The
relative ease with which President Robert Mugabe managed to boot out former VP
Joice Mujuru and 150 other Zanu PF bigwigs out of the party shocked many
observers. There is no doubt that they were all caught by surprise and therein
is the real BIG surprise.
President
Mugabe has been rigging national and party elections all his life. When Mai
Mujuru started amassing popular support from the party members; surely, it must
have occurred to her and her close associates that President Mugabe may rig the
process for his own selfish reasons. After all he did just that in 2004, or be
it she is the one who benefited then.
In
2004 Zanu PF was going to have an elective congress to elect a new VP to
replace the late Simon Muzenda. Emerson Mnangagwa had managed to get six out of
the ten provinces to support him and so she, his main challenger then, was set
to lose. President Mugabe changed the party constitution, without bothering to
follow laid down constitutional procedures as usual, to introduce a new
amendment demanding one of the top four post in the party must be filled by a
woman. Since the other three position were already occupied by a man it meant
the vacant VP post must be filled by a woman. She, Mai Mujuru got the job!
In
2014, all the four top posts were up for grabs and she was fighting to keep her
job!
When
Grace Mugabe had her metronomic climb from holding no party position even at
village level to become the chairperson of the party’s influential Women’s
League just a few months before the elective congress, alarm bells should have
started to ring in Mai Mujuru’s camp. When Graced launched her “baby dumping”
attach on Mujuru she must have known she her number was up and launched her own
rear guard defence. She did not!
Mai
Mujuru and her supporters did not even mount a feeble defence they just went
quietly like sheep to the slaughter - proof they never expected the attack and
when it came they had no clue what to do anyway. How is it possible that anyone
could be so naïve?
The
hopelessness and naivety of Zanu PF leaders must be what prompted Margaret
Dongo, a freedom fighter, CIO and then Zanu PF MP before she was booted out of
the party to become an independent MP, to call them “vakadzi vaMugabe!” (Mugabe’s
subservient concubines!). Sadly, even now, two years after they were booted out
of Zanu PF, some of Mai Mujuru’s group of naïve leaders are still as helpless
as ever!
“We have to force ZEC to reform and this is
what we are going to do,” explained former Zanu PF Masvingo Provincial
Minister, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti. “At the moment we have made a resolution as
opposition parties to have a tripartite electoral management body involving
SADC, AU and UN to take over the full functions of ZEC as defined in the
Constitution of Zimbabwe.
“We
agreed that ZEC is failing to manage the elections and to represent political
parties as an independent electoral body, hence a resolution that the parties
want to see ZEC disbanded because it is failing to live to its mandate of
making the electoral ground free and fair to every participant, but is working
in Zanu PF’s corner.”
Bhasikiti
was the ZimPF candidate in the Mwenezi East by-election. He withdrew last week
complained of intimidation and vote rigging by Zanu PF operatives. As a former
Zanu PF MP and Minister himself he should have expected all those dirty tricks
and we will ignore his tongue-in cheek complains. What is shocking is that as
an ex- Zanu PF Minister one expected him to now help the opposition to come up
with resolutions that make sense.
A
resolution designed to address the inadequacies of ZEC alone will not deliver
free, fair and credible elections. Bhasikiti should know that it is not for ZEC
or whoever takes over from them to investigate and arrest those committing the
politically motived acts of violence, for example. It is for the Police to investigate
such matters. We all know that the Police have turned a blind to Zanu PF
inspired violence at best, at worst the Police have even punished the victims
of the crime! So are the opposition parties waiting for this to happen first
and then propose another resolution designed to replace all the ZRP staff from
top to bottom!
The
opposition parties must demand the implementation of all the democratic
reforms, which is what Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends should have done
during the GNU, and stop wasting everyone’s time with these meaningless
resolutions designed to address one issue at a time! No one in SADC, AU or UN
will take the opposition’s proposals seriously as long as it is clear those
behind the proposals are have no clue what must be done to deliver free, fair
and credible elections.
2 comments:
Jestina Mukoko is suing the Zimbabwe government plus Didymus Mutasa, Brigadier Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi and Chief Superintend Peter Magwenzi in their person capacity. The three are challenging that citing they should only be sued in their official capacity. Beatrice Mtetwa, Mukoko’s lawyer, argues that no one is employed in his or her official capacity ro commit heinous crimes such as torture.
The case has echoes of the Nuremberg Trials after WW II. It was established then that “following orders” is no defence for committing heinous crimes. Let once hope that Harare Judge will reaffirm this and establish a precedence we can all be proud of!
When you look at some of the people President Mugabe has surrounded himself with all these last 37 years it is no surprise we are in a real mess. How can someone as clueless as Bhasikiti be a Minister.
People in Mwenezi hate Bhasikiti for all the bad things he has done during his years in Zanu PF. Just as well he withdrew from the by-elections because he was going to lose. It is one thing voting for someone like him out of fear but who would do so out of their free-will?
What is surprising is that people like Bhasikiti are even featuring among the opposition people. So, it was not just MDC politicians who had no clue what the GNU was about, Zanu PF goons like Bhasikiti too had no clue. What would SADC's takeover of ZEC on its own accomplish? This is just kicking the can down the road!
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