In two weeks, 21 st
January 2017 the people of Bikita West will casting their votes to elect a new
MP. However, there is overwhelming evidence already to show the whole electoral
process is not free, fair and credible and thus the outcome will not be a
credible reflection of the democratic wishes of the constituency.
“Muno, munonetsa kutamba namo. Ukada kutamba nemadh**** pasina
mvura unoshaiwa pekumagezera. Unofamba uchinhuwa. (This Province does not
tolerate political descent and those who have dared to do so have been punished
severely.)” Masvingo’s Provincial Affairs Minister, Shuvai Mahofa told the
people attending a Zanu PF rally at Gwindingwi Primary School.
“This
is what we are telling Mai Mujuru. . . . acting president (Mnangagwa), we
do as we say. What we want to assure you as Masvingo province is that we are
going to give you the highest percentage vote. This is Bikita West, Bikita Best
… let us go and vote wisely.”
Zanu PF is a party of thugs and the party’s use of all manner of
vote rigging tactics including tampering with the voters’ roll and, worse
still, use of wanton violence is well documented. In the 2008 elections, the
most violent elections in Zimbabwe’s turbulent history, President Mugabe told
his party thugs “What is achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!”
Hundreds of thousands of people were beaten and/or raped that year and over 500
were murdered.
The fact that Minister Mahofa evoked these murderous memories in
such a matter-of-fact way and in the presence of VP Mnangagwa only goes to show
that when the going gets tough Zanu PF will revert to its tried, tested and
proven methods dirty tricks to rig the vote including wanton violence.
After 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by
this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship millions of our people are out
of work and living in abject poverty.
The Zanu PF dictatorship controls all the state institutions like
Police, ZEC, Judiciary, hence the reason why it has been impossible to hold
free, fair and credible elections. The regime also controls all facets of the
nation’s economic activity hence the reason there is the criminal waste of the
nation’s human and material resources.
To break Zanu PF’s strangle hold on the economy, a prerequisite
for economic recovery, we must first end the party’s dictatorial rule by
holding free, fair and credible elections.
The cure to all our economic and political problems is a simple
one - we must implement the democratic reforms designed to stop all the vote
rigging. Anything else is a waste of time!
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one reform
during the GNU, when the task was significantly easier that it was since the
rigged July 2013 elections, because he believed he could still deliver
political and economic transformation with no reform. We all know what a waste
of time that has been as Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections.
Not even one reform has been implemented since the 2013 elections;
it is clear, Zanu PF will rig the 2018 elections. Uniting the opposition parties
will do nothing to stop the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut!
“These guys are crazy they think they can intimidate the electorate,” commented Lameck Muronzwa in Nehanda Radio in
response to Mai Mahofa’s threats. His was
just one of the 70 comments or so in the first 24 hours of publishing the story,
most of the comments were vulgar cursing and swearing.
Of course, the people are intimidated, if I was in Bikita West I
would vote for Zanu PF and argue other to do the same. As we speak, there are
many people in Bikita West are hungry and whether or not they get food aid will
depend on whether or not Zanu PF win the by-election in two weeks. This is the
reality these people are facing and people like Muronzwa can afford to bury
their heads in the sand and deny to see it.
After 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule we need to
implement the democratic reforms if we are ever to end the 90% unemployment
rate and rescue the millions now living in abject poverty. We can curse and
swear all we want that is not going to stop Zanu PF rigging elections or end
the economic rot!
8 comments:
Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda has said Zanu PF succession is a complex issue but party members should not have too much ambition to be president.
How complex can Zanu PF's succession issue be for Pete's sake. The fact that the party has failed to end President Mugabe's 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule is to do with the sheer incompetency of party members that the cleverness of Mugabe.
The ease with which Mugabe has bullied, tricked and cheated Simon Muzenda, Joice Mujuru, Mnangagwa and all the other Zanu PF leaders over the years goes beyond the usual divide and rule cuningness. Margaret Dongo was right when she said Zanu PF leaders "vakadzi vaMugabe" (are Mugabe's subservient concubines) Only stupid Zanu PF leaders would have tolerated being told there would be no cabinet meeting unless President Mugabe was there to chair it for 37 years, for example!
These Zanu PF buffoons have allowed President Mugabe to own and control everything in the country it is little wonder they are at sixes and sevens as how to take back power even now with the tyrant half dead.
President Nana Addo has shown himself to be a poor judge of character by inviting Morgan Tsvangirai, he should know that the MDC leader sold-out during the GNU and failed to get even one democratic reform implemented. Of all the African countries Ghana is one of the most democratic one and therefore one would have thought that president Addo would appreciate the seriousness of Tsvangirai's betrayal!
@ Whitlaw Mugiwji
“Rousseau says its force that is used to make someone a slave but it can only be their cowardice that perpetuates their condition. Yes, Zanu PF has used violence in the past to intimidate and cow us into submission but we must throw away that fear and face Zanu PF head on,” you said.
You have hit the nail on the head there!
“Haa, munozviziva, muno hamusi mekutamba namo (You all know it. This is not a constituency to play silly games). Kune vamwe vakatsakatika muno umu gore riya, munoriziva. Handei tinovhota zvakanaka. (There are some who disappeared in this constituency as you know. Let us go and vote wisely,” bellowed Minister Mahofa.
Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy and we fought for the freedom and human rights all Zimbabweans and not for people like Shuvai Mahofa to impose themselves on the nation.
In a country with a healthy and functioning democratic institutions, the Public media, the Police, ZEC, the Judiciary, Civic Society, everyone would have been up in arms and demanding that Mahofa must fired and other disciplinary procedures against her instituted.
President Kwame Nkrumah was one of Africa's bright stars, at least when he first got into power. He clearly understood the importance of political power and the importance of democratic accountability in the search for good governance.
In Zimbabwe, like in many other third world countries, most people gave up their political power by giving up their right to free and fair elections soon after independence. They thought nothing Zanu PF's one-party state overtures as long as the tyrant delivered the economic prosperity. He did not deliver the economic prosperity and they had no power to remove him from power.
"Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else will be added to it!" should be one of those themes taught in all our schools and everyone must live by and cherish for life!
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and with disastrous consequences. 37 years of absolute power by Mugabe and his cronies has left the country in total economic ruins and the people a cowed nation.
The irony is the people have allowed Mugabe and his cronies to do as they pleased to appease them thinking the tyrant will then leave them in peace. Of course the opposite has happened; they gave the tyrant an inch and he demanded a foot and has been back again and again demanding more and more.
Now the tyrant and his cronies are filthy rich and have usurped all the people's political powerful, it is not going to be easy to wrestle our democratic power back. It is certainly going to take a lot more than cursing and swearing to transform Zimbabwe. Indeed Mahofa is winning the foul language contest, given she has a national platform to broadcast her vulgarity and threats!
We must demand the implementation of democratic reforms and the holding of free and fair elections if we are ever to escape from this political and economic mess Mugabe has landed us. The longer we stay here the harder it will get to get out!
Minister Kasukuwere blamed MDC Councils for failing to supply clean running water.
Zanu PF has been in government for the last 37 years and in that period unemployment has soared to the present 90% plus; rampant corruption is now so rampant that $15 billions in diamond revenue are swindled and no one is arrested; etc. When the national economy is in a mess everyone else including local government suffers.
Councils need money to deliver clean water, repair sewage pipes, etc. and they get all their revenue from paid council rates, pad water bills, etc. With unemployment going through the roof it is no surprise that council revenue has dried up, the people are too poor to pay their bills!
Minister Kasukuwere, no Zimbabwean in their right mind will be fooled into believing that MDC is to blame for the economic mess in Zimbabwe today! They are not stupid, they know Zanu PF is responsible for the mess!
“Have you ever noticed how hard it is for a team to win back to back World Cup soccer titles?” wrote Strive Masiyiwa.
“#When you have a winning team, you don’t want to make changes, but that’s when change must be uppermost in your mind.”
A winning team, how about a losing one! You must have heard of a country called Zimbabwe we have had this corrupt and incompetent regime for the last 37 years; the regime has been a total disaster. If it was not for natural wastage and recent infighting most of the corrupt and incompetent cabinet members in office in 1980 will still be office today.
The president is one of the most corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant and a control freak to boot. He is 92 years old now and old age and ill health have taken their toll and yet he still hangs on to power; he dreads the thought of someone else turning the economy around. He had made such a mess it clear that a village idiot will do better than him!
Our biggest problem is Zimbabwe is how to change a losing team; we have been stuck with the Zanu PF dictatorship for 37 years and counting!
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