“They (opposition parties) should know first what the coalition is about,” Ms Sekai Holland said, according to a New Zimbabwe report.
“Once you know what the coalition is about, then you really know how the structures are put in place and you know how the leadership is chosen.
“If you are
having a grand coalition, everything must be by consensus building based on the
issues that bring the coalition together.” She was giving her two-pennies’
worth to want the opposition needed to do to win next year’s elections.
Ask her why Zanu PF was able to rig the elections and she will probably give one of her long-winded summon on the mount, starting nowhere and going nowhere else! The simple answer is; Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig the vote because MDC leaders had failed to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop the vote rigging.
Mai Holland was one of the MDC cabinet ministers in the GNU whose party’s primary task was to implement the reforms. The GNU was supposed to last 18 months but ended up lasting 60 months and yet MDC leaders still failed to get even one reform implemented. Not even one!
The tragedy was that MDC leaders were repeatedly warned of the critical importance of the reforms and why they should be implemented but they ignored the warning. In a last minute desperate attempt to get the reforms implemented SADC leaders pulled MDC leaders aside at the last regional summit and, literally, begged them not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist Violet Gonda.
“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.
“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”
The full interview with Violet is available on violetgonda.com.
As we know MDC leaders still paid no heed and went on to contest the July 2013 elections and, as noted above, Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the vote and win with a landslide.
Since the rigged July 2013 elections, the opposition have since vowed they will not contest any future elections until the reforms are implemented. Mai Holland should know that not even one reform has been implemented in the last four years and there is very little hope that any will be implement in the remaining year, before the election.
So, to summarise, Mai Sekai Holland knows the follow as established facts:
1) MDC lost the 2013
elections because Zanu PF rigged the vote – the coalition was not an issue
since Mugabe won 62% of the vote and a single opposition candidate would have
got the remaining 38% and still lose
2) Zanu PF was able to
blatantly rig the vote because MDC had failed to implement even one democratic
reform throughout the five years of the GNU. And MDC leaders paid to heed to
the warning that, with no reforms, the elections would be rigged.
3) Still not even one
reform has been implemented in preparation for next year’s elections. SADC
leaders’ warning not to contest the elections with no reforms is as valid today
as it was before the 2013 elections. And yet the opposition is once again
gearing to contest the flawed election in violation of their own “No reform, no
election!” party resolution.
So, knowing the above established facts and realities, how is it possible that Mai Holland would be harping on about contesting next year’s elections with not even one reform in place. The grand opposition coalition, even if it was finally created, will do nothing to stop the vote rigging!
Contesting yet another flawed election knowing fully well Zanu PF will rig the vote and hope against hope the regime will rig the vote but, somehow, lose the election is the crass of insanity!
It is said that wisdom comes with age; sadly, that is decidedly not the case in Zimbabwe, especially with our political leaders. They were dumb in their youth and have grown progressive dumber with age. The MDC leaders like slagging President Mugabe for his advanced age and yet he is the one who out foxed them for five years into doing nothing about the reforms. Even now, he is the chief beneficiary of their folly of contesting flawed elections. We do not need to ask Mai Holland or anyone who, amongst our political leaders, is the dumbest; we know!
2 comments:
If implementing the reforms had escape the attention of Mai Holland throughout the years of the GNU, as it had escaped the attention of her fellow MDC leaders, even with all the prompting from SADC; one would expect she is the wise now. She has had four years to reflect on why MDC lost the 2013 elections, one they were cocksure they would win until the results were declared!
The four years of reflecting should have led her to the conclusion that Zanu PF rigged elections because they, MDC, had failed to implement the reforms needed to stop the vote rigging. Sadly the penny has still not dropped. Reflecting is something those with a brain do not our Ms Scarecrow!
It real is criminal that MDC wasted the nation’s golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship by failing to implement the reforms during the GNU and again by contesting the 2013 elections. There is no excuse for wasting another day contesting another flawed election next year and forfeit yet another chance to get the reforms implemented.
“I have rights but I also have a responsibility to play my role so that democracy can work in Zimbabwe,” said Jenni Williams.
You have nailed it right there Jenni! What a great pity that there is only a tiny minority of Zimbabweans out there with even the common sense to understand the obvious. Even after 37 years of rigged elections, for example, there are still many Zimbabweans who still want to contest next year’s elections even though not even one reform was implemented since the 2013 rigged elections.
SADC leaders begged the MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms but their advice fell on deaf ears. Now the nation is set on contest next year’s elections still with not one reform in place. How stupid is that!
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