The root cause of Zimbabwe’s political paralysis – the
ruling party is imploding and confusion reigns supreme in the opposition camp –
and economic meltdown – soaring unemployment, grinding poverty and corruption reaching
the dazing height of the equivalent of the country’s GDP being looted annually –
is our failure to hold those in power to democratic account through free, fair
and credible elections. The solution to ending the political paralysis and
economic meltdown is crystal clear; implement the democratic reforms designed
to remove the Zanu PF vote-rigging impediments to ensure free, fair and
credible elections.
After 36 years of Zanu PF rigged elections one had
hoped that Zimbabwe’s opposition parties, composed as they are of some of the
most corrupt and incompetent individuals, would, nonetheless, be of one accord
on the urgent need to implement the reforms and thus clear the way for free,
fair and credible elections. But to listen to the hot-air coming from opposition
camp; it is clear confusion runs deep in the opposition camp.
Most of the opposition camp players appreciate that
the reality that past elections have not been free and fair but have no clue
why this was so much less what should be done about it.
“Our message for 2018 is that people must be free to
choose anyone they want, who they think is a good leader. That’s, after all,
what we fought for,” said war veteran leader Douglas Mahiya.
“As long as the coalition is going to represent the
suffering masses of Zimbabwe, we are going to support it. But what we don’t
need are people who create a special class so that they will enjoy life while
people are suffering.”
“And yet, war veterans had served as Mugabe’s and
Zanu PF’s political power dynamos for decades,” wrote Blessing Mashaya “playing
particularly significant roles to keep the nonagenarian on the throne in the
hotly-disputed 2000 and 2008 national elections which were both marred by
serious violence and the murder of hundreds of opposition supporters.”
If Mahiya and his rogue war veteran friends do not
appreciate the pivotal role they have played in the imposition of this corrupt
and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship what is there to stop them doing the same
again in future. In the past they swore their blind allegiance to VP Mnangagwa
and in recently they have shown their willingness to support former VP Mujuru
and her ZPF.
“We agree with the sentiments which we gathered from
the interactive discussions we had with the people during our nation-wide tour.
Your message was loud and clear, that it’s time for Mugabe to leave office,”
said Mujuru in her end of the year statement.
“We also take heed of your strong conviction for the
need that opposition parties should form a grand coalition to effect change in
the regime and bring about a new way that puts people first,” she continued.
She also assured the nation the coalition will be formed by the end of 2017.
Mai Mujuru was booted out of Zanu PF kicking and
screaming because she did not want to leave. Her hen’s teeth story of playing a
full role in the creation of the corrupt and tyrannical regime and taking her
share of the spoils for 34 years and only criticizing the party after she was
booted out because it took as many years for her to open her “puppy eyes” is an
insult to all thinking people. She is, in all but name, a Zanu PF child through
and through; if she gets back into power it will be to reconstitute the
dictatorship in her own image.
Mai Mujuru is simpleton with a 34 year proven record
as one of the most corrupt and incompetent leaders of our time, it beggars
belief that anyone would consider her a serious candidate to lead Zimbabwe!
In the March 2008 elections Morgan Tsvangirai
garnered 73% of the votes, by Mugabe’s own admission; but after five weeks of “recounting”,
ZEC whittled this to a 47%. There are many, many other examples one can give to
show that it is not the lack of opposition unity that has kept Mugabe in power
but rather the carte blanche powers to the tyranny has granted himself and his
thugs to stop regime change at all cost.
As long as Zanu PF continues to enjoy total control
of all state institutions including the Police, Army, CIO, Judiciary, ZEC, etc.;
to enjoy unfettered access to the nation’s resources and to loot billions of
dollars to bankroll its vote-rigging schemes; etc. the country will never
escape from the political and economic mess it is stuck in. We have landed in
this mess because Mugabe rigged elections and as long as he is allowed to rig
elections we will remain in the mess.
Mai Mujuru, Morgan Tsvangirai and all the other oppositions
leaders has failed to come up with meaningful ways of forcing Mugabe and Zanu
PF to implement the democratic reforms and they are proposing the coalition of
the opposition, voter registration and other token activities instead. Ask
anyone of them if the solutions they are offering will guarantee free, fair and
credible elections and not even one of them will answer, yes.
Given a problem, it is in the nature of mediocrity
to offer inconsequential solutions!
Zanu PF is smart enough to know that a clean sweep
of all the contested parliamentary seats and the presidency is not in its
political interest as this will discourage opposition parties from contesting
future elections. So Zanu PF is contend winning the presidency plus two thirds
majority. It is the one third the opposition parties and fighting over.
What the nation needs is free, fair and credible
elections in which the electorate alone and not Zanu PF decide who rules the
land. The demand to implement all democratic reforms is therefore more than a
fight to end the Zanu PF hegemony but to end the unholy power sharing pack between
Zanu PF and the corrupt and incompetent opposition.
If the people are serious about ending the political
paralysis and economic meltdown and all the suffering and misery these two have
brought to the nation they must demand that the next elections must free, fair
and credible. And refuse to accept nothing less!
9 comments:
What is Moyo wittering about! The are still queues of people waiting to withdraw their money at the banks so the bond notes have not solved that cash crunch.
As long as the nothing is done to revive the national economy and we continue to import more than we export then demand for foreign currency will exceed the demand for bond notes and the value of the latter against the former will fall. Inflation is coming of that we can all be certain!
Prince Mashele argues that ‘Western’ values of accountability, political morality, reason and so on are not African and that it is idle to hope that Africans will have democracies of the type existing in Europe.
He says: ‘People must not entertain the illusion that a day is coming when SA will look like the US. Our future is more on the side of Zimbabwe, where one ruler is more powerful than the rest of the population.’ He goes on: ‘How else are we to explain the thousands of people who flock to stadiums to clap hands for a president who has violated their country’s constitution? . . . In a typical African country people have no illusion about the unity of morality and governance. People know that those who have power have it for themselves and their friends and families.’
It is tragic that many Africans have indeed lost all hope of ever living in a free and democratic African country. What makes this a double tragedy is that many of them should consider this “true African” and proud of it!
Zimbabwe's corrupt and incompetent opposition has failed to offer any real solutions to the teething problem of how to stop Zanu PF well-funded vote-rigging juggernaut and so they offer stupid solutions. Voter registration and opposition unity will be as effective in stopping the juggernaut as a mole-hill to stopping a tank. But since this is all these idiots can think, we will hear nothing else from them and, worst of all, voter registration and coalition will be repeated over and over again as the cure all solution.
Just as happened following the 2013 elections, the opposition will be stunned into silence by noon of election day as it becomes evident that Zanu PF has once again blatantly rigged the elections. All the opposition's voter registration and coalition building strategies were as useless as the mole-hill to stopping a tank! The opposition idiots will all accuse Zanu PF of vote rigging as if this is something they have just discovered and never heard of before!
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends promised the 2013 elections would be free, fair and credible and we all know that was not true. They changed their tune by noon of the voting day when the evidence of vote rigging started pouring in. The nation should have punished MDC for misleading the people; this time all opposition parties who dragged this nation into yet another rigged election must be punished.
I do agree with you, we must demand of these opposition leaders and the acolytes to state whether or not their proposed solutions will stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and then hold them to account if the elections are rigged.
The problem before us problem is clear enough; how to stop the Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut. Any proposed solution must be addressing the problem and those proposing it must admit so up front; we cannot afford wasting time on gimmicks and political grandstanding.
“How can someone afford to be on holiday in the Far East in times like this?” asked Joice Mujuru of her former boss President Mugabe who is in the Far East.
Mujuru should do us a big favour and shut up. She was at the heart of this corrupt and tyrannical regime for 34 years and never said anything to criticize the regime but now that she was kicked out of the party we are supposed to believe that she has suddenly open her eyes and found her voice! Just because she is a simpleton, she now thinks everyone else is a simpleton too!
Tsvangirai told his supporters in Harare the party was ready for the 2018 elections and gave them the details of what his MDC government will do.
What a waste of space! Tsvangirai is talking of what his MDC government is going to do after winning the elections. He has failed to win past elections because Zanu PF rigged the vote and the tyrannical regime has billions of dollars to bankroll its next vote rigging schemes. Surely Tsvangirai should be thinking of how to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections because he has to stop the vote rigging first if he is ever to form the next government.
Tsvangirai is a wildebeest who mind is so focused on the grazing the other side of the river it ignores the immediate dangers of crossing the flooded river teaming with crocodiles. Tsvangirai being Tsvangirai will blunder on regardless, he will even attempt to cross where the bank is a vertical drop five or more metres either side that even the nimble baboon would not climb.
SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai of the danger of Zanu PF rigging the elections and why he should implement the reforms first. Tsvangirai would not listen and we all know Zanu PF went on to rig the July 2013 elections. History is going to repeat itself, the wildebeest has its tail up, there is no stopping it taking the jump. The best we can do now is warn the people of the futility of following a corrupt and incompetent leader like Tsvangirai!
@ Action now
The problem here is not one of people have been doing nothing but rather of people doing the wrong thing. For the last 36 years Zanu PF has rigged one election after another, this is the problem.
Instead of implementing the reforms during the GNU Tsvangirai and his MDC wasted time gallivanting and failed to get even one reform implemented. They insisted the 2013 elections will be free and fair only to admit they were rigged by noon of the voting day.
Joice Mujuru is offering an opposition coalition by end of the year as if that will stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. We know that is not going to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections and it is important to say so now and not wait till 2018 elections day!
Anyone who propose the coalition as a solution to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections is a simpleton because this is not a solution!
Bikita West ward 4
On 30 December 2016, ZANU PF Bikita South legislator Jeppy Jaboon distributed fertilisers at Murwira Primary school. At the food distribution exercise, he openly told people that only ZANU PF supporters were going to receive fertilisers and highlighted that no opposition supporter was going to receive fertilisers. He also urged people to vote for ZANU PF candidate, Beauty Chabaya in the pending by-election.
Bikita West ward 5
ZANU PF candidate, Beauty Chabaya distributed maize seed at Makuvaza Primary School on 31 December 2016. At the distribution meeting, she said that only ZANU PF members were going to receive the maize seed. She promised that if people vote for her in the pending by election, she would donate more of the maize seed. In a separate incident, unidentified ZANU PF youths moved in the ward on 31 December 2016 threatening people that if they voted for any other candidate besides Beauty Chabaya, ZANU PF was going to unleash violence worse than that experienced in 2008.
This is the political reality, the political norm, in Zimbabwe. These are not empty threats as known opposition supporters are denied the fertilizer, seed or whatever. The ordinary people in these villages are often punished long after the by-elections is over and the observers are gone. How can we say the people are free to express their democratic will under these conditions.
It is a great tragedy that we have allowed this undemocratic practices to go on under our own noses for all these years. It is unforgivable for us to allow this to happen ever again.
Many Zimbabweans are only concerned that the elections are not free, fair and credible if they are caught or fear being caught up in the political harassment, intimidation, beating, etc. Otherwise they are too busy worrying about the sadza and salt issues of a nation slowly sinking into the economic abyss.
Most people have stopped believing that politicians, of whatever political persuasion, can ever make their lives better. They have been promised the moon on a silver plater again and gain but only to get hell-on-earth every time. In these people's minds the linkage between politics and the economy is all negative and no positive. To the people, politicians are greed, corrupt and tyrannical liars, they are the worst curse to the nation.
If it was not for the political harassment and threats many people, especially in the rural areas and amongst the urban youth, would have stopped attending political rallies and voting a long time ago!
@ Phunyukabemphethe
Both PF Zapu and Zanu PF wanted a one-party state.
Joice Mujuru is corrupt and incompetent and her being a Shona is irrelevant just as Tsvangirai, Ncube and Dabengwa are corrupt and incompetent and their tribal origins are irrelevant.
There have been Shonas and Ndebele in both PF Zapu and Zanu PF and since the unity accords the two parties have merged into one and therefore to keep blaming one tribe for the country's mess only goes to show you have a tribal agenda. The country has an important task of dragging itself out of this mess and those pursuing their narrow tribal agenda will only be weighing us down. Grow up!
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