“Tshabangu smiles all the way to the bank.” screamed the Bulawayo 24 headline accompanied by a picture of Senator Sengezo Tshabangu smiling from ear to ear!
“Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) interim leader Sengezo Tshabangu stands to benefit financially after the government disbursed over ZWL 22 million to the opposition party as part of the political parties finance fund,” Bulawayo 24 reported.
“The distribution, outlined in the Government Gazette, allocated ZWL 22,116,500 (US$1.6m at official exchange rate) to the CCC out of a total of ZWL 70 million for parties that participated in the August 2023 harmonized elections.”
This is only a fraction of the gravy train good-life package. There is the US$60 000 car loan, the generous salary and allowances, in 2022 there surprise US$40 000 house loan (no doubt there will be one in the pipeline), etc., etc. No wonder CCC leaders were falling over themselves to take up their gravy train seats even after SADC and AU elections observers had dismissed the 2023 elections as flawed and illegal.
Of course, Fadzayi Mahere, David Coltart, etc. all knew the elections were flawed and, worse still, that their participating would give Zanu PF legitimacy. They had their eyes on the gravy train loot and did not give a damn about anything else.
“Conclusion 13.3
The SEOM (SADC Election Observer Mission) noted that, as detailed in sections 6 and 7 of this report, some aspects of the Harmonised Elections fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act, and the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2021),” stated the SEOM report.
The SEOM report was clear as day, the 2023 election was flawed and illegal and, per se, did not produce a legitimate government. “So why did SADC fail to come out right and deny this Zanu PF regime political legitimacy, as the regional body did following the marred 2008 elections?” some Zimbabweans continue to ask.
What these Zimbabweans have failed to ask is; What good came out of the 2008 to 2013 GNU?
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trapping of high office and they, in return, kicked all the democratic reforms the GNU was tasked to implement into the thorny-devil Cactus. What good would come out of SADC sponsoring yet another GNU now particularly when we still have the same corrupt and incompetent opposition leaders of yesteryear!
Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends used the rhetoric of freedom, one-man one-vote, etc. to gain confidence and support of the masses in the fight to end white colonial oppression. What Mugabe & co. really wanted was to take the white men’s place as the new oppressors.
“Zimbabwe is what it is because of a political subculture, centred on the ruling party, that has hegemony and subjugation as its highest ideals. Violence, disdain, paranoia and plunder are among its natural progeny. It is fundamentally antithetical to genuine political competition, dissent and notions of stewardship,” wrote Stuart Doran in the Strategist.
Zanu PF believe they have the right to rule the country and to the choicest fruit by right of conquest, they spearheaded the liberation war. They would rather burn the whole country to ashes than see anyone else rule. Zimbabwe is a failed state and in economic ruins.
44 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule have turned Zimbabwe from an upper middle income nation with a robust economic infrastructure, the bread-basket of the region into one of the poorest nations failing to provide its people with even the most basic services such as education and health care and everywhere there is rot and decay. We could not even hold on to what we inherited from the whites in 1980 much less build on it!
It took nearly 20 years for most Zimbabweans to finally admit that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends were corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. The people realised that as long as Zanu PF retained its dictatorial powers to rig elections, the regime would drag the whole nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth it had landed the nation into ever since 1980. What was to be done to stop Zanu PF dragging the nation into hell?
The solution was self-evident: the nation must elect opposition leaders who will implement the democratic reforms to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers to rig elections! The late Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their party in 1999 to answer the nation’s call for democratic reforms naming the party appropriately, Movement for Democratic Reforms (MDC).
Zanu PF not only blatantly rigged the 2023 elections but got away with it precisely because MDC/CCC leaders have not only failed to implement even one token democratic reform in 24 years, including 5 in the GNU, but have been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy all out of greed and incompetence.
Chamisa & co. have again and again conned Zimbabweans to participate in flawed elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections and participating will give the regime legitimacy. Chamisa & co. are gearing to participate in the 2028 elections with no reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging and will, no doubt, come up with yet another idiotic winning in rigged election lie to entice their brain dead followers to participate in the millions.
44 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule have taken a heavy toll on this nation, the longer this continues the deeper the nation will sink and the harder and longer it will take to get out - if at all. Zanu PF has continues to rig elections and drag us deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth these last 24 years because we have been slow to accept the MDC/CCC leaders sold out just as the nation had taken 20 years to admit Zanu PF leaders were thugs!
Chamisa & co. participated in the flawed 2023 elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship out of greed. In the ensuing CCC factional war for the spoils, the Sengezo Tshabangu faction prevailed and they are cashing in the US$ 1.6 million Political Party Finance Act annual bonanza. Make no mistake, Chamisa & co. will be participating in flawed 2028 elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy to perpetuate the nation’s suffering out of greed.
It is for the people of Zimbabwe to wake up to the political reality that MDC/CCC leaders have done nothing to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. Zanu PF has continued to rig elections and loot the nation’s resources for 44 years or be it, the last 24 years with the connivance of MDC/CCC. It is for the people of Zimbabwe, not SADC, to stop the rigging and looting.
