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the race. He complained of “Zanu PF has declared war on the innocent people!” 

Mugabe went on to win the runoff one-horse race with 84% of the votes.

For the first time ever, both AU and SADC refused to endorse the Zanu PF victory and the regional body forced the regime to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 election. 

The primary task of the 2008 to 2013 GNU, comprising Zanu PF led by Robert Mugabe and the two MDC factions led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara and then latter Professor Welshman Ncube, was to implement the democratic reforms. Sadly, not even one token reform was implemented in five years.

Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and the rest is history. 

With not even one reform implemented, SADC leaders, who were the guarantor of the 2008 GPA, wanted the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented. “If you go into the election next month,” they warned the MDC leaders according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who attended the Maputo summit. “You will lose. The elections are done!”

The warning fell on deaf ears, as we know. 

MDC leaders like Tendai Biti have acknowledged the sheer futility of participating in Zimbabwe elections without first implementing the reforms. 

“Look, you can't keep on participating in flawed electoral processes that serve to give big benefits to dictators such as Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has perfected the art of winning elections. So it will be very foolish for the opposition to continue legitimizing these sham elections which don't deliver. This country will go through a serious economic crisis in 2020 caused by Zanu PF. And yet, this is the only country where a government doesn't perform, it is encouraged by a super majority in parliament,” said Tendai Biti in a 2015 interview with Isaac Mugabi.

“So you can't continue subjecting Zimbabweans to processes where their hopes just get crushed.”

David Coltart confirmed the futility of participating and shed light on why MDC leaders are defying reason and keep participating in the flawed elections. 

“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,” confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“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, MDC/CCC leaders defied not only SADC leaders’ advice but their own judgement to participate in elections “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw” in the 2013 and then in 2018 because of greed. They are doing the same again now, they are participating in 2023 elections out of greed.

Indeed it was greed that stopped them implementing the democratic reforms during the GNU, when they had the golden opportunity to do so. 

But why are ordinary Zimbabweans participating in these flawed elections, assuming they understand the sheer futility of doing so and they can choose not to, unlike the rural voters who will be frog matched? 

Answer; they are simple people who have seen voting in other countries deliver change having and believe the same can happen in Zimbabwe. They do not see CCC’s claim to have “winning in rigged election”, even after 2008 watershed elections, as an oxymoron.  These people have yet to appreciate that voting is meaningless unless the process is free, fair and credible! It sounds simple enough but to them it is a quantum leap, one they have clearly failed to make.

"Zanu PF is rigging, it's normal and CCC must be hard hat equipped for it!" Nonsense, it's insane and must be stopped N Garikai

In an interview with AFP Nelson Chamisa admitted that Zimbabwe’s electoral process has “always attracted controversy” and is “littered with rigging, manipulation” and it is his reaction that we should focus on.

“It’s going to be a rough campaign, hard hat equipment is necessary,” said Chamisa.

“It’s quite a hostile environment, we need to be equipped for it.”

It is this reckless and cavalier attitude coupled with the inert inability to comprehend the core values, separating the grain from the chuff, which explain why Zimbabwe has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections these last 43 years. We are stuck!

Zimbabweans are going to the election in five months or so and yet ZEC has still stubbornly refused to produce a verified voters’ roll. The Commission has already produced the delimitation report; no one knows what voters’ roll was used to do the delimitation. 

The law demands that there should be a verified voters’ roll at least one calendar month before nomination day. This is no likely to happen before the 2023 elections. In the past Nelson Chamisa and his friends in the opposition have participated in the elections without a verified voters’ roll. They are set to do so again this year. 

Zanu PF has denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, reneging on a promise Mnangagwa made is 2018. There will be no diaspora vote as long as the sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leaders by the West remain, explained Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa. The Zanu PF leaders on the sanctions list are barred from travelling freely in the western nation that imposed the sanction and thus putting the party at a disadvantage came the campaigning for diaspora vote. This is just a feeble excuse for denying diaspora vote.  

For a start, why should the Zimbabweans in the diaspora be denied their fundamental right just because Zanu PF and the West have quarrelled? Even if one accepted the travel ban will put Zanu PF at a disadvantage, why has the regime denied the vote to Zimbabweans in SADC countries and all the other countries which have no travel restrictions on party leaders. 

The truth is Most of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora are economic and/or political refugees and they blame Zanu PF for their plight. They are therefore not likely to vote for the regime. And, to crown it all, the Zanu PF vote rigging machinations effective in Zimbabwe will not be so effective in foreign lands. 

It should be noted here that Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million or 50.8% of the votes; the 3 million diaspora votes constitute 37% of the potential voters. 

How can the election be free, fair and credible there is no verified voters’ roll or when one side is allowed to cherry pick the electorate and deny 37% of the potential voters the vote?

There are no “hard hat area” measures Chamisa or anyone can take to stop rigging when there is no verified voters’ roll. The verified voters’ roll is the Bible against to carry a thorough audit of  who is eligible to vote, who voted, etc., etc. 

MDC leaders failed to implement even one token democratic reform to end the Zanu PF autocratic rule in 23 years, including the 5 in the 2008 to 2013 GNU because they were confident of winning the 2013 elections “regardless of the Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans”, as the late Morgan Tsvangirai admitted to journalist Tawanda Majoni. 

The truth is Chamisa and company do not real care how about rule of law, reforms, free elections, or how decades of bad governance have cause heartbreaking human suffering and deaths in Zimbabwe. They only thing they really care about is securing political power at all costs. Sadly, they don’t even have the common sense realise implementing the democratic reforms would have secure certain electoral victory for them. 

As for the MDC/CCC post GNU position of the party having winning in rigged elections strategies. It is just hot air underlining just how naive and incompetent and utterly useless they are. As much as Chamisa is claiming to be equipped for 2023 elections; we can be certain of one thing he will be complaining of Zanu PF stealing the elections the morning after the voting is done - complaining about the very things he is saying he is equipped to deal with. 

Nelson Chamisa and company will never ever implement any meaningful democratic reforms even if they were to win power be it by benefiting from another Zanu PF factional fighting, street protests, or whatever. They believe failure to produce verified voters, the culture of political violence and vote rigging, etc. is the norm. If they really care about free and fair elections, rule of law, etc. then they would have implemented the reforms when they had the golden opportunity todo so during the 2008 GNU. 

"People are yearning for free elections" After 43 years of rigged elections, yearning for Bishops who speak truth to power P Guramatunhu

 Zimbabwe is NOT a democratic nation and the country has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections ever since the country’s independence in 1980. We have, in the ruling party, Zanu PF, leaders who not only believe they have the divine right to rule the country but would rather burn down the whole country than let anyone else ruling it. 

They have but contempt for the people’s right, in a free, fair and credible elections, to have the final say in who rules the country.

“A year on from the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe remains perched between piecemeal reform and old ways that are as intractable as they are destructive. That’s because the country is ruled by a clique with a partial and conditional commitment to change—and a total, obdurate determination to retain and enjoy power,” wrote Stuart Duran in ASPI Strategist.

“The ‘new’ regime can be viewed from different angles, but the nub of it is this: there’s a recognition that the economic fiasco of the last 20 years was suboptimal, but Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow travellers will burn the house down if they feel it necessary. Make no mistake, their will to power is every bit as intense as Mugabe’s—as is their belief that they own the country’s choicest fruits by right of conquest.

“There’s no comprehending Zimbabwe without an appreciation of that mentality. Yet many fail to get it because they don’t read the country’s history. In 1979, at the height of the struggle against white rule, a diplomat who mixed frequently with Mugabe and other leaders of his party observed that ‘ZANU does not seem to attach much importance to the destruction caused by prolonged war’. They said they were content to see Zimbabwe ‘totally’ demolished if that was the price to be paid for preventing others from ruling it. That attitude has not changed an iota, notwithstanding the passage of 40 years and Mugabe’s departure. After all, the men who now rule wielded his hatchets for most of that period.”

One of the life-time lesson I have learned from my Secondary School days is to read the examination question very carefully and answer the question asked. “You will not get marks for answering the question, you wanted to be asked!” my Bible Knowledge teacher reminded us regularly. 

The success or failure of post independent Zimbabwe was dependent the nation on understanding and dealing with the willingness “to burn the house down in pursuit of right of conquest” Zanu PF mentality. This is at the heart of the problem of good governance. Our performance on this matter so far has been pathetic and little wonder the country is in a serious economic and political mess.

It took many Zimbabweans nearly 20 years to finally accept that Zanu PF was a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime that was rigging elections to stay in power. A national consensus was reached on the need for democratic changes to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers and restore the rule of law and the people’s freedoms and right including the right to free and fair elections. nothing of any substance could ever be accomplished as long as the retained carte blanche powers to rig elections and impose itself on the nation. 

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elected the MDC/CCC leaders on the understanding the party will implement the democratic changes the nation was dying for, as the party name implied. Sadly MDC/CCC have not only failed to implement even one token reform in 23 years, including 5 in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, but, worst of all, has been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF political legitimacy.

Instead of focusing all political and social pressure on Zanu PF’s blatant denial of the people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the opposition selling out on reforms, it is disappointing that the church and other civic bodies have chosen to bury their heads in the sand and pretend Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and calls for free elections will not stop the rigging especially after 43 years of Zanu PF rigging elections! 

"As the nation heads towards the harmonised elections, we urge all political players to desist from the use of violence. The people's fundamental rights should be respected at all times. There is no citizen who should be intimidated or coerced, and worse still, be beaten to make a choice," Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) said in a statement.

"As a nation, we have in the past seen a lot of violence around elections; let this election be different. The people of this country dream and yearn for a free, credible and fair election.”

Yeah right! What the people of Zimbabwe are yearning for opposition and church leaders who are prepared to deal with the problem a stubborn vote rigging Zanu PF, the real challenge; especially after 43 years of rigged elections and the nation now facing serious and urgent existential challenges.

18 Binga school post 0% "O" level pass rate yet Zanu PF posts 80% plus rural votes regardless - thx vote rigging mastery N Garikai

 “18 Binga schools record 0% passes!” screamed the headlines in Newsday Zimbabwe and Bulawayo 24.

“At least 18 schools in Binga, Matabeleland North province, recorded a zero percent pass rate at Ordinary Level 2022 examinations, with teachers unions yesterday saying such results showed education inequality in the country and accused government of failing to provide marginalised communities with free education” said the report.

This is not happening in Binga alone, this is a nationwide problem. In 2019 the MP for Chiredzi South in Masvingo Province called a meeting with all the school heads to discuss the school results. The best performing schools at grade seven, Form two, “O” level and “A” level had a 3% pass rate!

The quality of Zimbabwe’s education started to go down soon after the country’s independence in 1980 because the incoming Zanu PF government was obsessed about quantity and completely ignored the need for quality. Schools were built up and down the country, like sprouting mushroom after the rain, but were not properly resourced in terms of materials and staff. 

As Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown got worse and worse due to the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption this Mnangagwa government, like the Mugabe government before it, has cut government funding to education and health to the borne. Many qualified teachers and health care workers have left the country in droves search of better conditions of service and a living wage. 

Zimbabwe’s public education and health care services have all but completely collapsed. If the best performing schools have 3% pass rate with the majority registering 0%, what more evidence do we need to finally admit our education service has collapsed. 

So how is it possible that this failed Zanu PF government still continues to enjoy political support in rural areas? Indeed, the party considers rural areas its political strong hold!

The rural people are simple folk but they are not that stupid not to have noticed that the quality of basic education and health care service were going down and now have totally collapsed. Of course, they noticed that and they would not have never continued to vote for Zanu PF regardless. They have been voting for the regime all these years because they have been coerced to do so. 

Zanu PF will win the majority of the votes in the 2023 elections in Binga, as with many other rural areas, regardless of 18 schools having 0% pass rate!  Not because the Zanu PF government is popular but as proof of the regime’s vote rigging mastery. 

In an a recent audio President Mnangagwa is heard boasting of how the rural voters will be frog matched to vote for Zanu PF. The village head will be in front, the voters will follow and the party chair man will bring up the rear. The party will know how everyone voted. “Only death has no track record, voters have!” he warned. 

A 3 to 0% pass rate means a whole generation of these rural people is damned and so too is the nation because no country can survive much less thrive when so many of its people are denied a future and hope. These people will be a burden to society for no fault of their own. 

The need for Zimbabwe to implement the democratic reforms and break Zanu PF’s electoral struggle hold on the nation is more urgent now than ever. Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged election and five more years of 0% pass rates at school! 

There is no stopping Zanu PF rigging 2023 election what they cannot do is rig political legitimacy. W Mukori

 It is too late to implement any democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging these elections and Zanu PF is rigging these elections. Sadly, that is true.

CCC is participating in these elections. Yes, Chamisa and company are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections out of greed. They know Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate and Mnangagwa’s bonus US$40 000 housing loan to MPs, which even Chamisa admitted was a bribe, has whetted their appetite. 

There has been talk of CCC boycotting the elections to press for reforms before elections. There was no chance of that happening, even if one forgot about their problem of greed, they would not do it because they have lost political credibility. 

SADC leaders, who were also the guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement, wanted Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postpone until meaningful reforms were implemented. “If you go into the elections next month, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends in June 2013. 

Mugabe refused to postpone the elections arguing there were no outstanding reforms for the GNU to implement. Patrick Chinamasa, who was Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs throughout the GNU revealed that MDC leaders had not submitted even one reform proposal in the five years of the GNU. Not even one reform proposal!  

Of course, it would have been nonsensical for MDC to boycott the 2013 elections to press for reforms to be implemented when they had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and yet had not even submitted one reform proposal for five years! SADC leaders dropped the call for the elections to be postponed when they learned about MDC’s pathetic performance.

“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” one irate SADC diplomat told The Independent, commenting of MDC’s failure to implement even one reform in five years. 

The regional body went on to grant Zanu PF legitimacy knowing fully well that the party had rigged the elections, they are the ones who had said the election “was done!” for Pete’s sake! SADC leaders’ volte-face to give Zanu PF legitimacy knowing fully well the party had rigged the 2013 elections must have been in despair at MDC’s betrayal in failing to implement reforms. 

MDC leaders admitted their folly in participating in the 2013 elections without reforms soon after the voting was done and the scale of the Zanu PF rigging was know. “No reform, no elections!” they resolved in 2014. But by the end of 2015 MDC leaders had revert to their default position of participating in the elections with not even token reforms implemented. 

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections and SADC leaders, for their part turned a blind eye to the rigging and, once again, granted Zanu PF legitimacy. 

Not even one token reform was implemented since the 2018 rigged elections and it is too late to implement any meaningful reforms now with the 2023 elections set for August, six months away. 

There is no stopping Zanu PF holding 2023 elections and, more significantly, there is no stopping the regime rigging these elections. 

There is no chance of CCC, the country’s major opposition party, boycotting these flawed 2023 elections and by, participating in these flawed elections, they will once again give SADC leaders the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy. 

So, are we therefore snookered; stuck with a flawed electoral system, so flawed Tsvangirai failed to get into State House even thou he had garnered 73% of the votes in the March 2008 plebiscite, designed to keep Zanu PF dictatorship in power in perpetuate? 

Well, no! We are NOT stuck. 

Whilst we cannot stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections nor stop CCC participating to give the election process some modicum of credibility. We can, however, stop Zanu PF getting political legitimacy. 

We must document and expose Zanu PF’s blatant rigging and wanton violence and make it impossible for SADC leaders pretend such a flawed and illegal election process can ever be judged free, fair and credible. We must also stop SADC leaders hiding behind CCC as a credible opposition acting in the public interest when they know very well that MDC/CCC leaders lost their political credibility during the 2008 to 2013 GNU! 

By denying Zanu PF political legitimacy, this create the need for a new GNU and this time we will implement the democratic reforms and finally end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

A wiseman acts within what constrains him. 

The ideal solution for Zimbabwe would be for 2023 elections to be free, fair and credible. We would all scream “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” 

The Zanu PF dictatorship and the CCC betrayal, by failing to implement reforms and participating in flawed elections to give SADC leaders the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy, are the constrains stopping us having free elections. What we can do within the constrains is deny Zanu PF legitimacy and thus force a new GNU and another chance to implement the reform. 

If you cannot get the ideal best solution - free election in 2023, get the next best solution there is - make 2023 the last rigged elections in Zimbabwe. 

Zanu PF is rigging 2023 elections but what the regime cannot rig is political legitimacy! It is incumbent on every Zimbabwean to make sure that this time SADC leaders do not grant the regime political legitimacy. 

Zimbabwe is NOT a democracy and Zanu PF is rigging 2023; this is the No 1 lesson we must learn W Mukori

 Zimbabweans love to talk about democracy but most of us have no clue what they are talking about. None! 

“Democracy is the government of the people, for the people and by the people!” said Abraham Lincoln. He was the President of USA during that country’s civil war - the most divisive, traumatic period in that nation’s history.  

The right to free, fair and credible elections is the heart and soul of democracy because the holding of free elections not only gives the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country, it is the ultimate expression of people’s power, people governing themselves. 

Democracy and free elections are the two sides of the same coin; you cannot have a healthy and functioning democracy if you cannot guarantee free, fair and credible elections. 

Ever since Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 to date, the country has never ever held free, fair and credible elections. Never! Mugabe and his cronies, made it clear if Zanu PF failed to win the 1980 elections the bush war would continue. The people voted to end the bush war and as soon as he got into power Mugabe moved swiftly to impose the de facto one party dictatorship. 

Mugabe reneging on the time honoured “One man, one vote!” rallying call because he did not trust the British and the colonial administration of Ian Smith to hold free, fair and credible elections. He had the chance to redeem himself by restoring the democratic right of every Zimbabwean to free elections, instead he has rigged elections under the pretext his political opponents were puppets of the West. 

So for 43 years and counting Zanu PF has denying the people of Zimbabwe a meaningful vote and a democratic government, a people’s government, under the pretext such a vote would result in regime change, replacing Zanu PF regime with a Western puppet regime. 

Mugabe kick started the patronage system by buying ministerial limos for his Zanu PF cronies to replace the ordinary cars Ian Smith gave his ministers. Zanu PF leaders have become notorious for the blind loyalty to Mugabe. Even at the height of the Gukurahundi massacre; Zanu PF leaders saw nothing, heard nothing, said nothing and did nothing.

The patronage system has spread to every section of Zimbabwe society, it is central to the Zanu PF dictatorship and hegemony. It has come at a great price to the nation, it is the root cause of the gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions resulting in the criminal waste of the country’s material and human resources.

Imposing a de facto one-party dictatorship was a feeble excuse to hide the Mugabe and his cronies’ insatiable greed for absolute political power and the influence and wealth it brings - the essence of bad governance. By the turn of the century, just two decade since independence, the country was already in serious economic trouble and political paralysis. 

The country needed democratic changes to stop the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.

In 1999, Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their party MDC, short for Movement for Democratic Change, in answer to the people’s clamour for democratic changes to restore their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote. After 23 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU), MDC has failed to implement even one token democratic reform. 

Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and they forgot about the reforms, just as readily as the Zanu PF leaders had done. Indeed, Zanu PF cronies crowed about how MDC leaders had sold out.

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train good-life, they will never rock the boat!” boasted the Zanu PF cronies, when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing any democratic reforms during the GNU.

Since the GNU debacle MDC/CCC leaders have insisted on participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship in return for a few gravy train seats. The nation’s hope of ending the Zanu PF autocracy is being sold for 30 pieces of silver and the people, the victims of the blatant betrayal.

The people of Zimbabwe had risked life and limb to elect the MDC leaders on the understanding that once in power they would deliver the democratic changes the nation was denying for. The MDC supporters had repeated change in their slogans to no end. And yet when the golden opportunity to implement reforms are arrived and was callously wasted, the people had failed to even notice it. 

Indeed, even today with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans still have no clue the primary purpose of 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the democratic reforms. They still don’t realise that MDC leaders sold out big time by failing to implement even one reform during the GNU when the country had is golden opportunity to do so.

It is ironic that many Zimbabweans are participating in these flawed and illegal Zimbabwean elections, regardless of the mountain of evidence Zanu PF is rigging the process under the delusion these are democratic elections. By participating, these people are giving Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship and their own suffering. 

It was the Greeks, bless them, who gave mankind democracy as a system of government in place of the failed autocracy, oligarchy, monarch, etc. The Greeks realised back then, 2 500 years ago, that for democracy to work, the people must be educated. 

Given that both Zanu PF and most of the country’s opposition are only interested in securing political power for themselves; the need to educate the Zimbabwe populous is now a matter of national survival if the country is end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

The first lesson for Zimbabweans is that Zimbabwe is NOT a democracy, Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and CCC are participating to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power. The rational response is to refuse to participate in the flawed elections, pointing out evidence of rigging and violence, denounce CCC for selling out by failing to implement reforms and participating in the elections out of greed and, last but most important of all, make sure Zanu PF does not get political legitimacy!