@ Mariko
I agree; Zimbabwe is a Police State ruled by a ruthless dictator; still we have done a great job of shooting ourselves in the foot on many occasions at critical and decisive moments too. And every time we indulge ourselves in this midsummer madness Mugabe was quick to take full advantage of it, naturally.
I was listening to S W Radio Africa the other day, and someone claiming to represent "Zimbabweans in the Diaspora" was reporting back on some meeting attended by Copac co-chairman Mangwana and Monzora. The Diaspora rep was tasked to submit the views of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora on the new constitution by end of October and the rep was promised future representation in future Copac activities. Well the rep was chuffed to bits, I tell you!
There can be no doubt in anyone who has followed the whole process of drafting a new constitution for Zimbabwe that as long as Mugabe is free to use violence to coerce the electorate to get what HE wants the whole exercise would be a waste of time and resources. MDC ignore this and they steam ahead. Within a few weeks of the launch of the outreach programme Zanu PF launched its Operation Chimumumu.
How many outreach meetings were disrupted by Zanu PF supporters? Countless! How many people were physically attached before, during or after the outreach meetings? Again, countless! And of course the Police have done nothing to stop this lawlessness.
As to why this clown claiming to represent Zimbabweans in the Diaspora is taking part in a clearly fraudulent process; the same reason that Douglas Monzora, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC team agreed to the GNU giving Mugabe the legitimacy after the sham 2008 election: the same reason Mugabe’s own Zanu PF members have become an integral part of this dictatorship: for the love of power and a share of the spoils of powers.
Ever since Tsvangirai was made PM he has become one of the biggest defenders of Mugabe and the dictatorship. Mugabe would not get better ministers to promote Zanu PF’s interests than Monzora, Makoni and Holland are doing in their respective ministries. The trio, of all the MDC ministers, have had their brief loaded with pro-Zanu PF tasks. They have never questioned what they are doing, they have been completely overwhelmed by their ministerial position and have carried out their set tasks with gusto!
Copac was no doubt aware of the increasing criticism of their work. By granting audience to this clown claiming to represent Zimbabweans in the Diaspora Monzora and Mangwana knew they will buy Copac a lot of mileage. And they did; as I said, the clown was chuffed to bits! Ironically the S W Radio Africa interview of the clown happened the same week an MDC supporter was murdered at a Copac outreach meeting. The clown did not even mention this; he was sharing the platform with Ministers and that was all that mattered.
The drafting of the new constitution has been discredited by the reports of violence throughout the whole process. The forthcoming elections will not be credible for the same reason.
If we are really serious about getting out of this hell-hole then we must demand a credible electoral system and settle for nothing less. Mugabe and the Police are doing their bit to undermine the credibility of the political system but it is us who are giving the fraudulent system the vestige of respectability by participating in the process. We only fool ourselves and nobody else.
If Tsvangirai and Zimbabweans in general thinks the international community will sympathise with him/us if next year’s elections are again marred with violence as happened in 2008, then he/we are in for a big surprise! For the last three years we all known Mugabe and Zanu PF will use violence to win – he has not made any effort to conceal this – and yet have said nothing and done nothing about it. We can cry foul after the fact but no one who listen. Kurumwa nechekuchera as one would say in Shona!
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