“In
another incident it was reported that on the 14th of June, Mutasa villagers
were forced to contribute towards the rally. Unidentified Zanu PF youths were
demanding $2 from each vendor at Watsomba Business Centre in ward 21 of Mutasa
Central,” reported Zimbabwe Peace Project.
“Section
67(1)b stipulates that every Zimbabwean has the right to make political choices
freely. This means that citizens may not be coerced into attending political
rallies or making monetary contributions to parties that they do not support.”
“Most
students from colleges around Mutare missed their lectures after they were frog
marched to clean the central business district ahead of President Robert
Mugabe’s rally to be held at Sakubva Stadium in the eastern border city Friday,”
reported the New Zimbabwe.
“President Robert Mugabe is
travelling around the country meeting party youths ahead of the 2018 harmonized
elections.
“Students from Mutare
Polytechnic, Marymount and Mutare teachers college were Wednesday bussed to
Meikles Park where they joined Zanu PF youths in what was dubbed “Mother of all
cleaning campaigns”.”
The elections
are a year away and we know that the report of human rights abuse will come
thick and fast as the election temperature soars.
To
stop our culture of political vote rigging and violence, SADC leaders
instructed Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement a raft of democratic
reforms during the GNU. Sadly, not even one reform was ever implemented in the
five years of the GNU. Not one. SADC leaders literally begged MDC leaders not
to contest the 2013 with no reforms in place; we know this from those who heard
the begging with their own ears.
“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,”
Ibbo Mandaza told 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’.”
Tsvangirai
& co. paid no heed to SADC leaders’ warning and contested the 2013
elections with not even one reform in place. Zanu PF thugs frog march the
electorate to attend its rallies, frog marched them to polling stations to vote
for party candidates, etc. and the opposition lost the election, as SADC
leaders had warned.
Everyone
agrees that not even one reform was implemented since the rigged July 2013
elections. So, contesting next year’s election is sheer madness since it will be
yet another mockery of what a free, fair and credible election should be.
The
real question is how many more reports of vote rigging and human rights abuses
will it take before we finally come to our sense and implement the blood democratic
reform so our people can finally have their first ever free, fair and credible
elections?
Zimbabwe
is stuck in a political and economic hell-hole of our own making and until we
implement the democratic reforms and finally have free and fair elections, the
country is not getting out of the hole – that is a fact!
5 comments:
“Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s recent call for his supporters to “kick out” all remaining white commercial farmers from their properties has triggered a new wave of land invasions in the southern African country,” reported Spotlight -Z.
“Mugabe, 93, told a rally in Marondera two weeks ago that all white commercial farmers who remained on the farms should be kicked out to allow his party’s young supporters, who did not gain land during the country’s chaotic land reforms in 2000, to get some.”
Farm invasions have remained a centre piece of Mugabe’s election campaign since he lost the 2000 referendum on his proposed new constitution. Violence flare up supposedly directed at the white farm owners but it is then allowed to spread right across the country targeting the regime’s opponents, critics and everyone the regime suspects would not vote for it accusing them of supporting the white farmers!
The white farm invasions just serve to underline that the regime does not respect property rights and rule of law. Who in his right mind would ever want to invest in such a country!
Referring to President Robert Mugabe's rally today at Sakubva Stadium in Mutare, Reverend Bakare said some people were still "foolish enough" to be frog-marched to attend Zanu-PF rallies where they were brainwashed with empty promises
Some people live in cloud cuckoo land! What can the poor individual on the coal face of this corrupt and tyrannical regime’s lawlessness do? When these Zanu PF thugs tell you to go to the rally you go or they will beat you up or worse.
The solution here is for the nation to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms, which President Mugabe himself agree and sign to in the 2008 Global Political Agreement. Yes, it was for Tsvangirai and MDC to implement the reforms and sadly they failed to live up to the challenge.
Still MDC’s betrayal does not mean the reforms are no longer necessary and President Mugabe is free to do as he please. The reforms are still necessary and President Mugabe does not have the right to deny the people of Zimbabwe their freedoms and basic human rights. He did not have the right to corrupt the country’s political system making these reforms necessary to start with!
The way out of this mess is for the nation to demand realistic solutions forward. Asking people to take part in an electoral process knowing it will be rigged is madness. SADC leaders have already proposed a way out; demand the implementation of the reforms and do not take part in the elections until that is done!
Taking the regime “head-on” by contesting a flawed election will not change anything. People like Reverend Bakare who live in their own world should not be mudding the water by coming up with the same failed answers of the last 37 years!
Government has started repossessing farms from unproductive beneficiaries of the controversial programme to redistribute land seized from white farmers.
Lands and Rural Resettlement minister Douglas Mombeshora yesterday issued notice to withdraw 38 offer letters given to individuals allocated land under the programme.
And yet law week President Mugabe told party youth rally in Marondera that the seizure of white-owned farms must continue. The seizure is a political gimmick for selfish political gain, pure and simple.
“Zimbabweans in 2018 must elect leader with clear vision & economic policies to revive devastated economy,” wrote Prof Richard Simango.
How is that going to happen if the elections are not free, fair and credible. SADC leaders have made it clear what Zimbabwe must do; implement the democratic reforms designed to stop the vote rigging and thus ensure free, fair and credible elections. It is common sense really but then common sense is not so common in Zimbabwe because not only did we fail to get even one reform implemented during the 2008 to 20013 GNU we have Professors, no less, arguing to continue contesting flawed elections!
It is madness contesting an election you know will be rigged and expect quality and visionary leaders to emerge. The sheer stupidity of some people is breath taking.
People like Simango are incapable of getting anything right and will make the same mistake over and over again and they do not realise the sheer stupidity of it all because they are not paying any attention to what they are doing. Whilst Simango appreciate the importance of electing good leaders, it is simple too much to ask of his feeble mind to deal with the follow up question why this has not happened in Zimbabwe. Even after 37 years of rigged elections he cannot see there is something wrong with the electoral process!
Sadly, for Zimbabwe, Simango is not the only brain-dead Zimbabwean, there are hundreds of thousands other just like him. Worse still many of the brain-dead are in positions of power and authority, people like Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU because they, like Simango, did not appreciate the need for the reforms. Tsvangirai is now talking of dragging the nation into yet another flawed election next year, still with not even one reform in place. He argues that the new Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system “cannot be manipulated”! How stupid is that!
Zanu PF is already manipulating the BVR system by delaying the start registration exercise and then allocating twice as many registration centres in its strong hold.
There are other ways other than the BVR system the regime can rig the vote. Voter intimidation remains one of the biggest challenges, already there are reports of Zanu PF thugs frog marching the people to attend party rallies.
The other big issue is finance; whilst the opposition will be hard pushed to mount an effective campaign programme because they are stone broke, Zanu PF has no such worries as the party has billions of dollars from the wholesale looting going on in Marange diamonds. The new BVR system will not stop Zimbabwe’s political culture of violence, etc. and therefore to agree to contest next year’s elections on the basis of the new BVR system alone is down right political madness!
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