There is not even one thinking Zimbabwean out there who
would disagree that the country is in economic ruins with unemployment a
nauseating 90% and 76% of our people now living in abject poverty and denied
their freedoms, human rights, human dignity and hope. There is no question
about how caused the economic ruins – 36 years of gross mismanagement, rampant
corruption and lawlessness by the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF one-party cum
one-man dictatorship. The public debate is now focused on what should be done
to get the nation out of this mess?
There two competing schools of thought as to what
the forward should be:
a)
There are those who are
saying we should expend all our time, energy and treasure on uniting the
country’s opposition; making sure the electorate register to vote and then go
out to vote en masse coming voting day. The argument here is that Zanu PF will
be defeated if we do not divide the opposition vote and people vote in such big
numbers that rigging the vote is impossible.
b)
The second school of thought
is arguing that we should expend all our time, energy, treasure, sweat, blood -
everything on getting the democratic reforms designed to dismantle Zanu PF’s
vote rigging juggernaut so that the next elections are free, fair and credible
because only free and fair elections will deliver a compete government. If not
a competent government, then at least one with some common sense.
There are several reasons why uniting the opposition
and contesting the elections with no reforms is doomed to fail and here is a
few of these reasons:
There is no
quality in the opposition and quantity is a poor substitute for quality.
It has been long in coming but it is now beginning
to dawn on many people that quality matters, that we are in this mess because
the corrupt and incompetent opposition let us down. Both Morgan Tsvangirai and Joice
Mujuru are corrupt and incompetent, their political track records speaks
volumes, and per se they will never accomplish anything of substance.
Tsvangirai had his best chance to implement the democratic
reforms during the GNU; he failed to get even one reform implemented. Not even
one! To get out of this mess the country must implement the democratic reforms
a.s.a.p. and it is naïve to trust Tsvangirai to do so if he was to lead the
next government.
“Now, Mrs Mujuru’s genes, her DNA is 100% Zanu PF.
We all know that had she not been expelled from Zanu PF, she would still be a
vice president aspiring to inherit that coveted throne” wrote Rejoice Ngwenya
in Zimeye.
Of course, Rejoice is right, Mujuru is Zanu PF in
all but name. If she was elected back into office, she will be looking at
carrying on with the corruption and mismanagement where she left off when she
was booted out of Zanu PF in 2014.
A united opposition of Tsvangirai, Mujuru plus many
others equally corrupt and incompetent will increase the head count, quantity,
but they will still be corrupt and incompetent and therefore will not deliver
the political and economic changes the nation needs. It will take quality
leadership to get the economy back on track and not just a change of name of
who is president.
If you can
rig the vote, politics in more than a game of numbers.
Mugabe has always wanted Zimbabwe to be a one-party
state and from the word go he has set his mind to establish and retain the de
facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship that has misruled this nation these
last 36 years and landing us in this mess. As the national economy started to
falter and with it his popularity with the people; Mugabe has resorted to all
manner of dirty tricks to rig the vote including the use of wanton violence. Mugabe
has turned vote rigging into an art, numbers count for nothing.
In the March 2008 elections Tsvangirai got 73% of
the votes, by Mugabe's own admission, but after six weeks of recounting the 5
million votes, Mugabe's ZEC whittled down 73% to 47%.
In the presidential run-off that followed Mugabe
launched a military style operation "Mavhotera paps!" (Whom did you
vote for!). He deployed Police, Army, CIO and war veterans to punish the people
for having voted for MDC in the March vote. The country witnessed its worst
ever election violence and over 500 people were murdered. Mugabe got 98% of the
vote and ZEC took less than a day to count and declare the result!
In the 2013 elections, the nation was spared the
wanton violence but only because Mugabe had devised a very sophisticated vote
rigging scheme. He paid an Israeli company NIKUV a princely sum of US$ 10
million to corrupt the voters roll so that nearly one million voters (Mugabe’s
winning margin that year was just over one million) were denied the vote
because their details were posted in some other constituency than the one they
expected.
Two days before the elections the number of polling
station was increased from 2 000 to 9 000 and hooded Zanu PF youths were seen
on Youtube videos being bussed from one polling station to the next casting
multiple votes.
The law of the land says the voters roll must
released one month, at least, before voting day; Mugabe refused to do so. If he
had done so, then people whose details were posted in wrong constituencies would
have had the chance to have this corrected, for example. In fact to this day, Mugabe
still refuse to release the 2013 voters roll; he knows that it is the smoking
gun of the blatant vote rigging that took place that year.
Zanu PF’s
vote rigging juggernaut is a well-funded machine.
$15 billions of diamond revenue was looted, again by
Mugabe’s own admission, in the period 2010 to 2016. He made the surprise
admission in February and to date no one has been arrested and Finance Minister
has also confirmed that government is still collected revenue from one out of
the expected six million carat diamond output; proof that the looting in still
going on. It is no secret that some of the looted billions are now being used
to fund Zanu PF’s vote rigging schemes.
Vote rigging
is the elephant in the room, opposition unity is only the mouse
Many Zimbabweans have developed the knack for
ignoring the elephant in the room squeezing everyone else out and talk of the
mouse instead. For decades, Mugabe has denied that corruption was undermining
national development and the economy. He blamed the drought and sanctions
instead allowing corruption to grow and spread. What nation of earth can
sustain the haemorrhaging of $15 billions much less one with Zimbabwe’s GDP of
$14 billions.
The people of Zimbabwe should have stood firm
against Mugabe’s vote rigging shenanigans soon after independence; we did not, allowing
the tyrant to develop and perfect his vote rigging dirty tricks. During the GNU,
the country had its best chance ever to implement the reforms and end the Zanu
PF dictatorship; Tsvangirai wasted that chance.
The task of stopping Zanu PF rigging elections has
become progressively more and more difficult because the regime has had all
these years to entrench itself into power. But just as the cancerous corruption
has grown and spread and now poses a serious threat to the economic life of the
nation and therefore cannot be ignored any more. So too is the vote rigging;
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is socially and politically unsustainable and
political reform is the key to unlock economic reform. This nation cannot afford
yet another rigged elections and thus delay economic recovery.
Why we need
the NTA to implement the democratic reforms
Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders in the
Nation Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) have been calling on Zanu PF to implement
electoral reforms, without even bothering to discuss the merits of these
reforms, it is naïve to expect Zanu PF to president over reforms designed to
dismantle the party’s political power base. Senior Zanu PF leaders like
Professor Jonathan Moyo and VP Mnangagwa have already public stated that the
party will never do any such thing.
There are rumours that Tsvangirai is negotiating
with Zanu PF to enter yet another GNU. Since the primary task of the new GNU
would be to implement democratic reforms leading to free and fair elections,
the same task the two parties failed to get even one reform implemented last
time. The two parties failed to get even one reforms implemented for various
selfish reasons, those reasons are still there today. It would be naïve to
trust Mnangagwa and/or Tsvangirai to implement all the reforms thoroughly and expeditiously.
The task of implementing the democratic reforms must
be given others who played very little or no part in the failed GNU or the Zanu
PF dictatorship of those last 36 years. A National Transition Authority (NTA)
is one such political body that could formed and tasked to implement the
reforms.
The last GNU was a product of the political crisis born
out of the wanton violence and vote rigging of the 2008 elections, we do not
need to have a repeat of another rigged elections of social upheaval in the
country to justify the NTA. The present economic situation is socially and
politically unsustainable and we should embrace change now without inflicting
any more suffering on our people much less shed another drop of blood in street
protests or political violence.
Taking part
in 2013 elections with no reforms was foolish it will be folly to do so again
SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai not to take part in
the 2013 elections with no reforms implemented. Tsvangirai thought he had the
numbers on his side to overwhelm any vote rigging by Mugabe. He was wrong as we
know and the nation has paid dearly for it. Taking part in any future elections
without implementing any reforms is sheer folly.
Demanding
free, fair and credible elections is NOT asking for too much
It was the Greeks who, 2500 years ago, came up with
democracy as a just and stable system of government, the ante-dote to autocracy
and tyranny, in which everyone had a meaningful say in the governance of the
country. We know that the de facto Zanu PF dictatorship has not worked, we do
not need someone else to tell that or that we need change. They are those who
are pretending not to know what constitute free, fair and credible elections
and are asking us to sweep all evidence of vote rigging by this regime under
the carpet. We must ignore them and demand, not in a shy way but firmly, the
implementation of all democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free,
fair and credible.
1 comment:
“It is right and proper that we look the tyrant in the eye and demand free and fair elections as our birth right, that is not asking too much, even of a seasoned corrupt and murderous tyrant!” That is a tall order my brother.
There are millions of Zimbabweans out there whose lives are a hell-on-earth today because they have been out of work for donkey years now and they now live in abject poverty, for example. Some of them know that President Mugabe and his cronies have been looting the nation’s resources big time and their looting is a big factor in the country’s economic meltdown and their poverty. But let me tell you this my brother, few of these people will have the courage to say it in their own head that they want free, fair and credible elections much less “look the tyrant in the eye” and say it!
Before independence blacks were third class citizens. The whites were the first class citizens enjoying all the freedoms and human rights; the Indians and coloureds were second class enjoying some of the rights and blacks were the exploited and oppressed with even fewer freedoms and rights. Most blacks accepted their position but grudgingly!
After independence Mugabe and his ruling elite became the first class citizens with same rights and privileges to exploit and oppress as the whites; the rest of the war veterans became the second class with some freedoms and rights but not all and the masses remained third class citizens still oppressed and exploited. The majority of the people, again accepted their third class status but instead of doing so grudgingly they resigned themselves to their fate which means the fire to fight for justice was gone.
Before independence the economic conditions of the blacks were far better than it is today and yet still the blacks were restless for change because the fire of rebellion was burning strong. They have tolerated see the country go to the dogs after independence because the flame of rebellion had long been extinguished.
We need to reignite the fire to allow most of our people to view themselves as worthy human beings entitled to the same freedoms and human rights as everyone else. Then and only then will they have the courage to look the tyrant in the face and demand their freedoms and human rights.
Of course, there is no one out there who does not know that Zanu PF has been rigging elections. They also know that until all the democratic reforms are implemented there will never be free and fair elections. But because the fire demanding justice has gone out a long time ago and have accepted they will never enjoy the same freedoms and rights as the ruling elite they instinctively settle for whatever the ruling elite give them – elections in which Zanu PF still retain the privileges of rigging the vote!
Most of these people are convinced Mugabe and Zanu PF will never give up their tyrannical dictatorial powers and therefore it is utterly pointless even trying. The GNU presented the scenario when this could have been done but still these sceptics refuse to acknowledge this. There is no one more blind than he who close their eyes and refuse to see.
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