MDC politicians have set up their respective
stalls and are campaigning for the people’s vote in next year’s elections, MP
Eddie Cross is one of them. But before the people of Zimbabwe follow wherever
it these politicians are proposing to lead to next; it is important that we
look where the MDC has taken us to so far!
“The result
(of the March 2008 vote) was that Mr Tsvangirai won the ballot with 54 per cent
of the vote, Mr Mugabe took 27 per cent,” MP Cross wrote in his latest article
in Nehanda Radio and The Zimbabwean.
After
six weeks of recounting the vote by ZEC the world was told two had won 47% and
43% respectively. The fact that ZEC took an inordinately long time to recount 5
million votes and other supporting evidences confirmed that Zanu PF rigged the
vote.
“The (July 2008) run off was so badly
managed that not even the African Union would accept Mr Mugabe’s claim that he
had been elected with 84 per cent of the vote and Zimbabwe was forced into a
Government of National Unity in 2009,” he continued.
By “badly managed” he was referring to the
wanton violence used by war veterans, Zanu PF youths and State Security agents to
punish the electorate for having rejected Mugabe in the March vote. The wanton violence
was so barbaric and widespread, the worst the country had ever seen; that even
the AU and SADC election observers, used to turning a blind eye to questionable
elections, could not ignore it. Morgan Tsvangirai described the violence as
tantamount to Zanu PF “declaration of war on the people” and he withdraw from
the race.
“When the
GNU was terminated in 2013 without fulfilling its reform agenda, the
opportunity to deal with the Opposition was taken by Zanu PF who then just
rolled over the MDC and others using its overwhelming financial and State
resources and control,” wrote MP Cross.
Let us be very clear here MP Cross; you are
admitting that at the end of the GNU there was not even one democratic reform implemented
and therefore there was nothing to stop the repeat of the vote rigging and
wanton violence of 2008.
We know from Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, MDC
minister in the GNU, that MDC leaders were warned by SADC leaders not to
contest the 2013 elections with no democratic reforms in place.
MP Cross must answer the following questions:
1)
Why did MDC fail to implement even one democratic reform in five
years of the GNU? Please remember that the GNU was originally meant to last 18
months but ended up lasting 60 months, five years.
2)
Why did MDC leaders contest the 2013 elections when they knew
with no reforms in place Zanu PF would rig the vote?
David Coltart, himself an MDC-N senator and
minister in the GNU, has since revealed that Zimbabwe would have been saved
from the tragic consequences of contesting the flawed 2013 elections if MDC
leaders has not been so selfish and myopic.
“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,” wrote Senator Coltart in his recent
book.
“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.”
We are in this economic and political mess
because we are stuck with this a corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime; as long
as it has the license to rig elections (because no democratic reforms have been
implemented), the nation will be powerless to reform it from office through
elections.
In 2014 MDC-T and its opposition partners in
the GNU resolved not to contest any future elections until democratic reforms
are implemented. It is no secret that not even one democratic reform has been
implemented since then and yet all the opposition parties are set to contest
next year’s elections, regardless.
My further questions to you, Right Honourable
Edward Graham Cross, MP for Bulawayo South, are:
3)
Why have you and your fellow MDC leaders failed to apologise to
the people of Zimbabwe for betraying them by failing to implement even one
democratic reform during the GNU and then for dragging them into the 2013
elections knowing fully well Zanu PF would rig the vote?
4)
Why are you and your fellow MDC leaders reneging on your party resolution
not to contest any future elections until reforms are implemented and are thus once
again dragging the nation into yet another flawed election that Zanu PF will
rig?
5)
Yes, it is President Mugabe and his corrupt and murderous Zanu
PF thugs who have stabbed the ordinary people of Zimbabwe in the back by
denying them their freedoms, basic human rights including the right to free and
fair elections, the right to life and human dignity. But by repeatedly
betraying the people, MDC leaders have added salt and pepper into the people’s
open wounds. Why are you, MP Cross, doing this? What have these innocent people
ever done to you that you should be cruel and merciless to them?
I totally disagree with all those
Zimbabweans who have shied away from asking the opposition the hard question
regarding their past performance on the grounds that all attention must be
focused on removing Mugabe and his dictatorship from office. Our political
problems are complex and per se have an equally complex solution.
Indeed, it is this simplistic approach with
it tunnel myopic view and simple solution that landed us in this mess in the
first place.
Before independence and for 20 years or so after,
many Zimbabweans would lynch you for calling Mugabe a corrupt and murderous
tyrant. All attention was focused on the oppressive white racists and Mugabe
was national liberation hero who could do nothing wrong! It was a grave mistake
and grievously have all paid for it, as we can see.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have
already proven that they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent and to for
the nation to continue to follow them no questions asked is very foolish. Worse
still, treating Tsvangirai with kid gloves just as we treated Mugabe in the
first two decades after independence will only show we have learnt nothing from
that mistake!
Contest the 2018 elections with not even one
reform in place is sheer folly and we must not allow corrupt and incompetent opposition
politicians like Tsvangirai drag us into yet another meaningless election. At least,
not without answering what happen last time first!
3 comments:
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were never interested in implementing the democratic changes they were elected to deliver, as soon as they got into power they immediately started cosying up with President Mugabe. Tsvangirai’s greatest and probably only disappointment with the GNU was that it was not extended for a further five years. He said so himself last week.
“Think of it; after the GNU if Mugabe had said, now that you have been working together for the last five years very well, why not go for another five years as GNU and then you go for elections,” Tsvangirai told mourners at the late MDC Harare Province Senator, Ronia Bunjira.
“What a better country will this nation would have been.”
MP Cross was candid to admit that the reform agenda was not fulfil but did not dare elaborate and he will never elaborate because he is not honest enough to admit MDC sold-out!
After selling-out on reforms during the GNU SADC leaders denounced MDC leaders accusing them of “enjoying themselves during the GNU and forgetting why they were there!”
In the wake of the Zanu PF 2013 rigged elections SADC leaders and MDC donors deserted Tsvangirai and company in droves. Now that these opposition politicians are once again going to contest yet another flawed election it must be clear to all that they are set in their selfish ways. Tsvangirai & co. are hunting with the hounds and running with the hare.
It is high that people realise that Tsvangirai & co. are no longer the solution to Zimbabwe’s problems but are now part of the problem. The West should be pro-active and pre-emptive and add opposition politicians to the targeted sanctions list for their role in keeping the Zanu PF dictatorship in power.
There is no doubt that MDC leaders have sold-out and individuals like Ncube and Tsvangirai have their thirty pieces of silver bribes still to show for it; they have a former white owned farm and the $4 million Highlands mansion respectively.
The political and economic chaos in Zimbabwe has the country right on the edge of the abyss and another rigged election could well push it over the edge. Zimbabwe can become the next Somalia, we have seen this coming for years, and we must do something now to stop because waiting till tomorrow it may be too late.
Tsvangirai, you had the golden opportunity to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU. Not one! You were warned about implementing the reforms and then of the dangers of contesting the 2013 elections without reforms, but would not listen.
Zimbabwe would not still be in this political and economic mess if MDC had not sold-out and implemented the reforms: that is a historic fact whose consequences will continue to dictate the nation’s destiny for generations to come if nothing is done a.s.a.p. to implement the reforms.
You are dragging the nation into yet another elections with not even one reform in place; you have clearly learnt nothing from the fiasco of the GNU and the rigged 2013 elections.
“If anyone in this country expects us (MDC-T and MDC-N) to contest the next elections separately as we did in 2008 and 2013 and expect a different result, it will not only be a third moment of real madness, but the highest form of insanity and none of us is insane,” said Tsvangirai.
In the July 2008 presidential run-off it was just you, Morgan Tsvangirai vs Robert Mugabe and the later won by 84% because he used wanton violence to force the people to vote for him. The problem is not that the opposition is divided but that Zanu PF rigs the vote. You are insane in that you accept that Zanu PF has the license to rig the vote and yet for some stupid reason you expect the tyrants to lose the election.
Tsvangirai, you are no longer possible solution to Zimbabwe’s multifaceted problems; you are now part of the country’s political nightmare. By your failure to implement even one reform during the GNU, you and your MDC friends have helped Zanu PF regroup and consolidate it corrupt and tyrannical rule and then by contesting flawed 2013 elections give the regime democratic legitimacy.
Now you are gearing up to contest yet another election where you have no chance of winning just to make Zanu PF look good as it will then boast of winning another free and fair election.
Morgan Tsvangirai, you can take-off your sheep clothing. For years you have played the role of wolf-in-sheep-clothing but have blown your own cover by betraying the people repeatedly.
The imploding of ZimPF, the poor showing on BBC HardTalk, the fighting between two senior members of NPP, etc. all these things have shown that Mai Mujuru is corrupt and incompetent. All those who have seen her as a delta force to shake up the opposition and put the fear in Zanu PF have been proven wrong! Mai Mujuru is a political nothing, just one more busy body in the opposition camp to added to the confusion.
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