Stop holding "another fake election", says Musewe - wonder of wonders. Patrick Guramatunhu

Wonder of wonders! Miracle of miracles! A year ago, no one would have believed that Vince Musewe, this Saul of Zimbabwe politics preaching the gospel of Zanu PF appeasement, would be telling Robert Mugabe his free, fair and credible elections are “fake”.

"They (Zanu PF) simply must go and we cannot therefore entertain another fake election hoping things will work out and yet I hear many of us exaggerating the probability of change in 2018. That is a fallacy and false hope likely to disappoint," said Vince Musewe.

Here is the man who has spent the best part of the last four years, first, denying the historic fact that Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends’ failed to implement the reforms during the GNU. He could not fathom the reality that they are corrupt, incompetent and sold out and so chose to bury his head in the sand.

He then spent the rest of the time wittering about how we are powerless to get Zanu PF to implement any reforms implemented and so we must simple accept the dictatorship and do our best to work within its set parameters. Of course, it was a nonsensical argument for two reasons:

a)     It was premised on the falsehood that President Mugabe and Zanu PF had the power and right to deny us, the people, our basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. No one, absolutely no one, not even a deeply entrenched corrupt and murderous tyrant, has the right to deny even the lowest of the low their birth rights!

b)    The most important reason why it was imperative that the reforms are implemented is a practical one – there can be no denying that dictatorship had failed the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans causing untold human suffering and, for far, costed of 30 000 innocent lives to establish and retain. Free, fair and credible elections is the basis of good governance, the nation was dying for good and competent government. The dictatorship was the one stopping the change and therefore must go and go now!

It has been long in coming but the penny has finally dropped in Musewe’s head that the Zanu PF dictatorship must go and futility of holding flawed elections. When there is thick mud instead of clean water, the drag on the penny is considerable; still it is great to see it has finally hit the bottom. With the like Morgan Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru, where the mud has been compressed and baked solid, the penny will never ever go through that brick!

What the people of Zimbabwe must now realise is that as long as people like Tsvangirai and Mujuru continue to contest these “fake elections,” as Musewe called them Zanu PF will continue to rig the elections and claim they were free, fair and credible. “If they were not free, fair and credible, then why did Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, Joice Mujuru and her NPP, etc. contest the elections?” Mugabe would argue.

There is no denying that by contesting the flawed elections the opposition are giving the process credibility as David Coltart noted in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“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 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.”

Whilst the challenge remains the same, removing the Zanu PF dictatorship and replacing it with a democratically elected and accountable government; the nation must switch its political focus must from Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF thugs to Morgan Tsvangirai, Joice Mujuru and the multitude of opposition opportunists queuing to contest next year’s fake elections. Force Tsvangirai, Mujuru and that mob to withdraw from the elections and Zanu PF will have no excuse for refusing to implement democratic reforms.

Some people will argue that we should not take our eyes off Zanu PF and to focus on the opposition is taking a backward step. Well sometime one has to take several steps back to jump over a wide ditch. We cannot deal with the Zanu PF dictatorship whilst it continues to hide behind the corrupt and incompetent opposition and use them to give credibility to its illegal activities. We must isolate Zanu PF by stopping the opposition contesting these fake elections.