Democracy is a good thing but it comes with a price tag - an informed electorate: a price Zimbabwe failed to pay!

Now that he has the terror machine responsible for the political violence set up, Mugabe wants elections as soon as possible. He needs the violence to “win” the elections. Tsvangirai does not want the elections until all the democratic reforms have been carried out and the violence stopped. In the last three years, he has failed to push through even one reform. He is too feeble to do it. Zimbabweans have their own wants.

Zimbabweans can not wait to see the back of this GNU which has really done little to change things on the ground for them; so they too want elections a.s.a.p. They are also aware that holding elections in the present climate of growing political violence will mean many of them will be subjected to the same abuses as happen in 2008 or worse. They will be forced to vote for Mugabe and Zanu PF again and therefore not got the regime change they desperately need. So the Zimbabwean people are damn if elections are held and damned if they keep being moved to some indefinite date in the future but it is their faulty they are in this mess.

All the democratic reforms to ensure free elections should have been carried out by now. Mugabe had his reasons for doing nothing and Tsvangirai has his excuses; reasons and excuses the public should have anticipated but clearly did not. Unless we come up with a way out; we can wait another year or two and still face the same prospects of holding elections with no democratic reforms.

The Zimbabwe public did not have any answers to how to end Zanu PF’s culture of political violence three year ago and today they still have no answers. An electorate that does not understand the challenges the nation faces and what can and can not be done can not make an informed choice of leaders or hold them to account thereafter.

Universal suffrage grants every adult the right to a free vote and takes for granted that every adult in well informed. In Zimbabwe the political system conspire to keep the electorate ignorant and desperate. There answers to the nation’s multitude of problems are always staring us, the electorate, in the face if only we opened our eyes.

The answer to ending the political violence, for example, is for MDC have to use its parliamentary majority to force the Police to arrest the Zanu PF thugs, the Courts to convict them, etc. It Mugabe is indeed the one giving the Police, etc the specific instructions not to carry out their statutory duty of maintaining law and order, then parliament must impeach him; he does not have the power or authority to do that.

Of course, it is highly probable Tsvangirai and MDC will never impeach Mugabe, they are too subservient to the dictator to ever make such a bold move, and therefore the political violence will continue.

When Mugabe stepped up the violence after losing the March 2008 vote, Zimbabweans voted for him on mass in the June vote. The political violence has already started and Zimbabweans have two good reasons to vote for Mugabe on mass once again. If the nation is subjected to the same level of violence as in 2008, all the evidence on the ground says it will be the same or worse, then the people will have no choice but vote for Mugabe and Zanu PF. The second reason is if MDC is powerless to change anything even when they have parliamentary majority, as they have already shown, then why the nation should risk the life of one more Zimbabwean voting for MDC.

If any other political party was to emerge by the time of the next elections then the electorate have to consider if that party will not betray the people just as Tsvangirai and MDC have done.

If the people of Zimbabwe are going to get out of the economic and political hell-hole Mugabe landed the nation in then we must transform ourselves from an ignorant and subservient voters to an informed ones willing and able to hold the leaders to account on every turn! Democracy is a good thing but, like all good things, it comes with a price tag – it demands an informed electorate.

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Zanu PF is a party of vultures; it is tough enough to keep the peace when there is plenty of corpses and helpless victims for them to feed on. Now the national economy picked clean, there is nothing of value for them to loot, and the vultures hungry and angry. The vulture have been gawking at each and it will not be long before feather start flying and tire each other to piece.

It would have been hard enough for Mugabe to cope if this had happen ten years ago; he was younger then. Old age and poor health has turned him into a seating duck amongst the cultures. Reports of him hoarding 13 farms for himself and his family, US$ 3 billion starched away, etc. are turning him into a juicy roasted duck – everyone wants a piece!

Some people would even say the very suspicious and gruesome death of retired general Solomon Tapfumaneyi Mujuru last month marks the start of the feeding frenzy.

WikiLeaks could well be but the opportunistic last straw – the apple was ripe, even the butterfly’s wing beat is enough to set it off - to trigger the feeding frenzy to tear Mugabe and Zanu PF to pieces. Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs whose lives revolved around two things violence and looting with nothing left to plunder it little wonder they are turning on the leader and each other. They live by the sword; “I have degrees in violence!” boasted Mugabe. Now they must die by the sword, a befitting violent end!

Whether Mugabe punishes those named in WikiLeaks or not, he and his Zanu PF party are doomed to have a bloody end!