“Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, a former army general who led the 2017 coup that ousted long-time leader Robert Mugabe, has accused his exiled political rival Professor Jonathan Moyo of treasonous activities for allegedly writing a secret document proposing sweeping political reforms - including the postponement of the 2028 elections to 2035.
The accusations come on the eve of the ruling Zanu-PF's annual conference in Mutare, set to run from 13–18 October, amid an intensifying succession struggle between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Chiwenga - a contest that could further destabilise Zimbabwe politically and economically, with ripple effects across the region.
Leaked Document at the Heart of the Storm
According to a confidential document presented to Mnangagwa and the Zanu-PF presidium - the party's top five leadership - as well as the Politburo on 17 September in Harare, Chiwenga accuses Moyo of penning a proposal titled "Breaking Barriers Initiative: Putting Zimbabwe First."
Chiwenga claims the document, prepared under the auspices of Parliament, seeks to alter the country's governance system and delay elections until 2035.
The document, seen by The NewsHawks, states its objective as:
"To identify and break chronic toxic barriers to efficient and effective service delivery, infrastructural development and socio-economic progress in Zimbabwe, primarily caused by the scourge of perennially disputed elections and the resultant toxic governance environment.”
Professor Jonathan Moyo has produced some really interesting stuffed but this is thrash! He is arguing that the nation should postpone elections until 2035 “to identify and break chronic toxic barriers to efficient and effective service delivery, infrastructural development and socio-economic progress in Zimbabwe, primarily caused by the scourge of perennially disputed elections and the resultant toxic governance environment.”
Here are some of the reasons why this proposal is nonsense:
- 1) the scourge of perennial disputed elections is a man-made problem. Caused by the ruling party, Zanu PF, who have rigged elections ever since the country’s independence in 1980. Zanu PF thugs believe they have the divine right to rule the country and what better way to secure that right than to rig elections.
MDC/CCC, the main opposition, have failed to implement even one token democratic reform to end the Zanu PF dictatorship even when they had the golden opportunity to do so, during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. And ever since the GNU debacle they have conned the nation to participate in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the nation’s suffering for the same reasons they failed to implement reforms - breathtaking incompetence and greed.
Postponing of elections will not guarantee 2035 elections will finally be free, fair and credible and thus end the scourge of rigged elections because Zanu PF will still refuse to reform itself out of power and the opposition leaders will still be breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and greedy!
- 2) the principal beneficiaries of postponed elections will be the incumbent councillors, MPs, senators, president and his cabinet. If the truth be told these are the individuals are responsible for the failed service deliveries because they are corrupt and incompetent.
Postponing the elections will only be rewarding them for their failures and give them more time to loot!
- 3) We already know the root cause of Zimbabwe’s failure political system is Zanu PF thugs’ idiotic belief that they have the divine right to govern the country. MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and put an end to this political nonsense. They sold out. All we need is another GNU and a second chance to get the reforms implemented.
If Chamisa & co. had not conned million of their brain dead followers to participate in flawed 2023 elections both SADC and AU would have denied Zanu PF legitimacy since they bothy condemned the election process as flawed and illegal. We have been warned of the folly of participating in flawed elections in our millions would give the process legitimacy but continue to ignore the warning
Just because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC fiends sold out on reforms does not mean we do not need the reforms implemented much less that we do not have competent men and women who will implement them. This is not rocket science!