Another "Mujuru Bhora Mushango will defeat Zanu PF" - another kiya kiya hare-brain scheme. N Garikai

The elephant in Zimbabwe’s political room is Zanu PF’s now limitless power to rig elections. When a number of Zimbabwe’s opposition parties came together to form NERA, they promised to pressure the Zanu PF regime to implement electoral reforms to take away the party’s omnipotent vote rigging powers. What they were proposing is the equivalent of the mice proposing to tie the bell on the cat with the new twist, get the bloody cat to tie the blood bell round its own neck!  

“Zanu PF is not going to reform itself out of office,” Zanu PF bigwigs like High Education Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo have said. He was only stating the obvious, just to underline the foolishness of the proposal.

The opposition have failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in the last four years since the last rigged July 2013 elections and it is certain they will not get any implemented in the remaining year before the elections. There is panic and confusion in the opposition camp; they all want to contest next year’s elections but since they have done nothing to curtail Zanu PF’s vote rigging powers they are now coming up with all manner of hare-brain scheme to convince themselves and the electorate how they can still win the election regardless of all Zanu PF’s vote rigging!

“In the instances that they (opposition) partially won an election, it was because of the bhora musango (kick ball into the bush),” said Jealousy Mawarire, Mujuru’s NPP spokesman, explaining his party’s hare-brain scheme.

“If you read and understand the bhora musango phenomenon, you would see that there was a Mujuru element in that aspect; supporters of Dr Mujuru within Zanu PF chose not to vote for the Zanu PF president in 2008. And that resulted in the MDCT and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai winning the first round of that election.”

“So that alone is an indication that if we work together we have chances of defeating Zanu PF and also effect the transfer of power.”

If Mai Mujuru was truly committed to see power transfer then and smart enough to see this through then why did she fail to stop President Mugabe rigging the result. Tsvangirai had 73% of the vote, according to President Mugabe’s own admission, he ordered ZEC to recount the votes. After six weeks of recounting ZEC announced that Tsvangirai had 47% of the vote.

In the presidential run-off that followed, President Mugabe launched his own military style operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) which completely overwhelmed Bhora Musango (assuming it was still active) and turned Tsvangirai’s 73% victory in March into an 85% Mugabe victory in July!

The people expected Mai Mujuru and her ZimPF to do well in the recent Bikita West by-elections, after all she could now openly and aggressively deploy her Bhora Musango phenomenon and not have to hide as in 2008 when she was still a Zanu PF bigwig! The ZimPF only got 14% of the vote! Mawarire should explain what happen. Did she lose her ball?

If Mai Mujuru has any brain at all and truly cared about a free and democratic Zimbabwe then she should have used her position at the heart of the party and government to stop President Mugabe creating the de facto one-party dictatorship in the first place. Her hare-brain Bhora Musango plan was too little too late, as we have seen.

After 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe and Zanu PF rule that has forced millions to leave the country as economic and/or political refugees or else live in abject poverty; the need for a competent government is now a matter of life and death. We cannot afford yet another rigged election; that should be obvious even to our corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians.

We need a working solution to fix our broken political system. NPP’s Bhora Musango, the grand opposition coalition, etc. as all kiya kiya solutions because they all do nothing to address the big problem of Zanu PF’s power to rig elections. We have ignored Zanu PF’s ability to rig elections for 37 years and it has only grown in extend and sophistication over the years to the all-powerful colossus it is today. Grace Mugabe is so confident of a Zanu PF victory next year that she boasted that even the corpse of her husband as the Zanu PF candidate would win the election.  

We must now stop Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut once and once for all by making sure there will be no elections until the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship are fully implemented. We must discard all the opposition’s kiya kiya scheme to contest the elections with no reforms in place because they have not worked in the past and never will!

The root cause of Zimbabwe's human tragedy is the denial of UN rights - cure is demanding them.

I once gave a presentation on the UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS to a group of High School students. I rattled through what the UN is, what gave rise to the declaration and then went through all the 30 articles in the declaration.

I then asked the students to pick one or two of the rights they consider are the most important.

“The right to education,” was the most popular answer. “Especially, passing the coming exams!” one of the students had added to the amusement and approval of all.

I did my best to explain that the right to education, shelter, a job, etc. are social economic rights; they are important but not as important as the right to life, the right to a fair trial, etc., the political rights. The students listened politely but I could see the right to education and passing the coming exams was the most important right, as far as they were concerned.

Everyone want away for the lunch break.

After lunch, the discussion was totally different, everyone now agreed that the right to life was the most important right. It turned out that during lunch one of the student had a life-threatening reaction to something in her food. Her tongue swell-up and there was panic would stop her breathing. Fortunately for the girl, her condition was known and she was quickly attended to.

The whole episode had been so upsetting that many of the students had no lunch, they had lost their appetite.

Whilst earlier they had been adamant that the right to education and passing the exams was the most important right; when they were faced with a real life and death situation they quickly realised just how precious life is!

This presentation today is not to a few High School students but to the millions of Zimbabweans out there, especially but not exclusively, the millions now out of work and living in abject poverty, who do not understand why you are suffering so and, more significantly, how the hell can you extricate yourself, your family and, if possible, the nation from this nightmare. Yes I can say, without even a moment’s hesitation, that we can all extricate ourself and the nation from this hell-on-earth we find ourselves in because:

a)   Zimbabwe is endowed with natural wealth and great potential, all we need to give all our people all they will ever need to live in peace, liberty and happiness.

b)   The sole source of all Zimbabwe’s social, economic and political problems is man, what one-man has created another can pull down what one-man has destroyed another can rebuild and expand to new heights. And we have all the human and material resources we will ever need to turn Mugabe’s ruins into the great nation we can be.

The one thing we need to extricate ourselves from the hell-on-earth Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have landed us into is KNOWLEDGE; a clear knowledge and understanding that we are in this economic and political mess because Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have systematically us our basic human freedoms and rights as spelt out in the 1948 UN declaration of human rights including the right to meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe and even the right to life. The regime has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain the dictatorship.

The people will also need to have a clear knowledge and understanding that having established the de facto corrupt and murderous one-party (Zanu PF) cum one-man (Robert Mugabe) dictatorship Mugabe and his cronies have no intention of dismantling the dictatorship and restoring the individual freedoms and rights. The regime created the system so it can enjoy absolute political power and it has enjoyed absolute power plus all the trappings of wealth and influence that it brings for nearly four decades now. They are now addicted to absolute power and they will never ever give up any of their dictatorial powers, not without a fight.

National elections often the best chance to have regime change; this will not happen in Zimbabwe because Zanu PF has mastered the art of rigging elections as we have seen in past elections. If we are ever to have any meaningful political change then we must demand the implement all the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship and restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.  

After the wanton violence and blatant vote rigging in the 2008 elections Zanu PF was forced to agree to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms to end vote rigging. Sadly, not even one of the reforms were implemented and hence the reason Zanu PF was able to once again rig the 2013 elections that followed.

It is vital that people understand that not even one reform has been implemented, since the rigged July 2013 elections; there is therefore nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the 2018 elections. Nothing.

Zimbabwe’s opposition camp has been trying to sell the nation the idea that they can win next year’s election, even with no reforms in place, all they need to do is form a grand coalition and mobilise the people to register to vote and then vote.

This is nonsense because Zanu PF’s vote rigging capacity and versatility has already proven it is more than equal to whatever the opposition throws at it. In 2008 Tsvangirai won 73% of the vote, by Mugabe’s own admission but after six week or recounting 5 million votes ZEC reduced this to 47%.

Millions of Zimbabweans found registering to vote for the 2013 elections a taxing challenge because of the number of obstacles the regime placed in their way. Nearly one million voters were denied the vote because their details were not in the constituency voters’ roll they expected.

Meanwhile Zanu PF supporters were bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes.

Zanu PF has been using food aid and other state assistance to buy votes. The party continues to harass, beat, rape and even murder people to force the electorate to vote for it. It is totally unacceptable that anyone should have to be frog marched to a polling station to vote!

The truth is the opposition know Zanu PF will rig the elections and win, the only reason they still want to contest the flawed elections is to win the few seats Zanu PF gives away to stop the opposition boycotting the elections.

If all the main opposition boycotted the elections then Zanu PF will be forced to accept implementing democratic reforms as MDC-N Senator David Coltart ready admitted in his recent book. It is up to us therefore to make sure that no opposition party contest next year’s elections with no reforms in place. All those that continue to defy the people’s demands must be cast out with the Sodomites!

The key to Zimbabweans extricating ourselves out of the hell-hole Mugabe has landed us is, first of all, understanding the tyrant is denying us our basic freedoms and rights. Second, demand their restoration, in particular the implementation of all the reforms followed by the holding of the country’s first ever free, fair and credible elections.

It took the near death of one of the High School students to make them realise that the right to life is important. After 37 years of one of the most corrupt and oppressive dictatorship in human history that has forced millions into abject poverty, murdered over 30 000, etc. have shocked this nation out of its comatose complacence to finally realise their freedoms and human rights are important and are worth fighting for.

What is the National Transition Authority (NTA) and why we need it. Wilbert Mukori

What is the National Transition Authority (NTA)? And why does Zimbabwe need it?

The short answer is; The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic mess and political paralysis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country’s present political set up will never deliver free, fair and credible elections.

Zanu PF has spent all its political capital setting up the present dysfunctional political system, it has helped to keep the regime in power all these last 37 years and it is naïve to think the party will ever reforms the system and engineer its own political demise.

Even if the dog-eat-dog infighting in Zanu PF should cripple the party, so much so that its vote rigging juggernaut is rendered totally useless and the party loses next year’s elections. This is possible given the hardening of positions by such groups as Mutsvangwa led war veterans, for example.

A Mujuru or/and Tsvangirai led government will implement a few token democratic reforms, at best; not enough to ensure future elections are free and fair elections. The two leaders are corrupt and incompetent but smart enough to know that they will never win a free and fair election and so it is in their interest to retain as much of the present dysfunction system as they can, now that it will be working for them!

 So, we need free, fair and credible elections to end the economic mess and political paralysis. Since neither Zanu PF nor the opposition that is elected using the present dysfunctional system can be trusted to implement the democratic reforms required to transform the present autocratic dictatorship into a health democracy we will therefore have to appoint a neutral body – the details of composition and legal mandate are to be worked out later once the idea is agreed – which will be entrusted to implement all the democratic reforms necessary to ensure future elections are free, fair and credible. The neutral body is called NTA; the name can be change, of course.

To anyone who have been following the country’s turbulent and chaotic politics; they will immediately notice that the NTA is being tasked to implement the democratic reforms that the 2008 to 2013 GNU should have implemented but failed to get even one reform implemented. It is therefore not surprising that some of the people who are vehemently resisting NTA are from both sides of the political divide for different reasons.

“The new constitution is one of the best in Africa!” MDC politicians have often said in defence of their GNU master piece. “And 95% of the Zimbabweans approved it in the referendum.” With the usual “I rest my case!” finality!

I am not a lawyer and I am not interested with merit of country A’s constitution compared to that of Zimbabwe; this is not some legal beauty contest. What I know is the new 2013 constitution, for whatever reasons, failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections.

I know that 95% of the ordinary Zimbabweans out there approved the new constitution on the understanding that it would deliver free and fair elections. Given the country’s worsening economic situation and that it can only be meaningfully resolve by implementing the reforms 100% of the povo would want this political problem put right and not waste time defending misplaced egos.

If Zanu PF or the opposition win the next elections, they will resist the setting up of the NTA claiming they have the people’s mandate to govern.

Prominent Zimbabwean lawyer, Tendai Toto dismisses calls by the opposition for the UN to supervise ZEC in next year’s elections. 

"The provisions of section 239 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe are clear and unambiguous on the role and functions of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. There is no provision for some form of supervision by anybody for that matter," said prominent Zimbabwean lawyer Tendai Toto. 

"The suggestion and or the coded resolutions by opposition political parties that the international community must supervise the electoral processes of Zimbabwe is mischief.”

Tendai Toto was dismissing the opposition’s call for SADC or UN to supervise ZEC. The same arguments will no doubt be advanced against NTA.

There is no doubt that getting the government of the day to give up its political power to some unelected body will constitute the greatest challenge to the setting up of NTA. Getting the opposition to boycott the elections at the end of an electoral cycle offers the best and safest option. The second option is that the elections goes ahead but for one reason or other the result is rejected as happened in the 2008 elections.

No one in all honesty can deny that the present set up has denied the ordinary people of Zimbabwe their freedoms and human rights including the right to a meaningful and free vote and even the right to life itself. Like it or not this is no long politically and economically sustainable. The political system must change and will, NTA offers the way to manage that change in a orderly evolutionary way. To reject the NTA is to accept a violent revolutionary path with all the suffering, destruction and even death that revolutions often bring.