Saturday 15 October 2016

"Electoral reforms are not adequate," admits Musewe - then why the Dickens are you still demanding them. By Nomusa Garikai

My brother Vince Musewe is a confused man and sadly he is confusing our people and dragging down the fight for democratic change instead of advancing it. Whilst the case for the National Transition Authority (NTA) whose primary task will be to implement democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible has been made.

It has been said again and again that no amount of electoral reforms be it realignment of the existing laws or drafting new laws within the confines of the new 2013 constitution will deliver free and fair elections because the new constitution is weak and feeble. So by wittering on and on about electoral reforms Musewe only shows that he still stuck on electoral reforms!

“The bottom line is that we cannot wait and hope for electoral reforms and even so, electoral reforms alone are not adequate to create an environment conducive to free and fair elections without addressing the issues of the economy, security, freedom of speech and association, overt intimidation, police brutality, violence and partisan institutions among others,” admitted Musewe.

So if the “electoral reforms alone are not adequate”, I agree 100% no amount of twitting the laws without changing the feeble constitution will ever end overt intimidation; the question is why then are you wasting time demanding something we know will be inadequate?

 SADC and the whole international community have expressed they willingness to help Zimbabwe resolve its present political paralysis and get out of the economic mess but they will only help if we show them that we are serious. How can we say we are serious if continue talking of implementing electoral reforms even when we admit they will not deliver free and fair elections; that is chasing a mirage and SADC will never join us in that.

The 2008 to 2013 GNU accomplished nothing because Tsvangirai, Biti and all the other MDC leaders wasted time “enjoying themselves being in government and forgot why they were there,” as SADC leaders said soon after the rigged July 2013 elections. SADC will not want into yet another Zimbabwe crisis with no hope of achieve anything!

“We are in a crisis and we need to deal with the economy today and not wait for 2018,” continued Musewe.

For the thousandth time brother Musewe; Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is the by-product of the country’s political paralysis. As long as we have a political system that allows those in power to do as they please; be it Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs, Mai Mujuru and her ZimPF (they are Zanu PF thugs in all but name) or the corrupt and incompetent Tendai Biti, Morgan Tsvangirai, etc. with their various MDC factions; Zimbabwe’s economic prosperity will remain a pipe dream.


The 2018 elections are less than two years away and still nothing has been done to implement the reforms and thus ensure the elections are free, fair and credible. The call to do something about the economic crisis when you know there is nothing you can do (if there was then why the devil have you not done it all these last 36 years?) it typical of you Musewe – a confused man who talks too much and confusing others!

1 comment:

Zimbabwe Light said...

It is sad really that even the likes of Vince Musewe can still not make up their minds what reforms we should be implementing. The issue of democratic change, democratic reforms, dates back to the late 1990s when it became increasingly clear that Zanu PF was rigging elections to stay in power and the only way to stop the vote rigging is by carrying out democratic reforms designed to dismantle the institutionalised vote rigging.

If any Zimbabweans had not thought through what the reforms were, SADC leaders helped to put the meat on the bones during the 2008 GPA negotiations and the agreement itself. The objective of the GPA was to ensure Zimbabwe's next elections will be free, fair and credible and not a repeat of the 2008 elections which were marred by blatant vote rigging and wanton political violence. To deliver on this set objective, the GNU was tasked to implement a raft of institution reforms such as Police, ZEC, Public Media, Judiciary, etc. designed to break the undemocratic strangle-hold and control Zanu PF had on these institutions and to write a new democratic constitution designed to set the institutional reforms in stone and guarantee the individual freedoms and rights for all time.

Musewe has never condemned Tsvangirai, Biti and all the other MDC leaders for their betrayal of the nation in failing to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years of the GNU. It is either because Musewe has never understood what the reforms were about and thus failed to appreciate that this was the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. How can he condemn someone for being corrupt and incompetent when he cannot say what it is the individual failed to do.

The tragedy is that even now, with the benefit of GNU hindsight and three years of explaining what reforms we should be implementing Musewe still cannot get it right. He accepts that electoral reforms are a waste of time and yet those are the reforms he wants the NTA implement. He has finally learned that the gun without bullets is not much use sadly he is now loaded the bullets back to front! What an ass!

If Musewe is struggle to make sense of the reforms what more the usual wildebeest herd of MDC followers! By continue to follow corrupt and incompetent leaders Zimbabweans are sending a clear message that we are have no clue what democratic changes we need and thus are not ready for democratic change and governance.