For the umpteenth time Tsvangirai, Zanu PF will never implement reform

The trouble with Morgan Tsvangirai is he is a confused man who talks too much on a subject matter - fighting for free and fair elections, in this instance - on which he does not have the foggiest idea what he talking about. He clearly did not understand what the democratic reforms MDC was supposed to implement during the GNU were about much less how they were supposed to be implemented. Even now with the benefit of hindsight, three years after the rigged July 2013 elections, he still has no clue what the GNU was about!

“There are those who want a GNU, we are saying no to that. We are fighting for free and fair elections and not positions; we need the right conditions for elections,” Tsvangirai told his party supporters.

Let us just unpick what he has just said.

To start with, the principle task of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was that this interim administration must implement a raft of democratic reforms and write a new DEMOCRATIC constitution designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and vote rigging machinery for that the next elections will be free, fair and credible. We all know that the 31^st July 2013 elections were not free and fair – Tsvangirai admitted as much by noon of elections day and has done so again above.

So we are starting on an agreed position; that the last GNU failed to deliver free and fair elections. Why?

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote in July 2013; proof that there was something wrong with the implementation of the democratic reforms and/or with the new 2013 constitution because that is exactly what they were supposed to stop happening. It turns out that not even one democratic reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. As for the new constitution, it is a weak and feeble constitution a product of “horse trading” between Zanu PF and the two MDC factions, as Trevor Ncube, CEO of Alpha Media Holdings, has rightly pointed out.  It is not at all the democratic constitution the nation had been promised.

Since the July 2013 rigged elections MDC-T has promised the nation that the party will not take part in any future elections including by-elections until electoral reforms have been carried out. True to their word the party has not contested any of the by-elections since 2013. The next elections are two years away and still not even one reform has been implemented. Not a sausage!

MDC-T has maintained it will force Zanu PF to implement the reforms necessary for free and fair elections. Zanu PF has since refused to implement any reforms because being able to rig the elections is clearly in the party’s interest. Zanu PF has a clear two thirds majority in the new parliament after the rig 2013 elections and has resisted all parliamentary pressure to implement any reforms.

Even if some other pressure, the worsen economic meltdown for example, was brought to bear on Mugabe; it would be naïve to expect the Zanu PF regime to preside over the dismantling of the dictatorship design to end the party’s political domination. The pressure would be to force Zanu PF to accept the formation of an independent body that will then be tasked to implement the reforms.

Since no democratic reforms were implemented during the last GNU there is no question that we need the reforms to be implemented. We know we cannot trust Zanu PF as the government of the day to implement the reforms and so that leaves us with no other choice than finding some independent body to do it. The National Transition Authority (NTA) or GNU – the name is not important - composed of competent Zimbabweans who understand what the reforms are about and can be trusted to implement all the reforms and finally deliver free and fair election.

Tsvangirai is being very presumptuous with his assertion that he will not be is the NTA or GNU; it would be madness to allow any of the Zanu PF or MDC players involved in the failed last GNU to be in the new one. What for; they messed up the last time what is there to suggest they will not do so again.

Zimbabwe is not going to end the crippling economic meltdown and the increasing political chaos gripping the country until we implement the democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections. Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms, it rigged the last elections and, as long as the party is allowed to rig future elections, it will remain in power and so no reforms will ever be implemented. We need the NTA to break the cycle!

Assuming that Tsvangirai understands why we need the NTA, (knowing him as I do that is assuming a lot) then the only reason he is objecting to NTA or NGU is that accepting bringing into sharp focus why the last GNU failed and his role in that failure.

For Tsvangirai to claim that he is fighting for free and fair elections and can deliver without coming up with some form of arrangement to neutralize Zanu PF’s dictatorial and vote rigging powers is as nonsensical as him claiming we can swim across the crocodile infested Zambezi River with no protection. We should concentrate on building the bridge and not waste time much less one human life listening to him!

Whether people like it or not a corrupt and incompetent individual like Emmerson Mnangagwa, Joice Mujuru and Morgan Tsvangira will never implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for. The first two were key players in the Mugabe team that created the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship we are suffering under today. If we elected anyone of them back into power, they will be there to remodel the dictatorship to fit their image. The latter has already a chance to end the dictatorship but failed to do so only because Mugabe bribed him to do nothing.


By electing corrupt and incompetent leaders, even recycling leaders with a proven record of failure Zimbabweans are showing the whole world that we are not serious about wanting free and fair elections – at least, not yet!