"I am in politics for money," confess Khupe (not for change) and blissful ignorant applauded

“The MDC-T VP Thokozani Khupe has come clean and said she is in politics because of money,” reported Ray Nkosa in Zimeye.

“Addressing MDC supporters in Slough in the UK she declared that everyone is here because they want money. “We are in politics because of money and we use politics as a stepping stone to create a conducive environment for those who want to do business. The truth is ersonally I love a better life, and life is good when you have money,” she said to an applause from the crowd.”

Well there is someone finally being honest for a change. What she should have gone on to say but did not is that Mugabe bribed her and her fellow MDC friends with all the trappings of power to kick the reforms into the tall grass during the GNU. Even when it was self-evident that Zanu PF was going to rig the 2013 elections MDC leaders still contested the flawed elections for a chance to be back on the gravy train, David Coltart admitted as much.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

What did the MDC MPS and Senators accomplish in the last four years since the 2013 elections, other than giving the Zanu PF regime the legitimacy and enjoy the gravy train perks? Nothing. They have not managed to get even one reform implemented?

Ms Khupe knows with not even one reform in place next year's elections will be rig just as readily as the 2013 elections. Yet she and her fellow politicians are as keen as ever to contest the flawed elections for the same reason the contested the 2013 elections - she loves money and is in politics for money. 

There is no doubt that Tsvangirai, Khupe and the rest of the MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU because Mugabe bribed them generous salaries, allowances, ministerial limos, $4 million Highland mansion for Tsvangirai, former white owned farms for others, etc. So instead of them implementing the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for all these years they forgot.

MDC leaders “were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU they forgot why they were there!” remarked the SADC leaders after the rigged 2013 elections in sheer exasperation. SADC, as the guarantor of the agreement that led to the creation of the GNU, had spent the five years trying to get MDC leaders to implement reforms to no avail.

No doubt SADC leaders were disappointed by the ordinary Zimbabweans themselves’ failure to put pressure on Tsvangirai & co. to implement reforms during the GNU. It is tragic that many Zimbabweans still have no clue what the reforms are and why we need them much less that primary task of opposition politicians like Ms Khupe’s primary task is to implement the reforms, not to enrich themselves. Even now with the benefit of GNU hindsight these Zimbabweans still have no clue; they would have never applauded Khupe’s admission she is in politics to enrich herself!

SADC washed their hand of Zimbabwe after the rigged 2013 elections. If Zimbabweans allow the 2018 elections to go ahead with no reforms then the rest of the world will follow SADC and wash their hands of Zimbabwe and accept the Zanu PF regime as fait accompli!

In President Donald Trump we have the most inward looking, “America First!”, American administration in history. If America lifts all the target sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies, to hell with the human rights and free and fair elections, the rest of the Western countries will follow suit. America has lost a lot of political and economic ground to the Chinese and Russian, especially in Africa, in the past because it allowed its high morals affect their foreign policy, President Trump is putting America first, second and last in all his decisions.

Besides, Zimbabwe has had many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship since the targeted sanctions were imposed in 2002 but have wasted them because the Zimbabwean people themselves could not be bothered to get the job done. If the cheering Slough crowd are happy with the status quo in Zimbabwe, why should the rest of the world be the one calling for democratic reforms!

Ignorance is a curse. Still ignorant MDC supporters are blessed in that whilst they, like the rest of us, continue to suffer the consequence of the continued corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship they are blissfully unaware that it is their own party leaders who, because of their insatiable greed money, are keeping Zanu PF in power.

NERA vows to stop Zanu PF stealing elections "not now, not ever" - puny dog's fart!

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess brought on by nearly four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe led dictatorship. And, it must be said, we, the people of Zimbabwe, have allowed the tyrant to destroy the country’s economy and riding roughshod over our rights, dreams and human dignity. If there is one common thread that Zimbabweans have in common, it is so strong and deeply embedded in our psycho it might as well be in our DNA, it is our defeatist inaptitude.

Although there was all the evidence than Mugabe is an incompetent, corrupt and murderous tyrant by the mid 1980s; the national economy was already in decline because of his failed “scientific socialism” policies of reckless spending. By 1987 the tyrant has murdered over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans in his single-minded drive to completely destroy PF Zapu, the only other political party of note in the country, to create his de facto one-party (Zanu PF) cum one-man (Robert Mugabe) dictatorship. And yet the people still did nothing to remove this corrupt and murderous tyrant from power because they had convinced themselves that they are totally helpless to do so.

It was not until the late 1990s that a national political consensus finally emerged, demanding democratic change; changes designed to uproot the country’s tyrannical dictatorship and replace it with a democratic system and restore individual freedoms and rights.

The people risked life and limp to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends on the ticket they will bring about the democratic changes the country so desperately needed. Hundreds of thousands if not millions were beaten and/or raped and over 500 murdered by Mugabe party and state sponsored thugs in 2008 alone; collective punishment for voting for MDC.

In the last 20 years, MDC have had many opportunities, with the golden opportunity being during the GNU, to deliver on the democratic changes. MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in 5 years of the GNU.

SADC leaders, who were the guarantor of the agreement that produced the GNU, tried their best to remind Morgan Tsvangirai to implement the reforms but were ignore. After Zanu PF rigged July 2013 election, the regional leaders castigated Tsvangirai & co. for “enjoying themselves whilst they were in the GNU and forgetting why they were there!” in sheer frustration.

If the first 20 years of our independence was characterised by our defeatist indifference then the years that followed can be characterised by our knack to waste time and treasure on “puny dog’s fart” trivia, as the late Chinua Achebe would put it, while ignoring the real big life and death problems destroying the people and the country.

“What kind of power was it if everybody knew that it would never be used? Better to say that it was not there, that it was no more than the power in the anus of the proud dog who tried to put out a furnace with his puny fart.” Advised the great African intellectual Chinua Achebe in his book Arrow of God.

Of course, Tsvangirai’s “puny dog’s fart” has failed to bring about any meaningful in the country. If the people of Zimbabwe were diligent and not in a comatose of the living dead then they would be joining Zimbabwe’s musical guru, Thomas Mapfumo, and asking Tsvangirai how much longer is the nation going to wait for the democratic changes?

“Kwapura makore mangani, takamira zvakatuura? Haridzo yenyu, zviroto kani? (How many years have passed, whilst we continue to wait for what you promised? Are your promises day-dreaming?) sang Mapfumo.

Sadly, it is not just Tsvangirai who is given to waste time and treasure in applying puny dog’s fart to put out the country’s raging political inferno. Stopping Zanu PF rigging the next elections and make sure they are free, fair and credible is the biggest challenge the country is facing right now.

Some people have wasted a lot of time talking about the proposed Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system. These people accept that ZEC itself has failed to deliver free and fair elections because it is corrupt to the core. What these people failed to get into their thick heads is the futility of concentrating on the new BVR kits whilst doing nothing to reform ZEC itself. The system is only as good as the people operating.

Events on the ground are already confirming futility of concentrating on the BVR kit whilst doing nothing to stop the regime’s many vote rigging tactics; Zanu PF operative are reportedly telling the rural people the party will know how they voted using the new BVR system.

“While Zimbabwe Yadzoka is doing its part in educating people on BVR, our efforts alone are not enough and need to be complemented. We call upon all civic movements as well as opposition parties under the banner of the National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) to quickly work on this situation. Failure to do so, Zanu (PF) will steal the 2018 elections through misinforming people,” said Dr Victor Chimhutu, leader of the pressure group Zimbabwe Yadzoka/Mayibuye iZimbabwe.

Zanu PF has total control of every aspect of the whole voter registration, the voters roll, knows the names of all who voted in each polling station, votes in each polling station are counted there, etc. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to that how someone voted under these conditions. Our Dr Victor Chimhutu and all his NERA friends’ voter education is the self-indulgence of the boastful dog!

“You have stolen elections before but not now, not ever. We challenge ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) and Rita Makarau to urgently implement electoral reforms,” NERA Youth Forum chairperson, Tawanda Kalonga said.

All stupid grand standing talk. Zanu PF bigwigs have already made it clear that the party was not going to “reform themselves out of office”. So Tawanda is instructing Rita Makarau to implement reforms is total defiance of Zanu PF and Mugabe himself.

So, the rural populous finally sleep ease, the days of being frog marched are over. Zanu PF thugs, wherever they are shaking in the boots because the great Tawanda, chairperson of NERA youth forum has spoken: “You have stolen elections before but not now, not ever”! Yeah right!

Zimbabwe is not going to get out of this political and economic hell-hole by trusting the proverbial puny dog’s fart to put out the forest fire. Zimbabweans earn a misery $200 per year according to recent AfrAsia report making us the poorest people in Africa. If people think we have hit rock bottom, things can get even worse; we soon run out of goats to pat school fees, prostitution and crime are going up and threat of street protest and worse are hanging over the nation’s head.

We are in this mess because we have always sort the easiest solution to our problem of bad governance; the defeatist indifference and now the puny dog’s fart. Meanwhile the Mugabe dictatorship has grown in strength and influence and with each lost opportunity to end the dictatorship the task has become that much more difficult. Getting Zanu PF to accept democratic reforms is today a monumental task, there is no question about that; what matters here is accepting that there is no other way out but to grasp the thorny bush or drown!

Dzamara, contesting 2018 elections with no reforms is an act of madness - do not do it. P Guramatunhu

Dear Dr Patson Dzamara

It is wise to have the discipline to carefully think through and then act because no matter how brave and courageous an act may be, unless it guided by wisdom and thus certified as the right thing to do, it will have disastrous consequences if it is the wrong thing. Contesting next year’s elections with no reforms is the wrong thing and the consequences of yet another Zanu PF election victory will be disastrous to the nation.

I will take you up on what you said in you last article, “Dark days ahead – maybe that’s what we need to fight” in Nehanda Radio.

“As we focus on the 2018 elections, we must not be under any illusion, for ZANU PF any type of victory goes. That gang will do anything to remain in power. Their love for power causes them to never respect the will of the masses,” you said.

Well I agree with you there my brother 100%. I would even go on to add that with no democratic reforms in place, Zanu PF have a license to use any dirty trick they can think of to rig the vote. They have billions of dollars, looted from Marange and Chiadzwa, to bankroll whatever diabolical voting schemes their strategists can think of.

They also have the Zanu PF youth militia and local traditional leaders backed by the Police, Army and CIO to make ensure the people do as they are told. We are all only too familiar with the party’s modus operandi – the people will be marshalled and then herded off like cattle to attend party rallies and then vote for party candidates – we have seen this happen a thousand times.

So, Zanu PF does not only have the desire to retain power they have the means to make sure they win the elections by hook or by crook.

“We can’t afford to procrastinate. The time is now! Let’s confront this evil at all levels. With our ballots at election and with our courage on the streets as we push for everyday reforms. There is strength in our numbers. I am playing my part both in the street and at the election, so should you,” you argue.

Well I have to beg to differ with you there, sir! We have just agreed that Zanu PF is as keen as mustard to win the elections and it has a really well funded and very sophisticated vote rigging system; it is simple naïve to expect the regime to rig the vote and lose the elections. So why are you still insisting in us contesting a flawed election?

Yes, “there is strength in numbers” but not when hundreds of thousands are frog marched and told to vote for X or be sorry! We will never know how many opposition supporters failed to register in the 2013 elections because the regime had more voter registration centres in Mhondoro (Zanu PF strong hold) with a population of 100 000 than it had in Harare or Bulawayo with a population of 2 million each!

We know in the 2013 elections nearly one million voters were denied the vote because their details were not in the constituency voters roll they expected. Normally these people would have discovered this in time, they did not in this case because the regime failed to realise the voters roll at least one month before the voting day as is stipulated by law.

Zanu PF won the 2013 elections because the party blatantly rigged the vote, most of those in the opposition agrees on this which is why MDC-T, MDC-N and PDP agreed not to contest future elections until reforms are implemented. “No reform, no elections!” they said.

SADC leaders had warned Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the 2013 without first implementing the reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote. SADC had election observers in the 2008 elections and they saw for themselves the scale and ruthlessness on Zanu PF’s vote rigging expertise; they knew it was futile to expect the system to deliver free, fair and credible elections without reforming it first. Tsvangirai & co. did not listen to the SADC warning even when they too knew the elections would be rigged, as David Coltart admitted in his book.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

The opposition politicians have since abandoned their “No reform, no election!” position to contest in next year’s flawed elections for the same reason they contested the 2013 elections with no reforms – greed, pure and simple.

The opposition want to give the impression that forming the coalition and then mobilizing the voters will be enough to counter Zanu PF’s vote rigging; they know they are lying. They are lying to hide the truth that they are abandoned “No reform, no elections!” to fight over the few seat Zanu PF gives away.

Of course, it is utterly futile contesting in an election knowing all along they will be rigged. MDC conned the nation into participating in the 2013 elections and we accomplished nothing other than give President Mugabe to bragging rights of having the people’s mandate.

Whether we like it or not, if we participate in next year’s elections we will have given the process the democratic credibility.

“I call upon all progressive movements to immediately start working towards reactivating nationwide protests. We must shut Zimbabwe down not just for a day but until we liberate ourselves. Our message must be unequivocal. We must make it abundantly clear to ZANU PF that we are ready to defend our wish and national integrity in our numbers. We are going to vote in our numbers but equally important, we are going to defend our vote in our numbers in order to liquidate and deplete the monster called ZANU PF,” you concluded.

The first act here is to demand of Tsvangirai and his opposition friends not to contest in the elections until reforms are implemented. Tsvangirai & co. must be told in no uncertain terms that contesting another flawed election for selfish gain is tantamount to sleeping with enemy, Zanu PF. And that is not going to be tolerated, not this time!

It was SADC, AU and the international community who refused to grant President Mugabe the legitimacy following the rigged 2008 elections and thus forced him to form the GNU and to agree on the need to implement democratic reforms. If the opposition do not sell-out by contesting the flawed elections next year; Zanu PF will once again find itself back in the dog-house; this time we will see to it that ALL the reforms are implemented.

If anyone is going to hold street protests then the protesters must demand the implementation of the reforms BEFORE elections.

The people of Zimbabwe took part in the 2013 elections with no reform and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote; for the people to do the same again next year still with no reforms in place and expect a different result is an act of madness!

Best regards


Patrick Guramatunhu.