There
are many Zimbabweans out there who want the 2018 elections to go ahead with no
reforms in place and are calling for SADC to help ensure free and fair
elections. These people are whistling in the graveyard, the dead are deaf and
so no one will ever hear them! These people have clearly failed to understand the
political events in Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections and those of the GNU years that
followed; they would never agree to elections to going ahead with no reforms,
in the first place.
Second,
Zimbabweans must realise that SADC has already given us their best advice – do not
participate in elections with no reform. It was the best advice in 2013 and
remain so now. We chose to ignore it at our own peril back in 2013 and will pay
dearly for it if we do so again in 2018.
The
events of 2008 form the political bench mark on which we must base our
political decisions; those who want to ignore this are wasting our time.
In
the March 2008 elections President Mugabe lost the vote to Tsvangirai by 73%;
he admitted so himself and there is convincing anecdotal evidence to support
this, ZEC did not need six weeks to recount 5 million votes unless they were “cooking”
the vote.
After
six weeks of recounting ZEC announced that Tsvangirai had only 47% to President
Mugabe’s 43% of the vote.
In
the March 2008 vote many people voted for a Zanu PF parliamentary and senatorial
candidate but voted for Tsvangirai, MDC, president instead of the Zanu PF
candidate, Mugabe; especially in Mai Mujuru’s Mashonaland Central province. This
was the now infamous operation “Bhora musango!” (Kick the ball into the bush!)
which was meant to kick Mugabe out of State House. President Mugabe himself has
since acknowledged “Bhora musango!” happened and after her unceremonious
booting out of Zanu PF Mai Mujuru, admitted and even boasted that she did
indeed instigate the surreptitious cloak-and-dagga operation.
There
is not a shred of evidence to suggest that MDC parliamentary and senatorial candidates
instigated a similar sinister voting plan to benefit Mugabe at Tsvangirai’s
expense. None!
So,
if operation Bhora musango did, indeed, happen then how was it possible that
Tsvangirai’s vote, as declared by ZEC after the six weeks of recounting 5
million vote, was only a misery 4% lead over Mugabe’s? There is no doubt that
ZEC “cooked” the result!
Tsvangirai’s
47% lead was an acceptable result for President Mugabe because it meant there
would be a presidential run-off, giving him a second bite at the cherry! Mugabe
took draconian measures to ensure that he prevailed this time
In
April to July 2008, Mugabe carried out a military style campaign, operation “Mavhotera
papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) He unleashed the rogue war veterans and Zanu PF
youth militia backed by Army, Police and CIO with the simple instructions to
punish the people for having rejected him in the earlier March vote.
“What
was achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” Mugabe declared,
cheering his thugs along. Here is a tyrant who does not believe in free and
fair democratic elections; he could not have put it more plainly in words and/or
deeds!
“Mugabe
has declared war on the defenceless people!” mourned Morgan Tsvangirai. He
withdraw from the race “to stop further bloodshed!”
Operation
“Mavhotera papi” was a ruthless “war” of attrition in which hundreds of
thousands of innocent people were harassed, beaten, raped and had their homes
burnt down. Over 500 were murdered in three months.
In
the end, Mugabe reversed Tsvangirai’s 73% March victory to a 84% landslide
victory for himself. Operation “Mavhotera papi!” was a resounding success for
Mugabe! Sadly, for him, no one else agreed the result was a true reflection of the
free and democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe!
No
one, not even the SADC and AU observer teams know for giving thumbs up to dodgy
electoral processes in the past, would endorse Zimbabwe’s July 2008 electoral result
as free, fair and credible!
Mugabe
was only allowed to stay in power on condition Zimbabwe will have a Government
of National Unity (GNU) whose principle task was to implement a raft of
democratic reforms designed to stop the 2008 blatant vote rigging and wanton
violence.
As
we all know Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to get even one reform
implemented in the five years of the GNU. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings
of high office, a former white own farm and $4 million mansion for Ncube and Tsvangirai
respectively, etc. and MDC leaders kicked the reforms into the bush! Of course,
MDC leaders are incompetent and sell-outs!
SADC
leaders and others did their best to stop MDC leaders contesting the 2013
elections with no reforms in place as Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, MDC minister in the
GNU, has since admitted.
“We
have failed to admit that we did not live up to expectations. For me, I would
say that rigging would only be 10% of the problem, and 90% was our fault,”
Nkomo told the Independent reporter Herbert Moyo in May 2014.
“We
failed to secure critical reforms before participating in the elections. The
whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms, and so in
everything that we have been saying we have failed to acknowledge that we also
made a mistake.”
Senator
David Coltart has since shed light on the real motive behind MDC’s refusal to
listen to reason and contested the 2013 elections even if they, MDC leaders,
themselves knew the elections will be rigged.
“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.”
So,
there is the explanation in black and white why Zimbabwe’s opposition
politicians elected to contest flawed elections in 2013 – greed!
No opposition
politician out there would deny that not even one democratic reform has been implemented
and thus Zanu PF, if the regime should deem it necessary in its sworn
undertaking that “nothing accomplished by the bullet can be changed by a ballot”,
can employ all the dirty tactics it employed in 2008. SADC and the
international community advised the opposition not to contest the 2013 elections
with no reforms in place; since no reforms are in place still their position on
the matter has therefore not changed.
So, the only logical reason
why Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians continue to disregard SADC and
international advice against contesting flawed elections is that these
politicians’ position has not changed – they are the same greedy, corrupt,
incompetent and sell-outs they have already proven to be during the GNU and in
the 2013 elections.
The choice to contest
the 2018 elections with not even one reform in place, contrary to the advice not
to, is ours to make but what we must not expect is SADC to endorse that
decision in any way much less any sympathy when we complain of Zanu PF rigging the
elections after the event.
6 comments:
Yes Mugabe is experiencing "excruciating pain here and there" but he is so addicted to absolute power stepping down would be even more excruciatingly painful for him!
Lucky for him he is surrounded by some of the most useless "cowards", as Julius Malema called our Zanu PF leaders. Margaret Dongo call these Zanu PF buffoons "vakadzi vaMugabe" (Mugabe's subservient concubines). It is quite unthinkable for any of these cowardly concubine to tell Mugabe he must go!
@Lion 3
It is not for Africa to stop Mugabe rigging the elections. This is something Zimbabweans must do themselves. SADC has already told us what to do - do not participate in the elections without implementing the reforms first. We ignored SADC in 2013 and we can do so again next year but we should not blame SADC for our own stupidity!
I agree, contesting the next elections with not even one reform in place is sheer madness.
What President Mugabe demonstrated in 2008 is the ruthless determination of the regime to win power at all cost being it blatant vote rigging to declaring war on the defenceless civilians. In the 2013 elections the regime turned down on its wanton violence to make it more subtle – iron fist in a velvet glove – but only because it had expanded its vote rigging into something of a master art.
We will never know how many opposition supporters were denied the vote because they failed to register to vote – Zanu PF made voter registration near impossible in some areas and easy as pie in others. We know nearly a million voters were denied the vote because their data was posted in wrong constituencies – a deliberate move by Zanu PF. We will never know how many multiple votes were cast by hooded Zanu PF youth and Army and CIO recruits. We know the number of polling stations were increased from 2 000 to 9 000 two days before voting day and many of these addition polling stations had the same number of cast votes consistent with the practice of bussed voters.
Then there is the issue of funding; Zanu PF used the windfall from the looting of Marange diamonds to bankroll its vote rigging schemes; the regime spent $4 billion plus. Zanu PF has already started spending money on next year’s elections and it could easily $10 billion. The opposition camp will be very lucky if they can amass $5 million between them!
Of course, the regime can easily step up the violence if push comes to shove; the regime has already started training youth militia to take over from the disgruntled rogue war veterans who have been its storm troopers for the last 15 years.
How anyone can still expect to contest an election in which Zanu PF has the freedom to use every dirty trick in the book to rig the vote and yet expect the regime to lose the elections is indeed down right stupid.
It is one thing for these corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians to contest the flawed elections for the sake of the bait gravy train seats. What these sell-outs must know is that they are gambling with the very lives of millions of ordinary people who need free and fair elections to get out of the hell-hole Zanu PF has dragged the nation into!
The rogue war veterans betrayed the revolution and the nation when they decided to deny the people their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections in order to back Mugabe's no-regime-change mantra. Even today, the war veterans have not really reformed because they are only seeking to replace President Mugabe but only to impose Mnangagwa on the nation.
We want President Mugabe to go but we also want the dictatorship itself to be totally dismantled, on that there is no compromise.
As long as war veterans like Mutsvangwa continue to believe they have the veto where the rest of us have a vote on who rules Zimbabwe then they must know that they are rogues and enemies of the people. By denying us our freedoms and rights to impose his no-regime-change Mugabe has made himself a sworn enemy of the people. In the war between one's enemies the best outcome is for the enemies to destroy each other.
It is a foolish goat that backs one hyena over another in a dog-fight because the winner will want to celebrate its victory with a goat meat feast.
hope the Vigil members will have some time put aside to think of what their position is on the coming 2018 elections. Many of us supported the contesting of the 2013 elections although not even one reform was in place. The nation has paid dearly for this blundered. The Vigil can play a useful role in ensuring the opposition parties do not drag the nation into yet another blunder!
Anyone who still blame the sanctions for Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is doing so out of the believe that when one has nothing better to say, repeat the old lie.
Over a year ago now, President Mugabe himself finally admitted there was rampant corruption in the diamond industry. He said $15 billion was "swindled". The world has known for years that corruption was rampant and there is evidence in the public domain that Mai Mujuru and her late husband tried to sell over $15 billions in diamonds. And yet to date, no one has ever been arrested and not one dollar recovered.
No nation on earth, much less a nation with $10 billion GDP, can sustain $15 billions haemorrhage much less prosper!
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