Coup plotters' hero public support in now wearing off, it will evaporate if they rig the elections P Guramatunhu

I remember the scenes in the Streets of Harare on Saturday 18 November 2017 as if it was only yesterday. It you were a soldier wearing ZDF uniform you were a hero per excellence! The nation and the world at large were sick to their back tooth of Robert Mugabe’s 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule they were overjoyed to see him go. They would have turned up their noses to a military coup on some other day but not this time; they were so thrilled to see Mugabe’s back they did not care that those who carried out the task committed high treason.

Naturally President Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters used the goodwill generated from the ousting of Mugabe; to relaunch themselves and Zanu PF. They wanted people to believe the Zanu PF of corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs of the last 37 years, had been cleansed by the coup, by the ouster of Mugabe and the “criminals around him”, leaving behind the Zanu PF party of honest, hard-working members who are as straight as the arrow and who care about the people of Zimbabwe.

President Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters milked all they could from the public goodwill   generated by Mugabe’s demise they, literally, plastered themselves with it like a Topi antelope covering itself with mud, war-paint to a Topi bull. Today, hardly two and half months since the November coup, it is clear that the Zanu PF faction President Mnangagwa is leading full of corrupt and murderous thugs including the President himself! The mud on the Topi bull is washing off in the rain!

“The richest man in Zimbabwe is not Strive Masiyiwa,” twittered Gift Phiri. “It is President ED. He controls the $1.5 billion per year fuel industry in Zimbabwe through proxies. Who owns Puma, who owns Zuva? Who controls the fuel pipeline, who is the major indigenous partner?”

“Why is there mandatory fuel blending? Who owns the Chisumbanje plant which is supplying ethanol for blending fuel?

“He also owns a bank through Musha.

“He has bought into Telecel, he is setting up a satellite TV station Dr Dish. He has covered his tracks through proxies.

“How did he make all this money? It all started on the DR Congo. All the coup plotters made their money during that military sojourn, operation sovereign legitimacy (osleg).”

Whilst President Mnangagwa may well have done a good job of “covering his tracks through proxies”, as Phiri said; there is no denying the DRC story. A UN report on DRC has named him as one of the Zimbabwean leaders who have amassed wealth from the systematic looting of that nation’s wealth. There is no doubt that our president is a seasoned economic and political thug and the mud is washing off there too.

President Mnangagwa has always been at the very heart of all Zanu PF’s vote rigging, political violence including the Gukurahundi mass murders and the military coups. The first the military coup was staged in 2008 to stop Morgan Tsvangirai taking power after Zanu PF was soundly defeated in the March vote. The second coup was in November last year to force Mugabe to step down. Those who wanted to believe that he will abandon his tried and tested dirty tricks of retain power just because he was now the leader of Zanu PF were naïve!

Whilst President Mnangagwa has often promised the coming elections will be free, fair and credible he has, however, pointedly refused to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote. Indeed, he been busy implementing the traditional vote rigging programmes such as bribing the Chiefs and deploying known party thugs like retired General Engelbert Rugeje to threating the electorate.

The regime has been on an all-out charm offensive to woo the would-be foreign investors needed to kick start the country’s economy, in ruins after decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Unemployment has soared to 90% and 72.3% of the population now live in abject poverty; the country desperately needs to revive the economy. The investors have shied away from Zimbabwe because of the country’s reputation as a corrupt and lawless nation ruled by thugs.

Last week, President Mnangagwa was in Davos, Switzerland, leading from the front, to sell the “Zimbabwe is open for business” message. Sadly, none of the would-be investors were fooled. All his answers and comments made it clear that Zimbabwe is still a corrupt and lawless nation ruled by thugs!

"We may say nice things, but on the ground you find that there are issues that need clarification. We will direct them to correct authorities. If you find that a door is closed, a situation which was common in the past dispensation, come to my office and I will open that door." President Mnangagwa told Switzerland’s CEO and captains of industries at luncheon hosted by the Africa Swiss Business Circle in Zurich, Switzerland.

So, he was admitting there are still many “closed doors” to doing business in Zimbabwe and the only person who has all the keys is himself. Only a fool would not see that as a very serious problem!

If Zimbabwe had held its parliamentary and presidential elections on 18 November 2017, President Mnangagwa and his coup plotters would have won hands down. The coup plotters were heroes; the goodwill of having ousted Mugabe was very strong then. The Topi bull looked heroic and majestic in its mud war-paint. Today, hardly three months down the line people are beginning to see the plotters for the thugs they are. The elections are another four to five months away, by that time all the mud will have been washed clean; Mnangagwa and company will have no choice but to resort to their vote rigging dirty tricks to win.

President Mnangagwa and his coup cabinet are truly in an unenviable position; damned if the rig the elections – it will confirm they are thugs – and damned if they do not rig the vote – with all the goodwill of the oust of Mugabe gone, they are certain to lose free and fair elections.

The early signs – failure to implement reforms, the pursuit of the old vote rigging shenanigans, etc. – are the regime going to rig the vote, damn the consequences! We have been here before; President Mnangagwa and his friends would remember if they were not so torpid! It was Mnangagwa and the same thugs who instructed ZEC to cook up the March 2008 election result to reduce Tsvangirai’s 73% win to 47% to force the presidential run-off. In the run-off they masterminded the wanton violence to force the electorate to vote for Mugabe. The consequence was that not even the AU or SADC, known for accepting dodgy elections, would accept the election process as free and fair. The Zanu PF regime was therefore declared illegitimate.

The whole world should have condemned the November 2017 coup as an act of high treason, treason is treason even if it was to remove a despot. So, strictly speaking, the present President Mnangagwa’s regime is illegitimate. This time the whole world will not hesitate to call the Mnangagwa regime illegitimate if it fails to hold free, fair and credible elections.

As punishment for failing to hold free elections in 2008, Zanu PF was forced to sign a Global Political Agreement (GPA) accepting the need for the country to implement a raft of democratic reforms design to ensure the blatant vote rigging and violence of 2008 will never be repeated again. The GPA also asked for the formation a Government of National Unity (GNU) comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions. SADC was the guarantor of the GPA. If Zanu PF fails to hold free elections this year, the party will not get off so lightly, of that we can be certain.

Robert Mugabe was a domineering character and ruled his party, Zanu PF, and the country with an iron fist. It was natural therefore that many people, especially the more naïve and simple minded, thought that Zanu PF, without Mugabe would be a totally different party. The truth is the political rot in the party went beyond just the one man, Robert Mugabe, and this is why, three months after the removal of Mugabe, for are no signs of investors flooding back into the country, no reforms implemented, etc.

In November 2017, President Mnnangagwa and his coup cabinet were convinced that “baby dumping,” as Grace Mugabe would have called it, Robert Mugabe was enough to rebrand Zanu PF as caring people centred party and secure their hold on power. The party members’ thuggish past is coming out and already its hold on power is getting increasingly shaky. The party will have no choice but to rig the vote but whether it will get away with it this time is the billion-dollar question!