It is erroneous to assume 2013 elections were free and fair. They were not! Wilbert Mukori

“(MDC-T VP Thokozani) Khupe has been clear that she believes there is no need for a coalition in Matabeleland, but rather in the Mashonaland provinces, where MDC-T has performed badly in the past, although this is a terribly flawed argument,” argued Nqaba Matshazi, in Bulawayo 24 Opinion.

“While it is true that MDC-T has performed well in Matabeleland with Khupe as the de facto regional leader, the sad reality is that the party was on the decline, losing Matabeleland South and half of Matabeleland North seats to Zanu PF in the last election.”

Matshazi’s assessment premised on the basic assumption that the July 2013 elections were free, fair and credible. They were not!

There is overwhelming evidence to prove that Zanu PF has been rigging elections and the 2008 elections provides the best documented case. Everyone except Mugabe and his cronies accepts as a historic fact that Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections were not free and fair. Even SADC and the AU election observer teams, notorious for giving a thumbs-up to dodgy elections, could not ignore the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence in that year’s elections.

By refusing to accept the 2008 elections result as legitimate, the international community also refused to recognise Mugabe’s claim as the legitimate president of Zimbabwe. To restore political legitimacy, SADC forced Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement agreeing to implement a raft of democratic reforms, designed to stop all manner of vote rigging in the country’s future elections, and agreeing to the formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) which was tasked to implement the reforms.

It is a historic but also tragic fact that at the end of the five years of GNU, not even one democratic reforms had been implemented. SADC leaders realised this and hence the reason why they wanted the 2013 elections postponed so reforms could be implemented first.

“Of course, they (elections) can be postponed,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza explained to Violet Gonda in a recent interview.  “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.

“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’.

“And we came back on a Sunday and that Monday we had a SAPES Policy Dialogue to discuss the Summit and lo and behold, whilst we were discussing it, the court papers arrived calling the MDC to court to show reason why the elections should be postponed.  Mugabe had done a volte-face against the decision of the Summit. Mugabe went on TV and threatened to leave SADC – ‘who is SADC, we can leave SADC anyway’.”  

The need for free, fair and credible elections was paramount to Zimbabwe’s political and economic well-being and to give in because Mugabe threatened to take Zimbabwe out of SADC was absurd.

With no reforms in place, it was clear the July 2013 elections would not be free, fair and credible and that is exactly what happened. The elections were marred by such glaring irregularity as the failure to release a verifiable voters’ roll before the elections, a legal requirement, and afterwards, following many lawful requests. We all saw on YouTube many hooded Zanu PF youths who were bussed around polling station to cast multiple vote; etc.

There is no doubt that Zimbabwe’s July 2013 elections were not free, fair and credible.

Therefore, Matshazi’s basic assumption that the 2013 elections were free and fair is erroneous and so too is the conclusion that Zanu PF electoral victories is proof of the party’s popularity with the electorate. If elections are rigged then the electorate have, per se, been taken out of the equation.

The line of inquiry we should be pursuing here is why did Morgan Tsvangirai and friends disregard SADC’s warning not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms?

The reason why MDC contesting flawed 2013 elections can traced back to their failure to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU. It was incumbent on the MDC leaders, not Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies, to implement the reforms and dismantle the dictatorship. It was Mugabe who had created the dictatorship and needed it to retain his iron grip on power; he clearly did not want the system reformed.

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to get even one reform implemented in five years because Mugabe bribed them with the trapping of high office and, in return, they kicked reforms into the tall grass.

MDC leaders “were busy enjoying themselves when they were in the GNU, they forgot why they were there,” remarked one SADC leader in sheer exasperation soon after Zanu PF rigged the July 2013 elections.

MDC leaders knew that Zanu PF was going to rig the July 2013 election, even without being told by SADC; they still contested the elections regardless because, by then, they had completely lost interest in fighting for free and fair elections and delivering democratic changes. All they were after then, was whatever scraps they could get from Mugabe’s table. The tyrant offered a few gravy train seats to entice opposition candidates to contest the elections. And it was these scraps the opposition were after, as David Coltart, MDC-N Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, admitted in his book.

“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.”

It was only after Zanu PF had rigged the 31st July 2013 leaving MDC with only a handful of gravy train seats that MDC leaders were finally forced to accept the seriousness of Zanu PF’s vote rigging. All the MDC factions vowed not to contest any future elections until the reforms are implemented. “No reform, no elections!” they announced.

Not even one reform has been implemented since the rigged 2013 elections and so we can once again that Zanu PF will rig next year’s elections.

Once again, Tsvangirai and his friends in the opposition camp know, with no reforms, Zanu PF will rig the elections. And yet, once again, they are all tripping over each other to contest the flawed elections, regardless. They have conveniently forgotten the rigged elections of July 2013 and they are once again going for those few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away.

Ordinary Zimbabwean gained nothing from participating in the July 2013 rigged elections. They have paid the price by being landed with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for five years. By participating in these flawed elections, the people are playing a key role in giving the process the modicum of democratic credibility. The people will do the same again if they participate in any way in next year’s elections!

The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the political reality that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have stopped fighting for democratic change, free and fair elections, etc. a long, long time ago. They sold-out during the GNU hence the reason they failing to implement even one reform. They are now selling-out now by insisting in contesting next year’s flawed elections for the sake of a few gravy train seats Zanu PF offers as a bribe!

They must stop following political leaders blindly like sheep to the slaughter. They should not allow themselves to be conned into participating in flawed elections on the basis the false hope that Zanu PF can rig the vote but, somehow, lose the elections. It is insane to do the same this over and over again, for 37 years + now, and hope for a different result!

If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about wanting free and fair elections, the pre-requisite for competent and accountable government and to ending the crippling economic meltdown; then they must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms before the elections.

The consequences of another rigged elections will be catastrophic for Zimbabwe. If the people of Zimbabwe bury their heads in the sand and participate in next year’s flawed elections; it will be sheer folly and they will dearly pay for it. No one can say they were not warned!

"Media is essential in shaping public opinion," says Makonese - not when confused yourself N Garikai

“The role of the press with respect to Zimbabwe's political; social and economic changes as we move towards 2018 should not be underestimated. The media is capable of highlighting on the past, the present and help the people establish how best to model their future. Media is as essential as our daily bread as it plays an outstanding role in creating and shaping of public opinion and strengthening of society,” wrote Pythias Makonese in The Zimbabwean.

If the truth be said, and it must, Zimbabwe's private media has not done the nation any great favour by slavishly supporting the MDC even as the later blundered from pillar to post.  


Although most reporters and editors alike would agree that Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections, for example, and yet very few, if any, of our independent media houses have a consistent position on the matter. First, they accepted Tsvangirai’s claim that the elections were “stolen”, they then welcomed MDC’s “No reform, no election!” stance and now the same media practitioners have accepted MDC’s position to contest next year’s elections with not even one reform implemented – no questions asked of MDC leaders.

SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai and friends not to contest the 2013 elections with no meaningful reforms in place. The private media never quizzed MDC leaders why they did not paid heed to the warning then or after Zanu PF rigged the elections and thus proving MDC leaders had been foolish to ignore the warning.

We know that not even one meaningful reform has been implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections and so SADC’s warning not to contest next year’s elections with no reforms is even more relevant today than in June 2013. MDC leaders themselves have already made up their minds to contest the elections regardless of the certainty that Zanu PF will once again rig the vote as before.

“We have come up with our own new strategies which are smarter that we are going to use in wiring and wining the elections,” claimed Obert Gutu, MDC-T spokesman.

“I think you are now hearing us talking about the wire trajectory, which is our new strategy, because obviously we are budgeting for the worst case scenario where the regime is not going to budge because very little in terms of reforms has been done and we will be fools to think that Zanu PF is going to give in.”

This is just grandstanding and posturing to justify why the opposition is once again contesting flawed elections. With no reforms in place Zanu PF is certain to rig the vote just as easily as it rigged past elections.

You would agree with me that many, if not all, of our private media houses have swallowed MDC’s empty rhetoric hook, line and sinker with no questions asked. The media have accepted MDC’s “wire trajectory strategy” for example as if this is a well establish and proven strategy one would sooner question Charles Dawn’s evolutionary theory than question MDC’s wire trajectory strategy.

The people of Zimbabwe desperately need some guidance on whether to take part in yet another flawed elections or heed SADC leaders’ advice and demand the implementation of reforms before elections. Whilst I agree with you, Makonese that the “media is as essential as our daily bread as it plays an outstanding role in creating and shaping of public opinion and strengthening of society”. But even you will have to accept that our media, by slavishly supporting MDC’s blunders have been totally useless to the nation, at best.

Zimbabwe’s private media has been slavishly supportive of the opposition parties at the expense of informing the public just as the public media has been slavishly supportive of Zanu PF.

“Our Zimbabwe media should be depolarized and be totally removed from the ruling party politics. It must be defined not on the basis of its ownership but on the basis of what it does professionally. Recognition of equality of all human beings with the understanding that there are no human beings that are more equal than others. We voted for a constitution which should be respected,” concluded Makonese.

“We should all play our part for a better Zimbabwe – come 2018.”

Time is the enemy of us all; the media practitioners must get their act together and act decisively now; not tomorrow and certainly not next year, because it will be too late. The people of Zimbabwe must either to participate in next year’s elections or ignore the whole shebang and just concentrate on demanding the implementation of reforms before elections. People must decide now because, if they are going to participate, the process kicks off with voter registration next week, 4 th September. Time is of the essence!

A “better Zimbabwe” has remain as elusive as the mirage lake because those better entrusted to advise the people have, more often than not, ill-advised them. If the people of Zimbabwe participate in yet another flawed election process it will be because the country’s media let the nation down, again!

"We are going to vote Mugabe out of power," says Dzamara - easier said than done. W Mukori

“We are going to vote them (Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies) out of power and most critically we are going to fight for our vote which carries our wishes and voices. Young people, now is the time to organise ourselves. If our elders wish to continue on the path of frivolity while we are all being dragged to the grave by Mugabe, let them do so without us!” argued Patson Dzamara. 

“It is time we take our collective destiny into our hands. For too long we have been the playthings of the powerful, second-class citizens in our own nation.

“The time has come for us to say 'Enough!' and cross the rubicon. We must not allow ourselves to be Mugabe's death companions.”

There are number of key points you have failed to appreciate:

1)     Zimbabwe is not a democratic country in which elections are free, fair and credible and therefore it is nonsense to talk of “voting them out of power”!

2)     You say you “are going to fight for our vote”. How?

3)     Many people have been attending voter educations workshops, will be mobilizing for voter registration, will attending opposition rallies and will be hoping to go out and vote in their millions. This is exactly what Zanu PF would want you to do because it gives the election process the modicum of credibility.

But of course, Zanu PF will undermine everything you do; how many millions tried to register to vote last time and failed to do so! Instead of addressing the root cause of why so many voters were denied the vote what you are doing is try even harder to get on the voters’ roll. Zanu PF has already raised the bar of voter registration even higher, the regime deliberately delayed the voter registration and many people will never get the chance to do so.

4)     If you are serious about voting Zanu PF out of office then demand the implementation of the democratic reforms designed to stop the party rigging the vote, then and only then agree to go into elections.

In his book, Animal Farm, George Orwell, described a horse called Boxer who was very strong physically but the exact opposite mentally. Boxer struggle to learn the first four letters of the alphabet; he then struggled to learn the next four letters and by the time he mastered them he had forgotten the first four.

Boxer had two mottos:

a)     I will work harder

b)     Napoleon (the dictator pig) is always right

The farm faced many problems such shortage of food and many of which were cause by the mismanagement and corruption of Napoleon and Boxer’s response to all these problems was to work himself to the bone, literally. Of course, it did not solve the farm’s problem, if anything it only encourage the wasteful habits.

Zimbabwe has teething man-made political and economic problems and for the last 37 years things have got worse and worse and yet most people have worked themselves to death. The moral of our tragic human story is that problems are not always solved by working harder but rather by working smarter.

We are not going to remove Zanu PF from power by standing up on rooftops shouting “Enough is enough!”, driving all the way from South Africa to vote only to find one’s name has been deliberately deleted from the voters’ roll, etc. It is insane contesting an election knowing the vote will be rigged; so, why do it?

“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned MDC leaders in June 2013; according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza, who was there. 

The only thing to do for Zimbabweans is to refuse to take part in any elections until meaning reforms are implemented. It is the only and smart thing to do here!