“At church...I’m so excited and empowered to
know that God assures me that no weapon fashioned against me shall prevail. I
thank the Sunday Mail for the free advert thru their false & malicious
headline. Without doubt we are forming the next government because #Godisinit!!”
Twittered Nelson Chamisa, MDC-T’s new Acting President.
This is just plan foolish and grandstanding
posturing the nation have come to expect from our corrupt, incompetent and
greedy political leaders from both side of the political divide.
Only an arrogant idiot would evoke the name of
God Almighty in vain! MDC has been at the heart of Zimbabwe politics for nearly
20 years now and the nearest the party has ever come to forming the government
was during the GNU. If one was to follow Chamisa’s naïve and simplistic logic
the party failed to form the government because God was NOT in it!
There are many occasions when political power
was within MDC’s grasp; the Lord had opened opportunity for the nation to end
the Zanu PF dictatorship, to the religiously inclined; Chamisa and his friends wasted
every one of these opportunities. The best chance by a long mile was during
2008 to 2013 GNU.
In the 2008 elections when Zanu PF instructed ZEC
to cook up the vote count of the March vote to overturn Tsvangirai’s 73% victory
to a mere 47% to force a run-off. It took six weeks to announce the fraudulent
result because ZEC had to revisit each and every Polling Station to destroy the
evidence of the true vote count for fear the result should be challenged in a
Court of Law.
In the June 2008 run-off, Zanu PF deployed
party thugs, war veterans and members from Army, Police and CIO to harass,
intimidate, beat, rape and even murder innocent Zimbabweans. “Zanu PF has
declared war on the people!” said Tsvangirai, when he announced his withdrawal
from the race. The wanton violence was to punish the voters for having reject
Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March vote and coerce them to vote for Mugabe in the
run-off. It worked, Mugabe’s vote jumped from the misery 27% in March to a
landslide 84%!
Not even SADC and AU election observers, who
had turned a blind eye to Zanu PF vote rigging in the past, would endorse
Mugabe’s victory as a free, fair and credible elections. SADC forced Mugabe and
Zanu PF to sign the Global Political Agreement (GPA) agreeing to the
implementation of the raft of democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial
control of ZEC, Police, Army and all the other State Institutions and restore
all the people’s freedoms and human rights including the right to free, fair
and credible elections.
The GPA agreed to the formation of the Government
of National Unity (GNU), comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions. The GNU
was tasked to implement the reforms and SADC was the guarantor of the
agreement. The task of implementing the reforms fall to MDC naturally since they
were the democrats and not Zanu PF, the dictatorial tyrants. It is a matter of
historic record that SADC leaders did reminded MDC leaders, repeatedly, to
implement the reforms during the GNU.
MDC leaders failed to implement even one
democratic reform in five years of the GNU. Not one!
Robert Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his
MDC friends with the trapping of high office, they were like cockroaches in a
milk trap, they gorged themselves and forgot the reforms. Chamisa was one of
the MDC ministers and he had his share of the ministerial limo, generous salary
and allowances, world travel, etc., etc. He has bought many houses and amassed more
wealth in those GNU years than many of his contemporaries will ever earn in a
life time!
“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC
people have learnt to enjoy the gravy train benefits and not rock the boat!) Boasted
Zanu PF cronies during the GNU, in reply to why MDC leaders were not
implementing the reforms.
With no democratic reforms in place, it was obvious
Zanu PF would rig the 2013 elections. SADC leaders warned MDC leaders not to
take part in the election, but the warning was ignored. MDC lost the 2013
elections because the elections were rigged but, more significantly, because
MDC had failed to implement the reforms to stop vote rigging. MDC lost the 2013
elections because the party leaders are incompetent, corrupt and sold-out big
time on reforms – God had no hand in all that!
Since the rigged July 2013 election, still not
even one reform has been implemented. SADC leaders’ advice not to contest the
election without implementing the reforms is more poignant this year than in
2013. It is insane to keep contesting elections that are so flawed and illegal,
as was so graphically demonstrated during the 2008 elections, it is impossible
to win. If Zanu PF can turn 73% to 47%, use wanton violence to boast their
vote, etc., etc. it is impossible to see how the party can ever be defeated. The
only reason MDC leaders have insisted in contesting the elections, regardless
of the process being blatant fraudulent and illegal, is greed.
“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,” admitted Senator David Coltart in his recent book.
“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.”
Nelson Chamisa told an MDC Alliance rally in
Mutare two weeks ago that the party has devised “stringent measures” to stop
Zanu PF rigging elections. If the party was so clever, then why did it not use
the same measure to stop the blatant vote rigging in 2013? This is just the
latest feeble excuse to justify why is contest the elections with nothing done
to stop the vote rigging.
The only effective measure to stop Zanu PF
rigging elections is for the country to implement the reforms.
Many a battle have been lost unnecessarily because
time, effort and money that should have gone into preparing for the fighting battle
was wasted celebrating the victory not yet won!
“Without doubt we are forming the next
government!” boasted Chamisa.
Yes, the pompous one; you can start forming the
next government but first win the rigged elections; a feat you have singularly and
foolishly failed to accomplish so far.
Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged
election born out of MDC’s arrogance, betrayal and blithering incompetence. If the
elections are rigged then you, the pompous one, and you friends must explain to
the nation why you dragged the nation into this flawed election, ignoring the
warning that the elections will be rigged.
18 comments:
MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU, they failed to get even one reform implemented because Mugabe bribed them.
"We are all here because we want money. Without money we cannot go anywhere guys let's be honest with each other, we are in politics because we want money," said Mai Khupe.
And true enough, she and her MDC friend were busy enjoying the trappings of office Mugabe granted them during the GNU they kicked reforms into the tall grass.
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC people have learnt to enjoy the gravy train benefits and not rock the boat!) Boasted Zanu PF cronies during the GNU, in reply to why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms.
Many Zimbabweans are so naïve they still refuse to believe their own ears even after hearing it from the horse's own mouth that MDC sold-out! The failure to see MDC leaders as the incompetent, corrupt and sell-out they are is one of the root causes why the country is in a mess. A healthy and functional democracy demands a vigilant and proactive electorate and not a naive and gullible.
@ Charles
You have missed the point completely!
MDC leaders sold-out on reforms during the GNU because Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office just as he has bribed his own Zanu PF cronies, Police, ZEC, etc. to do his bidding.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess today because MDC leaders failed to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
There are honest ways to earn money deceit and taking advantage of the weak and the most helpless in society and betraying them are not one of them.
@ Chiremba wematombo
Nhai Mukori, what exactly is your beef in all this?? The reforms are not in place, its not within your power to get the reforms done, its only MDC Alliance which can both force or has already forced some reforms to happen! The new constitution, BVR, default security sector reforms, the invitation of UN, AU, EU and most other Commonwealth countries which has been promised is certainly part of the reforms. Further, the regime has promised to hold an all stakeholder/parties meeting soon to discuss outstanding reforms. Barking from the periphery and concentrating on boycotting plans is not the answer Wilbert?
"What exactly is your beef in all this??" you ask. Good question!
I want Zimbabwe to hold free, fair and credible elections and not yet another rigged elections which these pompous opposition idiots, who are hell bend on the elections going ahead without reforms, will be the first to complain the elections were stolen.
The new constitution was adopted in May 2013 but that did not stop Zanu PF rigging the July 2013 elections; proof the new constitution is weak.
SADC leaders advised MDC leaders in 2013 not to contest the elections without first implementing the reforms. The only reason MDC leaders did not listen is greed, they sold-out on implementing the reforms during the GNU and they are selling-out now too. Zanu PF is offering them a few gravy train seats if they participate and forget the reforms and that is exactly what MDC leaders are doing.
Zimbabwe did not boycott the 2013 elections; you tell me one thing the nation gain by doing so and I will tell you one million things the nation lost by doing so. It is insane to contest this year's elections for yet another one to one million trade-off!
SADC leaders are doing to declare this year's elections null and void, they know Zanu PF has refused to implement any reforms and they also know that another rigged election will drive Zimbabwe deeper and deeper into economic and political chaos and instability. The November 2017 coup in Zimbabwe could have easily escalated into a bloody civil war and, as long as nothing is done to end the political crisis in the country, another coup or violent street protest cannot be ruled out. SADC leaders know the next unrest could be bloody and the whole region will be affected. They have a chance of solving this crisis by insisting on free, fair and credible elections and they will be very foolish not to take full advantage of that chance.
My task is a simple one, to make sure that SADC see these elections what they real are - a flawed and illegal process, a mockery of democratic elections, that no one in their right mind would ever pass as free, fair and credible.
@ TJingababili
MDC went into the 2013 election with no reforms and lost badly, why did Chamisa and all his MDC friends not resign then? Even if they had resigned, how would that have help the 90% unemployed or the 3/4 living on US$1.00 a day? Making sure people like Chamisa, Biti and the rest lose some of the loot they made during the GNU if elections are rigged will force them to think twice about selling-out!
@Jameson
Without implementing the reforms designed to stop President Mnangagwa rigging the vote then Chamisa will need all the G40 supporters' votes he can get. My guess is, even with all G40 supporters' votes that will not be enough.
Can G40 supply MDC-Alliance with detailed intelligence of how Mnangagwa and his coup plotter are rigging the vote? Other than Professor Jonathan Moyo, I do not think there is anyone else in G40 with the intellect to provide anything useful. Moyo himself will not be much use from his fox-hole cut-off from the rest of the world. All we ever hear from him is the odd twit - from someone who twittered more often than President Trump!
G40 can help bankroll MDC-Alliance's election cost. It is no secret they are broke. Whilst Zanu PF has $10 billions of dollars plus looted from Marange and other places MDC Alliance will count themselves very rich is they can raise $1 million! Any G40 member who is found funding the opposition, the regime has spies everywhere including within MDC, will lose everything they have amassed during their Zanu PF days. Do not say you were not warned.
If you are a truly a G40 member and are interested in seeing Mnangagwa and his Lacoste faction lose then why are you not demanding the implementation of the reforms. "Zanu PF is not going to reform itself out of office," Professor Moyo once admitted. Now that G40 are not in office surely you would want Lacoste to reform themselves out of office!
The short, medium and long-term Achilles heel to Zimbabwe's economic recovery has always depended on the country attracting foreign investors and financial assistance. Foreign investors have shied away from Zimbabwe because of the country bad reputation as pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. Good reputation is like brand name, it takes years to build-up but can be lost in a day and, once lost, it will once again take years to rebuild. Bad reputation is like checking into The Eagle's Hotel California, "you can check in any time you like but can never leave!" One can earn a bad reputation in a single day and, one earned, it can take years of hard work to shake-off.
With hindsight, President Mnangagwa would have done better announcing the November coup as a clean break from the Zanu PF of Mugabe and not the wishy-washy "military assisted transition". It would have been easier to sell the new regime as a new democratic dispensation whereas now many people view the new regime as the old pariah state under new management.
President Mnangagwa has said his regime will hold free, fair and credible elections as sign it has abandoned its dictatorial past to embrace democracy and rule of law. The regime has, however, done nothing to implement the democratic reforms everyone knows are a pre-requisite to free and fair elections. In fact, this practice of saying one thing and doing the opposite is a well-known and very annoying Mugabe duplicity.
The Zanu PF regime has done enough in its first 100 days in power to convince foreign investors and funders that the regime is trying to dupe them into believing the regime has shed off its pariah state reputation by hiding the truth colours under a thick whitewash coat. Foreign investors are not as naïve and gullible as the Zimbabwe electorate the regime has fooled into believing the party has changed; the investors are not so easily fooled.
MDC and all the other opposition parties and candidates who are contesting this year's elections are not just greed but are a totally confused lot. There are three possible scenarios here:
a) The opposition believe the elections will be free, fair and credible and they are participating in the elections as if Zimbabwe is a health democratic nation. Such political naivety is unforgivable!
b) The opposition know Zanu PF has rigged elections in the past, they know not even one meaningful reforms has been implemented and they are participating in the elections because they believe there is nothing to be gained by boycotting the elections. By participating, they will help build the body of evidence of Zanu PF rigging, if the party should rig the vote.
There is nothing new the nation will learn from contest these flawed and illegal elections which the nation did not know since the watershed 2008 elections.
The 2008 elections have shown beyond all reasonable doubt that Zanu PF's ability to rig elections are so excessive the party cannot rig the vote and lose the elections. By participating the candidate are accepting Zanu PF will rig and they believe they can still win regardless of all the rigging. Having agreed to lower the electoral standards for free and fair elections, by virtue of their participating contrary to the advice not to, the opposition cannot complain of voting rigging if they lost.
c) The opposition know the elections will be rigged but are participating because they know there will be gravy train seats on offer for all those who do take part in the flawed elections. The urban voters are less susceptible to Zanu PF intimidation and therefore there will be many more opportunistic opposition hunting for the bait gravy train seats in urban constituencies than the rural ones. These opportunists would not care less if the rural voters are frog marched to attend Zanu PF rallies and to vote for the party or worse as long as they are one of the lucky few to win the bait seat. We are dealing with raw greed!
Most of the opposition candidates contest the coming elections are not smart enough to know in which group they belong. One would think the likes of Nelson Chamisa will have a clear-cut position but he clearly does not because he talks of implementing the reforms in the morning and in the afternoon he does not consider them necessary!
Anyone who believes that MDC has "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections" is naïve!
@ Chiremba
The need for free, fair and credible elections is important to us all and not just the opposition particularly when it is clear that they are only interested in winning the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away.
@ Zvichapera
We should not forget here that SADC leaders have already said the process is flawed and illegitimate from what they already know and have observed. The failed to produce a verifiable voters' roll is not something anyone serious about holding free and fair elections would accept, for example. However, if Zimbabweans themselves accept this, there is very little outsiders can do but to go along.
They have no choice but to accept Chamisa's claim that MDC Alliance have "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote". If Zanu PF should bus its supporters from one Polling Station to the next casting multiple votes the outside will not be able to establish this for certain since there are no verifiable voters' roll. They will have to assume that "stringent measures" worked.
By contesting flawed and illegal elections in total disregard of all the warning that the election will be rigged what the participants are saying by their action is accepting the lowering of the democratic standards. If you accept contesting the elections with no verifiable voters' roll you have per se accepted that you will have elections in which you do not know who is registered to vote, you will never be able to audit who voted and how many times, etc.
By accepting that the elections can go ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms we have accepted that the process will fall short of many democratic standards. Having lowered the electoral standards before the elections we should not then cry foul when it becomes evident the elections were rigged!
If we want free, fair and credible elections then we must implement the reforms BEFORE the elections. If we accept the elections going ahead with no reforms then we must not complain that the elections were rigged. No cherry picking!
@ Chiremba
You are the only who believe that there have been any meaningful democratic reforms implemented since the last rigged elections of July 2013. But even you cannot dare say they are enough to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.
What happened during the 2008 elections left SADC, AU and the whole international community in no doubt that the elections were not free, fair and credible. The process was so flawed there was simple no chance of the opposition ever winning the elections. Zanu PF' vote rigging had gone from using a loaded dice to using one with six on all six sides!
It SADC leaders themselves who advised Morgan Tsvangira and the rest of the MDC leaders to boycott the July 2013 elections. "If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done", SADC leaders warned.
When you know the opponent is using a dice with six on all six sides you know with certainty he will throw a six as many times as he wishes. The probability of throwing a six with there are six on all the six sides is a 100% certainty. SADC leaders did not say to Tsvangirai you "may lose" they said, "YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE; THE ELECTIONS ARE DONE!"
Yes, boycotting elections that are so flawed and illegitimate that the results are known with 100% certainty before the first vote is cast is the only logical option. Of course, if one is participating in the elections for the few seats Zanu PF gives away to entice the opposition to take part in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happens to be then you will never boycott the election and lose the bribe seats! Just say so and stop lying that you are participating for any other reason other than greed!
@ TJingababili
President Mnangagwa will show his appreciation in participating in the flawed and illegal elections he has already hinted of "working together with the opposition". We should not be surprised if people like Chamisa are rewarded by being given a ministerial post in Mnangagwa's government.
Every human life matters and to him with a tooth ache his suffering is more important than that one who has lost both legs in a car accident. However when one with a tooth ache comes face to face with one with the broken legs he will have to be heartless man if he should demand that he must get medical help first before the other man.
Robert Mugabe and his wife are making a big song and dance about what happen to them during the coup and how much they, THEY and no one else, are suffering and yet they have causes millions of our people to suffering untold hardship to feed their insatiable greed for power and wealth. In a country in which unemployment has soared to 80% plus and remained there for two decades now; the economic hardship of millions of our people is there for all to see. How does Mugabe think the millions who have lived in abject poverty for decades feel to hear him bitching about his wife crying daily because she is missing her three times plus a month shopping trips!
Mugabe’s self-arrogance and callous indifference to the suffering of millions of others smacks of France’s Queen Marie Antoinette’s "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!" (Let them eat cake!) And we all know what became of her!
I agree with you, Mugabe and his thugs’ reign of terror must be thoroughly investigated and let them face justice. Force them to acknowledge that povo are human beings too and that the misery and deaths povo have suffered all these years is far worse than the discomfort the filthy rich ruling elite have suffered from wearing washed silk knickers because they could not buy new ones!
@Rodney15
If you can get ZEC to recount votes and whittle down 73% victory to a 47%, enough to force a run-off. And during the forced run-off, you can deploy you thugs like rabbis infected park of wolves on helpless sheep, to overhaul a 27% defeat into a landslide 84% victory in three months then you will never ever have to plan for defeat! Never ever!
President Mnangagwa dished out brand new twin cab Isuzu trucks to all the country’s Chiefs; he did this publicly in broad day. We all know this was a down payment to the Chiefs who have always used their power over the rural people to coerce them to vote for Zanu PF. The Army has deployed 2 000 soldiers to beef-up the war veterans for the same purpose, coerce the villages to vote for Zanu PF. Zanu PF is rigging the elections long before the election date has even been declared.
“The big problem with Zanu-PF is that they do not plan for defeat, even though knowing well that their chances of losing or winning would be 50-50,” you said.
Zanu PF is planning to win these coming elections, the party will win the presidency and two thirds majority in both house. The party knows that they must give away a few seats to entice the opposition to contest; a small price to pay to give the flawed and illegal process so modicum of democratic credibility.
Without implementing the democratic reforms designed to take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to rig the elections; the party secure its no-regime-change landslide victory.
“50-50!” You clearly have no idea what you are talking about, do you!
Chamisa, de facto MDC-T President, is talking of having "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections". Meanwhile the party's Secretary General is talking MDC "is capable of cheating elections" same as Zanu PF. Obert Gutu, the party's motor-mouth spokesman, says the party has developed "Winning In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies". The honest truth is they are all grantstanding and posturing.
"What kind of power was it if everybody knew that it would never be used?” asked the great African writer and intellectual, Chinua Achebe in his book Arrow of God. He too was questioning the foolishness of mystical powers that are never put to good use.
“Better to say that it was not there, that it was no more than the power in the anus of the proud dog who tried to put out a furnace with his puny fart."
The people of Zimbabwe must now wake up from their comatose sleep and take the country's destiny by the scaff of the neck, demand the implementation of the reforms and mean it. They must stop wasting time and treasure listening to these confused opposition politicians - they are nothing more than the puny fart of a proud dog!
@ ED
After 100 days you, Sir, have failed to implement even oneof the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement as necessary for free, fair and credible elections. You can fool some people all the time on holding free and fair elections, you can fool some people some of the times but you cannot fool every all the time, especially the savvy foreign investors.
Foreign investors do not like to invest their money in a pariah state ruled by lawless thugs. By failing to implement even one reform this Zanu PF government is proving to the world that it is still the same lawless Zanu PF dictatorship of Mugabe days or be it under new management!
@Kusure
"Do you really think if there's a rigging going on Tom, Dick and Harry would know. I would have thought only a few who would have signed the official secret act," you said.
Whilst there are some details of a rigged election such as who did what, where, on whose orders, etc. that you, I, Tom Dick and Harry out there will never know. Still there is plenty that the public know such as people being harassed, beaten, raped and murdered to force them to support and vote for Zanu PF because they are, after all, the victims of the violations. If the public have their eyes and ears open they will also notice the large number of Zanu PF youths who are being bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple vote, for example.
The fact that Zanu PF's vote rigging ability is so blatant and widespread, it is insane to contest the elections without first implementing the democratic reforms, was proven beyond all doubt in the 2008 elections. MDC leaders were warned by SADC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms and their warned was ignore. Zanu PF went on to blatant rig the elections and the party is rigging this year's elections already, long before the voting day has even been declared.
People can participate in the elections, they will only be helping to give the process credibility as for the result Zanu PF has already seen to it that it has won the presidency plus two thirds majority in both houses.
You can participate but do not say you did not know the vote has already been rigged! If you did not know, now you do!
@ Francis Tapiwa
Let us get one thing clear here; Chamisa, Khupe and all the other MDC leaders did NOT "make a mistake" in failing to implement even one democratic reform during the five years of the GNU. They sold-out! Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a chance to globe-trot, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. In return the MDC leaders kicked the reforms into the prickly pear thicket. Not even the constant nagging by SADC leaders forced MDC leaders to implement even one reform.
Tapiwa, you clearly have a serious problem (sadly, you are one of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of others) because:
1) Even with the benefit of hindsight, you are still failing to grasp what the GNU was all about
2) If one assumes that you know that the GNU was about, above all else, implementing the raft of democratic reforms necessary to ensure elections are free, fair and credible. Your problem now is you cannot distinguish a mistake from a sell-out born of corruption.
"So, what do you have in mind to help our Country sir since you know it all," you asked. I never said I know it all but what I do know is that this country will never get out of this hell-hole without implementing the democratic reforms and thus clear the way for free, fair and credible elections.
I also know that the Zimbabwe will never have a healthy and functional democracy as long as it has the majority of Zimbabweans out there are so naïve and gullible they do not have a clue what the democratic reforms are about, cannot distinguish a mistake from a sell-out, etc.
Zimbabwe does not need another political party, it has 84 parties and counting, what the country needs desperately right now is an electorate that can think for themselves and stop behaving like a mindless herd of wildebeest! My job is to turn the mindless wildebeest into a thinking human being, if I can!
@ Jukwa
You believe whatever you want, no one is telling who to worship and who not to worship. Why are you dismissing what other people the choice to do the same?
What is at issue here is the foolish attempt by Chamisa to deny that he and his MDC friends sold-out by failing to implement the democratic reforms which would have allowed the nation to hold free and fair elections. His insinuation that MDC has failed to win past elections because God was not in it and will win this year's elections, regardless of the fact that no reforms were implemented, is foolish and blasphemous! Chamisa must not evoke the name of God in his foolish decision. By the same token I would denounced him if he had evoked the ancestors!
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