“In a move that is expected to
ensure that peace and tolerance prevails ahead of the 2018 elections, youth in
Chipinge South have vowed to intensify peace campaigns that will ensure that
community members uphold peace and tolerance,” said a Heal Zimbabwe report in
The Zimbabwean.
“This came out during a
Sports for peace tournament hosted by Heal Zimbabwe in Chipinge South on 29
July 2017. The tournament was organized under Heal Zimbabwe’s National Peace campaign,
#13MilVoices4Peace, an initiative that seeks to encourage community
leaders and members to uphold and pledge for peace ahead of the 2018 elections.
The sports games were attended by 200 people, and six traditional leaders.”
This is the kind of simple
mindedness that is worrying. Do these simpletons really believe that the a few games
of football have exorcised and laid to rest the political demons behind the
culture of political violence and vote rigging that have haunted the nation for
the last 37 years.
SADC leaders recommended that we
implement the raft of democratic reforms and should not take part in any
elections until we have implemented the reforms. Now it turns out we do not
need even one reform implemented and we still going to have free, fair and
credible elections thanks to “Sports for peace football tournaments”!
How naïve! How shockingly naïve! This
must be the kind of naivety that inspired George Orwell when he wrote his
classical book, Animal Farm.
“It had become usual to give
Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good
fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, "Under the
guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six
days"; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, "Thanks
to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!" wrote
George Orwell.
Compared to the wanton violence
of 2008; Zimbabwe had relatively peaceful elections in 2013 and next year’s elections
are likely to be equally peaceful. But that is only because Zanu PF has fine-tuned
its vote rigging schemes and has billions of dollars looted from Marange to
bankroll them.
The regime has devised schemes
making it difficult for the opposition supporters to register to vote; those
who do register, they were denied the vote by making sure their details were
deliberately posted in another constituent voters’ roll other than the one the
individual expected; etc. Meanwhile it has devised ways to allow Zanu PF
supporters to cast multiple votes; bribed traditional leaders who then frogmarch
villagers to vote for the regime; etc.
The regime has stubbornly refused
to release the voters roll although it is a legal requirement. Even to this
day, the regime has refused to release the 2013 voters’ roll because Zanu PF
knows many of its vote rigging schemes will be uncovered.
The fact that fewer people have
been harassed, beaten, rape or murdered in politically motivated violence does
not mean Zimbabwe’s elections are now free, fair and credible. The regime is
rigging the vote and that is why we still need to implement all the democratic
reforms to free ZEC, the Police and other state institutions of Zanu PF control
and influence to carry out their duties without fear or favour.
“As part of pledging for peace ahead of the 2018 elections, all the
participating teams signed peace pledges which symbolize their commitment to
uphold peace and intensify peace initiatives in the area,” said the report.
It was Zanu PF thugs who were behind all the wanton violence in the
past; did any of the thugs sign the pledge? No!
What is the use asking the
victims of the violence to sign a pledge to keep the peace!
President Mugabe and all his Zanu
PF thugs will happily sign a peace pledge on one condition – that the party rigs
the vote to guarantee its “no-regime-change” mantra! Indeed, the party scaled
down its violence in 2013 and will do so again next years as long as not even
one democratic reform is implemented to affect its vote rigging schemes.
Zimbabwe is in this economic mess
because of 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption under this
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The economy is in such a mess that
90% of our people are unemployed and Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa. The
situation is simply unacceptable.
It was Zanu PF misrule that
landed the nation in this economic mess and for the last 37 years the nation
has been stuck with the regime because it has been rigging the vote to stay in
power. Only a democratically elected government, which will remain accountable
to the people will meaningfully address the country’s economic mess.
So, to end the economic misery
the nation is experiencing we, the people, demand the implementation of all the
democratic reforms designed to end political violence and vote rigging and
guarantee peaceful, free, fair and credible elections. The current Zanu PF
offer of peaceful elections whilst it continues to rig the vote is simply
unacceptable!
Heal Zimbabwe, the people of
Zimbabwe want peaceful elections but they also want to have a meaningful say in
the governance of the country through the holding of free, fair and credible
elections. They want to elect government that will get them out of the economic
mess Zanu PF has landed us into.
The two, peaceful and free
elections, Heal Zimbabwe’s Sport for peace initiative will, at best deliver the
peaceful elections but do nothing to stop the vote rigging. Those seeking to
separate the two have playing straight into Zanu PF’s hands; the party has used
the threat of violence to impose its vote rigging schemes. Every Zimbabwe as a
right to peaceful, free, fair and credible elections. What right does Heal
Zimbabwe have to bargain away, to appease Mugabe, even one iota of this
fundamental right?
3 comments:
Some of these organisation like Heal Zimbabwe, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, NERA, etc. are not doing the ordinary people any favours because their vote education, election monitoring, voter registration and many such activities will never address the root cause of the country’s political problem – vote rigging. Without exception, all these busy bodies will admit vote rigging is the heart of our problem. They will all admit vote education or whatever they are dealing with is not doing anything to address the core problem. Whatever they are doing with help make vote rigging obvious, at the very best.
What the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans out there, believe in another matter. To povo the voter education, etc. is taking the bull of vote rigging by the horn and the collective end result is free and fair elections. the tackling the problem of vote rigging head-on. Just as povo believed Tsvangirai and company that the new constitution would delivery free and fair elections povo whatever went wrong that year is finally being put right this time.
If povo understood that all this voter education, endless demands for reforms, etc. are just time wasting platitudes and grandstanding posturing that will do nothing to stop any of Zanu PF’s vote rigging activities they would be demanding that all effort should be focused on what real matters. Of course, povo want peaceful elections but they also want to see meaningful political change.
Even if everyone in Heal Zimbabwe, NERA, will deny it the fact of the matter is they are addressing the trivial issues concerning the problem of delivering peaceful, free, fair and credible elections. Their activities suits Zanu PF to the T because they help take away the nation’s attention away from the real core issues of implementing the reforms to achieve the objective of free and fair elections. So, organisations like Heal Zimbabwe, NERA, etc. are doing Zanu PF a big favour and the nation a great disservice in giving povo false hope of change knowing nothing has changed, Zanu PF will rig the vote as before.
Heal Zimbabwe and all these other busy bodies are nothing more than some overzealous amateur whose understanding of diseases, drugs, doses, etc. is very superficial and so proscribe pain-killers for every ailment. Whilst the pain-killers only helped the patient feel comfortable whilst their own body defence kicked in, our overzealous amateur believed he had a miracle cure. For someone with a badly broken leg and needs the leg amputated before gangrene set in, for example, painkillers alone will not enough. Zanu PF’s political culture of violence and vote rigging has reached the gangrene stage where the amputation must be carried out now and not waste time proscribing painkillers!
If our overzealous amateur has no clue how to carry out an amputation and/or will faint at the of a severed limp then they must leave. They must stop wasting everyone’s time and giving the patient false hope that painkillers will cure them and save the broken leg!
If anyone in Heal Zimbabwe was being honest they would admit their Sport for peace is just a waste of time and give back the donated funds or else use the money for something else. The tragedy in Zimbabwe is human rights work has now become a well-paid career move and so making sure the human rights violations do not end is now the principle aim!
The problem in 2013 was not one of violence, at least compared to 2008; the problem was one blatant vote rigging. Zanu PF was always resorted to using violence when the party's vote rigging was not going to deliver the victory. It is clear the vote rigging machine is working like a charm this time and so even Mugabe has publicly called on his thugs to cut back on the violence.
It seems Heal Zimbabwe is concentrating its work on giving the nation something we already have. What we want is to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote.
Zanu PF is dragging its feet with the voter registration and then will stampede everyone through the whole business in few weeks. No one will have a chance to check anything and hundreds of thousands will once again be denied the vote. The regime will have its 2/3 majority with anyone see where those votes came from!
If Heal Zimbabwe does not want to join the demand for implementing the reforms, which is the only way to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote, then Heal Zimbabwe should shut up and stop fighting in Zanu PF's corner.
Implementing the reforms is the real task here, voter education, voter registration, sports for peace, etc. these are are all distractions, at the very least. We need to amputate the gangrene broken leg and all Heal Zimbabwe is offering the patient is false hope that painkillers will cure them!
Zimbabwe’s central bank says it will print additional bond notes worth $300 million in an effort to ease biting cash shortages, stoking fears that the country could return to the era of money printing and hyperinflation.
Zanu PF would want to easy cash problems during the elections to buy vote and therefore will be injected lots and lots of bond notes (off the printing press) and foreign currency (from all the looting going on in Marange). The problems of hyperinflation will not be felt for a while and by then Zanu PF will have got its landslide electoral victory and damn the consequences! This is a regime that does not care about tomorrow or anyone else as long as it wins the elections and has its iron grip on power.
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