Democratic "reforms chete, chete!" complain Musewe - because they are the only "panacea". By N Garikai

“For time immemorial Wilbert Mukori aka Nomusa Garikai has focused his now innosiating drivel on reforms chete chete,” wrote brother Vince Museve.

Wilbert Mukori, Patrick Guramatunhu, myself and a few others have focused our attention on implementing the democratic reforms “chete, chete” as you rightly said because this is the elephant in the room that has been ignored for donkey years and MUST now be dealt with head-on.

There are those demanding the full implementation of all democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections and are pursuing the matter with the single mindedness and unrelenting tenacity of a honey badger on the trail of a snake, which the matter demands. Then there are those who are merely paying lip-service to the subject. You must not make the mistake of confusing the one group with the other!    

“My dear friend Alex Magaisa wrote a very clear and concise article on his BSR last week on the fact that coalition is not the panacea to free and fair elections in Zimbabwe but a critical part of the recipe which must of course include substantive reforms,” said Musewe.

“I fully support his views and I myself have said same a thousand times that elections without reforms where Zanupf controls the state machinery are a waste of time.”

Just when exactly did your “dear friend Alex Magaisa” get the lightning-bolt inspiration that “substantive reforms” are important for free, fair and credible elections? Remember Magaisa was MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai’s advisor during the GNU years, the time when the nation had its golden opportunity to implement substantive democratic reforms and SADC leaders were, literally begging MDC, to do so. Yet MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented. Not one!

I say Magaisa is telling us lies; he never believed that reforms are important, at least not during the GNU years when he has the opportunity to get them implemented. You say, I have a “small mind”, a “midget minded clown” and you, Vince Musewe (my apology for getting your surname wrong last time), you are the big man who thinks big. If having a big mind means being naïve and gullible, keep you big and big ideas to yourself!

You support Magaisa and yet have never ever criticized him or anyone in MDC for their treasonous betrayal in failing to get even one reform implemented during the GNU!

So, Mister-Know-It-All Vince Musewe, have said “a thousand times that elections without reforms where Zanu PF controls the state machinery are a waste of time”. How many times has President Mugabe said he wanted the country to have free and fair elections, for example. A thousand times and a thousand times again! Yet  he is the one who has corrupted the country’s democratic institutions like ZEC, wasted billions of dollars paying dodgy people like NIKUV to corrupt the voters’ roll and has even murdered thousands of innocent Zimbabweans in cold blooded all for the sake rigging the vote. After doing all that, the tyrant still claims that Zimbabwe has always had free, fair and credible elections without failure!

So, you see, big man it is not what one say or how many times they say it that matters but what they say and mean! You are just like President Mugabe in that you say one thing but mean the exact opposite.

In your earlier articles, you have advocated that we should seek a compromise arrangement to appease the Zanu PF leaders because we will never get Zanu PF to implement the reforms.

“I would rather we postpone elections and pursue an inclusive political settlement that addresses the fears (of losing power and privileges) of ZANU(PF), but ushers in a new era of inclusive democracy through comprehensive political reforms over an agreed timeframe,” you wrote in February last year.

In your more recent article of a few days ago you were very clear about the importance of the coalition in defeating Zanu PF and said nothing about the coalition but nothing without implemented the reforms.

Let us cut out the chase and call a spade a spade, Mr Musewe. Do you agree that Zanu PF will rig the next elections even if the opposition was united to form this grand coalition you and many others have spent so much sweat and blood promoting?

Are you aware that many opposition politicians out there are using the coalition as the excuse to hoodwink the gullible public into believe the opposition will win the elections as long as they are united? The public will not care that the elections are not free and fair as long as the end Zanu PF’s rule of corruption and terror.

These unscrupulous politicians know this is not the case but are using it as cover to justify why they are once again taking part in flawed elections as happened in 2013. They are fighting over the few seats President Mugabe throws at the opposition, bait they have found irresistible.

And, last by far most important of all, are you aware that as long as these sell-outs opposition politicians contest these flawed elections Zanu PF will never have to implement any meaningful democratic reforms? The tyrant has always pointed to the GNU and asked if there was any need for democratic reforms, then why did MDC fail to implement them. Besides the opposition would boycott elections if the process was flawed!

Remember what I said above about not confusing those committed to free, fair and credible elections with those who are merely paying lip service to the subject; it is important that you remember that!

Here are four reasons why a true democrat will not support the call for an opposition coalition:

1)    The greatest weakness in Zimbabwe politics on both sides of the political divide is the lack of quality. All those pushing hard for the grand coalition are individuals with a proven track record as corrupt and incompetent. It is splitting hair to argue whether a coalition of Tweedledee and Tweedledum will be any better or worse than each on their own. Quantity makes a very poor substitute for quality.

2)    Democracy is best served where there is real and meaningful competition and those, as happened even before independence with the call to unite Zanu and Zapu to form the Patriotic Front, calling for unity and speaking with one voice are, per se, the enemies of democracy.

3)    It is a nonsense that Zanu PF has remain in office all these years because we have divided opposition that has divided the opposition vote. It is President Mugabe’s unparalleled and tyrannical powers to rig the vote that has kept him in State House!

4)    You, Mr Vince Musewe and your friend Alex Magaisa, can deny it as much as you wish but it is a fact that the Zanu PF regime and its propaganda machine are burning the midnight oil promoting the formation of opposition coalition as the “panacea” that will beat and/or neutralize all Zanu PF’s vote rigging shenanigans and deliver opposition electoral victory. Any time and energy spent talking of opposition coalition is therefore aiding and abetting Zanu PF in laying its grand electoral deceit for 2018. You and Alex can play your part, paid or unpaid, in that; not me!

By the way, in your previous article your surname was spelt Museve, with a V. Some of us are used to our name being spelt interchangeably as Nomusa or Nomsa, for example, and will never ever make a mountain out of a mole hill about it. Still, unless someone else and not you made that mistake, then it is you who should “wake up”, get off your high horse, deflate your puffed-up ego and learn to spell your own name correctly!

Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged election and it would totally irresponsible to leave this important matter in the hands of people like you, Vince Musewe and Alex Magaisa. Your inflated ego and hunger for a seat on the gravy train has clouded your mind, you cannot see reason and logic. As for Magaisa, he sold-out big time during the GNU he will certain do so again given half a chance!

Stopping the sell-out opposition politicians who will contest in flawed elections giving the process a veneer of democratic legitimacy is a very reasonable, logical and legitimate way of forcing the implementation of the reforms. These sell-out opposition politicians do not care about the ordinary people and their right to free, fair and credible elections, all they care about is getting a seat on the gravy train by hook or by crook even when they know it is a bribe.

Opposition politicians contesting flawed elections are no longer with the people, they are Zanu PF’s partners in crime, they are the soft under belly of the beast, the soft target to attack!