Dr Moyo "is not stupid", says Nomazulu - in contesting flawed 2018, he is stupid and greedy. N Garikai

My dear sister, Nomazulu, Nkosana Moyo or anyone else for that matter contesting next year’s elections with no reforms in place and expect to beat Zanu PF has nothing to do with the challenger doing his/her homework. It is a measure of their sanity, personal greed and downright treasonous betrayal of the common people.

“For a personality like Nkosana Moyo to say he is contesting for the elections come 2018, I will certainly vote for him. The guy is not stupid! I am sure he made his homework very well. His Physics and Banking background will tell us that he is going for elections with a well thought through strategies we simple people may not know. I will vote you dear Sir: come elections of 2018,” wrote Nomazulu in Bulawayo 24.

“You have been in that government of Zanu PF before. You know all individuals by name and their deeds, how rouge a government of Zanu PF is like: almost half of them are of high criminal minds. You have indeed taken stoke of this and you have done a thorough groundwork how you are going to play out with their criminality when it comes to rigging the elections.”

But that is that not the exactly the point here; understanding that Zanu PF’s vote rigging criminality has gone beyond the pale.

Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections were the watershed elections in the country’s history in that Zanu PF showed the nation and the world at large what the regime would do to retain political power. In the March vote President Mugabe admitted that Tsvangirai had won 73% of the vote. However, he stop ZEC making the public announcement then and ordered them to recount. After six weeks of recounting 5 million votes ZEC announced that Tsvangirai had 47% of the votes.

You do not need a degree in Physics and/or experience as a banker to guess that the six weeks was to go round the country altering the local vote count and destroying the evidence in case there was a court challenge of the declared result. What President Mugabe had demonstrated beyond all doubt was that in Zimbabwe it was not enough to get people to vote for you, he will still win because he controls those who count the votes.

In the presidential run-off that followed, President Mugabe mounted a military style Operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) in which he deployed Zanu PF youth and rogue war veterans like Jabulani Sibanda as the foot-soldiers backed up by the Army, Police and CIO. They were instructed to punish the people for having voted for Tsvangirai in the March vote. And punish they did; millions went into hiding, hundreds of thousands were beaten and/or raped and over 500 were murdered in cold blood.

“Mugabe has declared war on the people!” complained Tsvangirai as he withdraw from the electoral race.

President Mugabe, thanks to his wanton violence and barbarism, overturned Tsvangirai’s 73% vote victory in March to an 84% landslide victory for himself in the July vote!  

Even SADC and AU election observers, known for giving a thumbs-up to some dodgy electoral processes, refused to endorse President Mugabe’s victory. SADC forced President Mugabe into the GNU and to agree on the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of 2008 the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence ever happening again.

Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend who were supposed to implement the reforms, failed to appreciate their true value and critical importance and so failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU. SADC leaders, notably President Ian Khama of Botswana, did their best to encourage MDC to implement the reforms but they were ignored. At the SADC Maputo summit, the regional leaders, literally, begged MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms, as a last-minute effort to force the implementation of the reforms. But once again MDC leaders, paid no heed. Some of the MDC leaders like David Coltart also realised that with no reforms, Zanu PF would rig the vote.

“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, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends contested the 2013 elections knowing fully well that the process was flawed and illegal because they fighting to win the few gravy train seats and the bragging rights of being Zimbabwe’s opposition party. The suckers here are the ordinary Zimbabweans who were foolish enough to believe that the elections would be free, fair and credible and thus deliver the democratic changes the nation has been dying for.

Let us make it very clear here; not even one democratic reform was implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections. Not one!

Tsvangirai and all the other opposition candidates are once again going to contest in the 2018 elections, again, knowing fully well that with no reforms in place the elections will be rigged and in violation of their own “No reform, no election!” party resolution. They are doing so for the same reason – greed, the few gravy train seats!

There is nothing Dr Nkosana Moyo, even with his degrees and wide political experience, can do to stop Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut. He is joining the rat race knowing the political playing field is not even or fair. He is clearly not interested in implementing the reforms and ensuring free and fair elections. He, like all the others in the opposition camp, will be contesting the flawed elections to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is giving away, if not next year then in the next opportune by-election.

Even if Dr Moyo, or anyone else, had a some clever tricks of his own that will help him beat Zanu PF against all the odds; do you think he would implement the democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free and fair? No chance! Whoever wins against the odds would keep the present system because they will know it will help them, as the new incumbent, stay in power.

So, by participating in flawed elections, we are not giving Zanu PF vote rigging legitimacy but are also helping to perpetuate the vote rigging culture.

If we, the people of Zimbabwe, are serious about democratic change; free, fair and credible elections; good governance; etc. then we must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE elections. It is simple insane to let ourselves be led by the nose, like a bull at the market, into one flawed election after another knowing Zanu PF will rig the vote but hoping against hope that the regime will lose the elections.

After 37 years of rigged elections and the country being dragged into this economic hell, we are now the poorest people in Africa and in the world; have we not sobered up enough to finally understand that we need to implement the democratic reforms if we are ever to hold free, fair and credible elections!

“Please lay out your MANIFESTO for all of us to see and be convinced that you mean business. …. I have never doubted your calibre, professionalism and political astuteness,” argued sister Nomazulu.

What is the use of producing the best election manifesto ever if it will never ever see the light of day because Zanu PF will rig the elections and impose itself on the nation. Sister Nomazulu, we can all come up with a thousand and one excuses why we should participate in the 2018 elections with no reforms in place; these will all be excuses for our continued collective insanity. This will not help us get out of the hell-hole we are in but drag us even deeper into the hole.

We must come to our collective sense and do the right and logical thing to get us out of the political paralysis and economic hell-hole – stop messing around and finally implement the democratic reforms!