Selling the idea of the grand coalition as the panacea to the country’s political paralysis was one thing getting the coalition itself off the ground has proven to be an impossible task! The first big challenge was deciding who will lead the coalition, no easy task given the hot-air balloon size egos of the two main contenders, Joice Mujuru and Morgan Tsvangirai.
“Former Vice President Joice Mujuru is set to dump Morgan Tsvangirai for the underrated Coalition of Democrats (CODE) following widening differences on strategy and who between the opposition heavyweights should lead the envisaged grand pact,” reported New Zimbabwe.
“Mujuru’s
National People’s Party (NPP) and Tsvangirai’s MDC-T April this year signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that saw the two parties agree on an elite
pact that also sought to keep out all the political minnows.
“However, a
recent public spat over the choice of coalition chief has seen Tsvangirai and
his party outflank the ambitious former Zanu PF loyalist.”
Even if the opposition camp had managed to resolve the coalition leader problem they would have found the next challenge just as demanding – who will be the coalition candidate in each contested seat. In Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe where corruption is rampant and those holding public office rule the roost whilst everyone else has been reduce to a pauper competition to join the ruling elite has become a life and death issue. In all the big political party, primary elections to select the party candidate for each position have been a hotly contested affairs; a grand coalition will have to add the coalition partners’ interest to the mix.
Even if the opposition camp had managed to resolve the coalition leader problem they would have found the next challenge just as demanding – who will be the coalition candidate in each contested seat. In Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe where corruption is rampant and those holding public office rule the roost whilst everyone else has been reduce to a pauper competition to join the ruling elite has become a life and death issue. In all the big political party, primary elections to select the party candidate for each position have been a hotly contested affairs; a grand coalition will have to add the coalition partners’ interest to the mix.
But even if the miracle of miracles happened, the grand opposition coalition fielding only candidate for most of the contested positions; the results of the elections would be Zanu PF winning the presidency plus the two thirds majority in both houses, just as happened in 2013. The result would only reaffirm what we have known all along, that the grand coalition alone is not enough to stop the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut. Still, those claiming the coalition is the panacea would have had cause to crow about it till the result are announced.
Like it or not, the grand opposition coalition is dead in the water. Those who have placed so much faith in the coalition as the panacea for the opposition to contest next year's elections even with no reforms in place have been prematurely silenced and just as well.
It is good that those bend on misleading the nation into believing the grand coalition was a substitute for implementing the democratic reforms have been silenced now and not after the 2018 election results are out when it will be too late. The opportunity to implement the reforms is now before the election and by contesting the flawed elections we forfeit the chance; that is exactly what happened in 2013 when the MDC leaders failed to heed the warning not to contest the elections.
“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,” acknowledged David
Coltart in his book, The
Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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
only reason, as Coltart readily admitted, the opposition still went on to
contest the 2013 elections even when they knew the process was flawed was
greed. They were after the few seat they knew Zanu PF was going to give away.
22 comments:
In life there are rules governing what each one of us can and cannot do and, for the sake of peace and justice, the rules must apply to all regardless of one's position. It is important that those in positions of power and authority observe the rules and do not abuse their position because the whole system will fail if they do since they are the ones entrusted with the power and guardianship of the system. When it comes to holding free, fair and credible elections there is no question that Zanu PF has broken all the rules to ensure no regime change.
After the 2008 elections SADC stepped in and said in no uncertain terms that Zimbabwe needed to implement a whole raft of democratic reforms designed at dismantling the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut if the country was going to have an chance of holding free and fair elections. Not even one of these reforms were implemented during the GNU or the last four years since the rigged 2013 elections.
What ROHR, like some many other individuals and entities, must do is sit down and draw out the rules governing the conduct of free and fair elections. They must then satisfy themselves that Zanu PF has indeed failed to uphold these rules and hence the need for reforms. It is not good enough for ROHR to call for diaspora vote and all the other things they believe are necessary to ensure next year's elections are free and fair when we already know Zanu PF has failed to meet these requirements in the past.
We have made the mistake of contesting flawed elections countless times already it is madness to make the same mistake yet again, even if it is to satisfy ROHR that the democratic reforms are necessary! We cannot punish the whole nation just because people in ROHR have not been paying attention to what has been happening these last 37 years!
“An injury to one is an injury to all. If one of you is attacked, please make sure you retaliate. I am not promoting violence but all I am saying is that we should promote the culture of solidarity among ourselves,” said Happymore Chidziva, MDC-T Youth Assembly Chairperson.
He also challenged the youths to register as voters so as to participate in next year’s elections in their numbers, warning that failure to do so will be disastrous for their future.
“If you do not want to register and vote, I tell you some of you will never be married because of the hardships which most young men are encountering. Young men as well if they do not vote next year, they will never work in their entire lives. So, you can see there are a lot of things at stake for the young people,” he said.
This is just nonsense!
1) Zanu PF thugs thrive on violence and they will always end up the winners because they have the whole State machinery backing them. Chidziva and all the other MDC leaders should have learnt by now that Zanu PF is a party of violence. SADC have already given us the only way to break this culture of violence and vote rigging Zanu PF has imposed on the nation – implement the raft of democratic reforms. How ironic that the party that had the best chance ever to implement the reforms and get us all out of the mess should be the one perpetuating the mess by contesting these flawed elections.
2) Zanu PF has been winning past elections because it rigged the vote by buying the votes, frog marching people to vote for the party, denying many people the vote by deliberately leaving them out of the voters’ roll, etc. Asking people to register and then to vote whilst doing nothing to stop the vote rigging is sheer folly!
The grand coalition, voter mobilisation, NERA, etc., etc. those are all lead balloons which were never going to fly! Of course, the grand coalition is dead in the water; if it was a duck, then it was nothing more than a block of wood decoy.
President Mugabe, in his usual arrogant and tyrannical way, has declared democratic reforms a sacrosanct subject, there will be no reforms implemented not now not ever and so it is utterly pointless even discussing the matter.
People should have acknowledged the political reality that nothing of substance can ever be accomplished until we carry out the democratic reforms and end this corrupt and tyrannical political system, the cancer that is killing the nation. They should have stood up to the tyrant and told him in no uncertain terms that the democratic reforms are the only subject on the national agenda and demanded their full implementation.
Sadly, many Zimbabweans accepted Mugabe’s diktat are have been frantically trying to find solutions to the nation’s problem of bad governance which do not involve implementing any democratic reforms hence the grand coalition, etc. Everyone could see these would never work but when that was all they could come up with, they closed their eyes to reality and shut their minds to reason telling them there are deluding themselves.
The ordinary Zimbabweans have been slow to see what is happening but they are slowly catching up. When Tsvangirai told his followers in Gweru that the “BVR system will stop Zanu PF manipulating the vote”; none of them cheered because they knew that was rubbish. The failure to deliver the grand coalition after all the years of praising the idea and presenting it as the game changer will mean even more people will lose confidence in the opposition.
The opposition are going to find it really tough going to deny they are contesting the flawed elections for no other reason than greed. If there is one thing Zimbabweans are sick and tired of is being used; the people know they are being used by these opposition opportunists who do not care that povo are risking life and limp for nothing.
@ Mupfudza
Even if the opposition had “sellable deliverables in the manifestos” they would not win an election which Zanu PF has the license to rig the vote. All this talk by President Mugabe and his acolytes that people have been voting for Zanu PF because they like the party’s policies is nonsense. When elections are rigged the manifestos, policies and promises the contestants present are irrelevant. Whilst it is the electorate who are supposed to decide whose manifesto they like best and vote accordingly; however, it is not their vote that will decide the winner if the said election is rigged.
So, when you know the election is going to be rigged, there is really no point in producing a manifesto. Instead of wasting time producing and talking about the manifesto, one might just as well spend it doing something to stop the rigging. A lead balloon will never fly so there is no point in buying a crash helmet and all the other stuff hot-air balloonists need.
On Monday Army boss Chiwenga threatened unspecified action against Minister Moyo, labelling him “an enemy of the state” for his criticism of command agriculture, which is being spearheaded by VP Mnangagwa.
Moyo has since hit back with his twitter comment, “Kuvhunduka chati kwatara hunge une katurikwa!” (Those with hidden secrets (life charm) will panic whenever they hear any commotion!)
All those who thought that Zimbabwe can be a progressive and stable nation without carrying out the democratic reforms including security sector reforms designed to severe the corrupting bonds tying Zanu PF and the Police, Army and CIO into one indistinguishable entity are now being proven wrong. We should have implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU when had the golden opportunity to severe these bonds once and once for all.
“The situation has dangerously deteriorated and, as we have stated before, the factional fights within Zanu PF are now a major threat to State security. If this situation is not handled carefully, it can actually erupt into a deadly civil war,” said MDC spokesman, Obert Gutu.
Gutu is right Zanu PF’s factional war is getting dangerously out of hand given that the party, the government, the security sectors, etc. are all one inseparable entity. An all-out war amongst the party’s factions will suck in the Army, Police, civil servants, everybody!
Still it is rich that these MDC leaders should be queuing up to ring the alarm bells when they are the ones who wasted the chance to implement the reforms and severe the Zanu PF ties with the Army, Police, etc. Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, Gutu and his fellow MDC sell-out friends are the ones corralling the nation into contesting next year’s elections although not even one reform has been implemented.
We do not need to go through yet another election process to prove something that we already know – that Zanu PF rigs elections. We must demand the implementation of all democratic reforms including reforms to severe Zanu PF’s undemocratic control over the Army and other security organs. We must stand firm and refuse the holding of another meaningless elections until the reforms are fully implemented.
As for Gutu, he should just shut his trap and do something useful for a change – honour the “No reform, no election!” pledge.
Morgan Tsvangirai with the help of all those CIO interns had expended so much effort, time and treasure in selling the grand coalition as the panacea to stopping Zanu PF vote rigging must be guttered to see his big tent project fizzle to nothing.
Last week he was telling Blessed Mhlanga of the Standard "If there is going to be any manipulation of the vote, surely it cannot be attributed to that company. It was along those lines that I thought they should be given a chance."
He was making a complete U-turn on his Gweru rally claim two weeks earlier that the new BVR system would "stop Zanu PF manipulating the vote".
Given the sorry state of the country's economy and the political chaos in Zanu PF, Tsvangirai's popularity should be going through the roof and yet it is the opposite. He went on a nation wide tour last year and his rallies were poorly attended. He told the people he was listening to them but failed to address even one of their concerns!
The harder Tsvangirai tries to justify contesting next year's election with no reforms in place the more stupid and foolish he will look because even he cannot deny it is madness contesting an election you know is going to be rigged.
Yes, Zimbabweans are desperate for meaningful political change, but they also know that Morgan Tsvangirai will never bring about any of the changes they are after.
Zanu PF needs Tsvangirai & co. to participate in the coming elections to give the process some measure of credibility but what good is it when the coinage is itself worthless! Tsvangirai, as political currency, is as worthless as the Z$ during the years of the country's hyperinflation!
The Auditor-General has unravelled shocking levels of official corruption at government hospitals where public funds are not being properly accounted for at a time when patients are failing to access basic drugs due to resource constraints.
In a report tabled in the National Assembly last week, the Auditor-General, Mildred Chiri, revealed that the little revenue flowing into public hospitals from Treasury and fees is not being adequately accounted for, yet very little is being done to arrest the situation.
For instance, over 100 000 litres of fuel worth $124 000 could not be accounted for in the period covered by the audit.
Corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe for two main reasons:
1) People are so poorly paid they are doing all they can to supplement their meagre earnings and since corruption is now the accepted norm, they too have become corrupt
2) When those in positions of power and authority are corruption they have opened the Pandora’s box, no one can close it because those below them know about their corrupt activities and take full advantage of it by becoming corrupt too confident their line of defence if the boss should ever dare rein them in – “what about you?”
The only way to end the rot in Zimbabwe today is for the nation to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement, necessary for free and fair elections, and then hold the elections. We need a fresh start and anything else is just a waste of time!
President Mugabe is set to unveil nearly 20 000 free residential stands for youths in Masvingo when he undertakes the third leg of the Presidential Youth Interface meeting slated for Friday at the open space near Mucheke Stadium.
Speaking to journalists after a tour of the site of residential stands in Chiredzi over the weekend, Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial youth chairperson Nobert Ndaarombe said registration for youths in need of the residential stands had started.
He said as youths, they would come in their numbers to attend the rally on Friday.
"We are very thankful to President Mugabe who saw it fit for youths in Masvingo province to be proud landlords by giving us residential stands for free," said Ndaarombe.
The stands are available only to Zanu PF members and yet the stands are paid for directly or indirectly by the tax payer! Of course, this is a clear cut case of Zanu PF abusing its position as the incumbent ruling party to use national resources to further its selfish political interests.
The Zanu PF youths will return the favour by becoming the regime’s foot soldiers frog marching the people to attend the party’s rallies and then vote for party candidates, harassing and beating opposition members, etc. We have seen it all before.
Yesteryears it was the war veterans who did Zanu PF’s dirty bidding and now it is the Zanu PF youths!
There is no way next year’s election can be free, fair and credible, not without implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut first.
SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the 2013 elections without implementing the reforms first. Sadly Tsvangirai & co. did not listen; we would not be in this mess stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship today if they had listened.
SADC’s advice not to contest the elections with no reforms in place is still valid today as it was in 2013. It will be sheer madness to have next year’s elections with no reforms; Zanu PF has already started rigging the vote!
We must demand the implementation of all the reforms. Zanu PF has no right to deny us free and fair elections just as Ian Smith did not have the right to deny blacks the vote. As for Tsvangirai and the rest in the opposition, we must demand that they honour the “No reform, no election!” pledge.
Anyone remotely familiar with Zimbabwe politics would take everything Alex Magaisa says with a truck load of salt and pepper; he reputation as a political adviser was soiled beyond repair following his stint as Tsvangirai’s adviser during the GNU. MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU who needs an adviser if they are utterly useless!
"They (Tsvangirai and Mujuru) are stronger together but political realities are fundamental,” Magaisa tell us.
"This is not the time for delusions of grandeur and unnecessary posturing. It's time to acknowledge and work with political realities or the opposition is doomed."
Another truck load of bull! Tsvangirai and Mujuru are corrupt and incompetent and they have proven track records. By agreeing to contest next year’s elections with no reforms in place the two are once again rubbing it in just how incompetent they are. Magaisa advised Tsvangirai to contest the 2013 elections with no reform and Zanu PF wiped MDC out the regime will do so again next year!
It is sheer madness to contest an election you know is going to be rigged and expect to win! This is common sense but then common sense is not so common with people like Tsvangirai, Mujuru and useless political advisers like Magaisa!
Contesting an election you know is going to be rigged is foolish; that is a fact!
The 2008 elections were watershed elections in that the nation was able to see Zanu PF's vote rigging juggernaut in its full ugliness; the whole world saw this too and unanimously condemned the process. Even SADC and AU election observers, known for turning a blind eye to dodgy elections, could not deny President Mugabe’s blatant vote rigging and wanton violence.
SADC helping draw up the 2008 Global Political Agreement in which the three Zimbabwean political parties in the GNU and SADC, as the guarantor, agreed to implement a raft of political reforms designed to ensure the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence of 2008 are never repeated ever again in Zimbabwe’s future elections. Sadly, not even one democratic reform was even implemented in five years of the GNU.
SADC leaders literally begged Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place. But, again, they were ignored! Zanu PF went on to blatant rig the 2013 elections just as they will do the same next year if the elections go ahead with no reforms.
If Dr Nkosana Moyo decides to join the like of Dr Tsvangirai and Dr Mujuru and contest next year’s elections with no reforms in place then he is just as foolish as the others. After 37 years of rigged elections, there is no denying that it is madness to contest yet another election, knowing Zanu PF will rig the vote, and yet expect Zanu PF lose the election!
At this rate, we might have Dr Grace Mugabe joint the other three above on the ballot paper!
Zimbabweans love boasting of being the most literate nation in Africa (we are the poorest, but pretend that we are the richest) but, sadly, lack common sense.
Indeed, if you throw a stone at a group of Zimbabwe doctorate graduates you are more likely to hit an idiot than you would throwing a stone at rural peasants! It is a great pity that common sense is not a subject; no one will be allowed to graduate much less be called Dr without passing it! What is the point of being the most literate nation if one does not have the common sense to see it is insane doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result!
@Themba Mthwethwa
“Tyranny, commandeering and despot nourish where there is no freedom of speech. Zimbabwe seems to fall within this category. People must and need to freely express their opinions and views to help to restrain oppressive attitudes by people like Chiwenga,” you said.
You are spot on there, my brother except for one thing the man you are defending here, Professor Jonathan Moyo, is a snake. After President Mugabe himself, many Zimbabweans would say Moyo is the next individual who has done the most to undermine freedom of speech, free media and freedom of expression, undermine rule of law, master mind the vote rigging, brainwash society and helped create this obnoxious, corrupt and tyrannical one party dictatorship.
It is all very well for Professor Moyo to be saying, “Kuvhunduka chati kwatara hunge une katurikwa!” (Those with hidden secrets (life charm) will panic whenever they hear any commotion!)
But not so long ago he was the one who was up in arms silencing anyone who dare ask him what happened to the $400 000 his ministry was failing to account for. He says he used the money to buy Chiefs in his constituency presents, buying votes for the then upcoming by-elections.
Chiwenga is an idiot who was promoted way above his level of competence and has been a willing tool in the hands of a ruthless tyrant. Jonathan Moyo is a the “devil incarnate” as President Mugabe rightly said. Any mortal with a half a brain can deal with an idiot, yes even one carrying an AK47 rifle and commanding an army. How many mortals can deal with the devil incarnate????
Zimbabwean churches are expected to embark on massive voter education campaign ahead of 2018 polls.
Various ministers of religion and their followers launched the ‘Christian Vote Campaign’ in Harare on Tuesday aimed at ensuring that followers of various church denominations will register to vote in the crucial elections.
Bishop Ancelimo Magaya of the Zimbabwe Divine Destiny said they will use some of their sermons to drum up support for the voter registration scheme to be conducted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) using Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits.
If one was to ask what is the biggest political problem in Zimbabwe, many would say it is vote rigging - not voter apathy but vote rigging. Yet here we are everyone is getting involved voter education, voter registration, gathering and circulating human rights abuses and, come the time, getting people to go out to vote.
Very few people are talking about vote rigging, implementing the reforms to stop vote rigging and questioning why no reform have not been implemented and, even more significantly, why we are going to yet another elections with no reforms in place.
President Mugabe does not want any reforms implemented for the obvious reason that Zanu PF "will not reform its out of office", as Professor Moyo has so aptly put it. And so he has decreed that no one will talk about rigged elections and implementing reforms. And so we are all dutifully complying with his wish and hence the reason we are all confining our discussions to the teething national problem of bad governance and our solutions there to confined to the voter education, etc.
Zanu PF will rig next year's elections and we will all dutiful look surprised and, no duty opposition leaders like Tsvangirai will go to town about how the "elections were stolen"!
If we are serious about getting a good government competent to address out economic and political problems then we must get out of our comfort zone and deal with the big problems of vote rigging and not just those President Mugabe allows us to discuss.
“Zimbabweans are very resilient people,” said Dr. Chihombori-Quao.
There is a fine line between being resilient and down-right stupid. Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa for a nation that was one of the richest 37 years ago our down fall has been rapid and it has not been because we are a resilient people!
SCORES of South Africa-based Zimbabweans yesterday stormed the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria, protesting against their government's refusal to allow them to vote from outside the country's borders.
"The reasons for the march are that the Zimbabwean government should allow and facilitate that all Zimbabwean citizens living here vote within South Africa, allow freedom of speech before, during and after the elections, allow fair and unbiased media coverage of all presidential candidates, stop the various human rights violations by the Zanu-PF militia and police, particularly in rural areas during this election period and beyond," the petition read.
One has to applaud the Zimbabweans who organized the demo and those who turned up to support the cause. Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa and not because the country has no resources, we are one of the richest nation on earth and 37 years ago we were one of the richest nation in Africa. Our rapid descend to become the poorest has all to do with us being a very laid back nation. When something is wrong we will look to others to sort it out and not lift a finger ourselves and so nothing is ever done.
Zimbabwe is in a political and economic mess because of 37 years of misrule by Zanu PF. We have had many opportunities to end the dictatorship but have wasted them all!
There are hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans in Pretoria and most of them are political and/or economic refugees and therefore have an invested interest in seeing Zimbabwe recover from the mess it is in. Yet only a handful turned up for the demo – there is Zimbabweans for you. They will wake-up when their work-permit runs out and find themselves on Zimbabwe’s mount Everest unemployment mountain!
This just the kettle calling the pot black! Mutsvangwa has played his part increating this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and so has Jonathan Moyo. Mutsvangwa is gunning for the replacement of one dictator with another and Moyo wants Mugabe to stay and then replace by someone else - he is not sure who.
This nation has suffered under the Zanu PF dictatorship and wants the system completely dismantled. if Mutsvangwa thinks he can impose the dictatorship on us on the basis of his liberation war record being better than that of Moyo he has something else coming. We want a democratic government, period!
@ Themba
It is moments like this that I curse Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for betraying the country, they had golden opportunity to implement the reforms which would have stopped Zanu PF rigging the July 2013 elections and thus allow the country to finally kick this corrupt and oppressive regime out of office. We would not be here today worrying ourselves sick about a coup or civil war.
One would think Tsvangirai and his lot have learnt the lesson following their blunder during the GNU and then in contesting the July 2013 elections with no reforms in place. No chance! They are now going to drag the nation into yet another flawed election next year if the people do not do something quick-smart to stop them.
Jonathan Moyo, President Mugabe and empty headed buffoons in the army, CIO, Police, war veterans, etc. will only continue to ruin all our lives as long as they are allowed to rig the vote and stay in power. We need to get the reform implemented BEFORE next the elections, this has to be our most pressing issue of this generation!
@Zunzanyika
Zimbabwe have been voting on the basis of gender, tribe, region, etc. everything else expect the only basis that matter merit. One of the big plus for implementing the reforms BEFORE the next elections is that we will have real debate and competition allowing quality to emerge at last. Given a real quality leader, I believe the Zimbabwe electorate will use their heads!
The people of Zimbabwe have lost confidence in Morgan Tsvangirai, many believed him in 2013 when assured them the elections would be free and fair. They were shocked when Zanu PF rig the elections with ease. This time there real is nothing he has said to make anyone believe Zanu PF will not once again rig the vote.
The rural folk know that MDC has completely abandoned them and they are smart enough to know there is no point in them making enemies with Zanu PF thugs. Even those who were very angry with Zanu PF in the past, they have since learnt that supporting MDC will get them nowhere except unnecessary trouble.
Yes, Zanu PF is being Zanu PF and so it will continue to buy votes and frog march the people to attend party rallies. Whilst the party had to brandish the whip a lot more often in 2013, this time the populous will be like a wild horse would rebellious spirit has long since been broken!
"Moyo rubbished the notion of a coalition of opposition political parties to dislodge Zanu PF.
He said a mixture of something spoils the end product. Dr Moyo made his announcement this in Harare on Thursday," you reported.
Well I do agree with Moyo there 100%. Opposition parties like MDC have failed to deliver even one democratic change although they had many golden opportunities to do so. MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years in the GNU because they are corrupt and incompetent.
Joice Mujuru is corrupt and incompetent and she played her part in establishing the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and took her lion's share of the loot. She was booted out of that party in 2014 kicking and screaming and all she is fighting for today is for her to get back into power so she can continue the looting from where she left off.
So both Tsvangirai and Mujuru are useless on their own because they are corrupt and incompetent - they have a mountain of cases each to prove it. To propose the two form a coalition and expect that to be any better than the individual is naive. Tsvangirai and Mujuru are each a half glass of sewage contaminated milk; bring the two together will give a full glass of sewage contaminated milk - there is no improvement there because it is the contamination one should be concerned about!
Where a beg to differ with Dr Moyo is in claiming that he is offering the nation something fresh different and taking us in a "different direction" in deciding to contest the elections with not even one reform in place. He is just offering himself as a new face beside the regular ones of Tsvangirai, Makoni, etc. for Zanu PF to cheat. Zanu PF will rig the vote and the country will continue to sink deeper and deeper into the economic and political mess we are in; there will be no change of direction.
We are in this political and economic mess because we have failed to hold free, fair and credible election. Implement the democratic reforms so the country has its first free, fair and credible elections and the country will have good reason to boast of having something new, fresh and totally different. The free and fair elections will produce the competent and visionary leaders who will end the mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness and take the nation into a different direction out of the hell-hole Zanu PF landed us.
@ Tinashe
"I see two possible things happening next year, the first will be serious vote splitting, and going for a run off. You know then what it means to go for a run off with Zanu Pf. Remember the June 27 fiasco in 2008 were more than 500 MDC T supporters were butchered," you say.
This is a nonsense argument. There is nothing to support your suggestion that next year's elections will be free, fair and credible and Tsvangirai will win it, if the opposition vote is not split. Were the July 2013 elections free, fair and credible? If there were then Mugabe won 62% of the vote and even if the opposition had fielded only one candidate, he/she would have got 38% of the vote and still lose.
For your own education, Tsvangirai did get more than the 50% plus one to avoid the run-off in 2008 but Zanu PF would not accept that result so the cooked the figures, which is why ZEC took six weeks before announcing the cooked results. ZEC’s target was to reduce Tsvangirai’s vote to below 50% and they would have done so even if there had only been two candidates on the March ballot paper.
For your own education too, Zanu PF would have had operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) in the run-off in 2008 to overhaul Tsvangirai’s March lead.
Zanu PF have upped their game, the party’s vote rigging is geared to deliver a landslide victory for the party’s presidential candidate plus a two thirds majority in parliament and senate after the first vote! This is exactly what happened in 2013.
You and me and the fly on the wall all know that with not even one reform in place Zanu PF will rig the 2018 elections as easily as they rigged the 2013 elections. You are banking on Zanu PF rigging the vote but, somehow, losing the elections. You think field one coalition candidate will increase the chances of the freak event of rigging the vote and losing the elections happening. The freak event has not happened yet and after 37 years of Zanu PF rigging election only someone insane would not see the sheer futility of it all!
@ Nqaba
True Mbeki could have done a lot more to help resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis but to heap all the blame for the GNU's failure to deliver free and fair elections of his door is to completely misread the historic facts. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend the opportunity to refuse to go into the GNU; they freely joined. They had the opportunity to implement the democratic reforms; they failed to get even one reform implemented. It is nonsense to blame Mbeki or SADC for MDC leaders being corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs!
Any Zimbabwean who continues to blame Mbeki and/or SADC for the GNU’s failure to deliver free and fair elections only confirm that they are not ready to be master of their own destiny which explains why the country is in such a mess! Even if Mbeki and SADC had forced Mugabe out of power back in 2008, he would have wormed his way back or someone just as back given Tsvangirai, even today, is scarred stiff of ruling alone!
@ Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
“The 37-year-old nation has held eight general elections since it was born in 1980. Many, or at least some, of those elections were characterised by inter-party violence which caused some deaths or injuries,” you rightly said.
The challenge before us is a very simple one: either we break this vicious cycle of rigged elections or we accept and carry out and suffer the consequence of misrule that has made us the poorest nation in Africa!
SADC gave us the option of implementing a raft of democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU which would have dismantled the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus break the vicious cycle of rigged elections and corrupt government. The task of implementing the reforms fell to Tsvangirai and his MDC friend; they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years.
Tsvangirai and his friends have since given up getting the reforms implemented and settled for the few seats Zanu PF has been giving away to the opposition in retain for the modicum of credibility they give to the flawed election by contesting.
As for us the ordinary people, there is nothing but misery to be had from participating in flawed elections as the same corrupt and tyrannical thugs remain in power and nothing ever changes.
We ended Ian Smith’s racist and oppressive reign by waging the war. We can wage another war against the Mugabe regime and perpetuate another vicious cycle where each generation will have to fight the generation before it for their freedom and liberty. The alternative to another war is to stand up and demand the implementation of the democratic rights.
We must dismiss Zanu PF’s argument that they will not “reform themselves out of power” with the contempt it rightly deserves. Zanu PF have no more right to refuse the people their right to free, fair and credible elections than Smith had the right to deny blacks the vote!
We must also demand of Tsvangirai and his fellow opposition opportunists that they stop contesting flawed elections and give the process credibility. They must honour their “No reform, no elections!” pledge.
But above all, we, the people, must wise up to the reality that Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because we have not taken our responsibility to elect good leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demand.
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