ED apologist accuse USA Senators of "anti-abolitionist" mentality - hat fits ED perfectly

Obi Egbuna Jr, you are a Zanu PF apologist who has written some nonsensical article in defence of the regime in the past but this time you have real gone over and beyond the call of duty. Even an apologist is entitled to some self-respect; in this article you have sold your body and soul to the devil!

“We have to say by attempting to use the US-EU sanctions as a political measure aimed at the strangulating and intimidating President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF, liberals like former VP Biden and Senator Coons are upholding the tradition of Delaware, who as so-called African Americans are well aware rejected the 13th 14th and 15th amendments that were aimed at abolishing chattel slavery being incorporated into the US Constitution. Delaware rejected the 13th amendment on February 8, 1865, the 14th Amendment on February 8, 1867 and the 15th amendment was rejected on March 18, 1869,” you write.

Former VP Biden and Senator Coons did not vote to reject the 13th Amendment on February 8, 1865 for the simple reason that they were not alive at the time. But even if they had been alive then, these two gentlemen have done nothing that would lead anyone to concluded they would have voted to reject the abolition of slavery. On the contrary, what they have done would leave one in no doubt that they would have been leading the drive to abolish slavery from the front.

The two have called for the imposition of targeted sanction of Zanu PF leaders as a way of forcing the regime to uphold human rights including the right to free and fair elections. The regime and its apologists have always denied failing to hold free and fair elections and insisting the sanctions were imposed to punish the regime for seizing farms from the whites.

SADC and the AU, African regional groups of which Zimbabwe is a member have since condemned Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections because the process was not free and fair and thus put to shame the denial that Zanu PF had failed to hold free and fair elections. SADC leaders forced Zanu PF to join hands with the two MDC factions to form a Government of Nation (GNU) which was then tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging future elections.

Sadly, the GNU failed to get even one reform implemented in five years because Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of the gravy train lifestyle and they, in return, kicked the reforms out of the window.

The Americans have said they will lift imposed sanctions on Zanu PF leaders if the regime implement the same reforms that SADC had called for; free media, free Police, allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote, etc.

Ever since coming to power following the November 2017 coup, President Mnangagwa has promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. The reforms SADC called for and the American are reminding him of are the pre-requisite for free and fair elections. If he really meant to hold free and fair elections he should have implemented the reforms without any need to be prompted by anyone.

“We have to say by attempting to use the US-EU sanctions as a political measure aimed at the strangulating and intimidating President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF,” complain Obi Egbuna Jr.

Obi Egbuna Jr and his handlers in Zanu PF should be hanging their heads in shame that outsiders should putting pressure on Zanu PF to restore the freedoms and rights of Zimbabweans. It beggars belief that Obi Egbuna Jr should be defending the regime’s outrageous continued refusal to implement the reforms as if the regime has the right to rig elections.

It is President Mnangagwa that Obi, if he had even some semblances of common sense, should be comparing to the anti-abolitionists; they insisted that they had the right to own slaves and deny others their fundamental right to freedom, just as Mnangagwa is insisting that he has the right to rig elections and deny other their right to free and fair election.  

"Zimbabwe is changing-politically, economically and societally-and we ask those who have punished us in the past to reconsider their sanctions against us. Zimbabwe is a land of potential, but it will be difficult to realise it with the weight of sanctions hanging from our necks," wrote President Mnangagwa in the New York Times.

"Those who cling to the sanctions are stuck in the old Zimbabwe – the Zimbabwe of poverty and international isolationism."

Out of his own mouth comes the history’s judgement! Of course, Zimbabwe will remain stuck in the past of vote rigging, corruption, tyranny and grinding poverty as long as those in power continue to resist meaningful democratic change.

The primary purpose of President Mnangagwa’s letter was to appeal to foreign investors and donors to do business in Zimbabwe again. There have been no takers because no investors want to do business in a country ruled by thugs. By stubbornly refusing to implement the democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s carte blanche dictatorial powers President Mnangagwa and his apologists have confirmed that Zimbabwe is ruled by thugs stuck in their dictatorial ways! 

"ED is playing CHESS and Chamisa is playing DAFT," says Gara - ED has his Achilles heel too!

“Rine manyanga hariputirwi!” (No matter how well one tries to hide the truth, it will always come out!) so goes the Shona adage. Ever since the last November coup President Mnangagwa has tried so hard to portray himself and his Junta regime as civilised and law abiding individual a far cry of the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs of the Mugabe days!

In an effort to prove why President Mnangagwa and his Junta are going to win this year’s election Noble Tawanda Gara, one of the regime’s apologist has reveal some juicy behind the scene details ED and the regime. The details show ED is a very cunning and calculating leader but, most important of all, one no one in their right mind would trust!

“The scintillating and "seamless" pace at which ED Mnangagwa carried out two important events in our country within the last five years. First it was the 2013 elections which ED won for ZANU-PF with a landslide. Second was the 2017 calamitous and epochal removal of Robert Mugabe from office. These two events are important because:” wrote Gara in his recent article in Bulawayo 24.

“ - They show ED operating unfettered for the first time as he was given carte blanche by Mugabe to run the 2013 elections.

“ - They also show how effectively and dramatically ED can pull a situation "out of the fire".”

The 2013 elections were held with no democratic reforms in place and therefore they were not free and fair by any stretch of imagination. Zanu PF rigged those elections and Gara is reminding us ED played the leading role in rigging those elections.

It is not that Zanu PF leaders do not know that the party has been rigging elections, they do and has the reason they have been resisting demands to implement the reforms and keep the carte blanche powers. Candid Zanu PF leaders like Professor Jonathan Moyo have admit they are not going to implement the reforms purely out of self-preservation.

“You can’t expect us to reform ourselves out of power,” Professor Jonathan Moyo said. Those were the happier days when he enjoyed the sweetness of absolute power as one of the Zanu PF bigwigs. Today he is one of G40 faction members who were booted out of the party and with a bounty on his head dead or alive!

The reasons why President Mnangagwa was quick off the mark in promising free and fair election and precisely because he knew Zanu PF was notorious for rigging election. He wanted to reassure the people of Zimbabwe and whole world that his “new dispensation” regime was poles-apart from that of Mugabe – he will deliver the one thing Mugabe has failed to deliver “free, fair and credible elections”.  

In his clumsy effort to prove that ED will delivery another Zanu PF victory this year, Gara has reminded us all ED use of “carte blanche” powers to rig to deliver a landslide victory for the party in the 2013 elections. Since not even one reform was implemented since then, there is no doubt that he will do the same again in this year’s elections.

“Eddie Cross suggests that Mugabe triggered his own demise by firing Mnangagwa and while I concur with this, it is by far not the full story! The reality is that ED and his team anticipated, expected and indeed manoeuvred Mugabe to fire him,” continued Gara.

“Having a comprehensive psychological profile of both Grace and Bob, they goaded the woman into overdrive through innocuous yet irritating little rumours attributed to ED---the type of rumours that drove Grace over the edge---to self-destruct!

“Before ED and his team could take the quantum leap of moving the whole army against Bob, they needed Bob to cross a certain line---firing a long-time confidante and the highest ranking deputy in the party was that line.

“My whole argument is that Robert Mugabe and his wife were driven to go exactly where ED and his team wanted them; the masses also went where they were bid (18 November street protest) and they did so happily.

“ED's modus operandi is quite simple---he goes with the flow---he follows the path of least resistance but at the end of it all, he knows how to manipulate events and personalities to his full advantage—always ending up on top of the situation.”

There are a few of us who warned of the folly of ordinary Zimbabweans being sucked into Zanu PF’s factional war. The people’s objective is to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and the danger with siding with either faction is that it will welcome the support so far as it helps it defeat the other faction and as soon as that is done will move against the people to preserve the dictatorship. And that is exactly what has happened!

“Eddie Cross, who, though in the opposition, quite admires ED's political prowess and with good reason, also gives the analogy of how a goat was devoured by a crocodile. He says the goat had drunk his fill and had just turned his back on the river, quite confident that he was walking away from danger---at that complacent moment the crocodile struck its fatal blow,” explained Gara.

“On that Super Sunday, Grace Mugabe was also super confident that she had got rid of ED and yet that was her last moment in power!”

ED and the Junta have devoured the people’s dreams of ending the dictatorship in a similar manner, Gara did not need to rub that in!

“Juxtapose these facts to the on-going electoral tussle and I am compelled to make the following conclusions:” he boasted in his conclusion.

“1) ED is quite sure that he will win the elections and all his play at the moment is to pacify the international community and undercut any post-electoral protestations by the opposition---in this regard he is playing a game of CHESS while Chamisa is playing a game of DRAFT(or is that DAFT?)---not the same game!

“2) ED knows that he is not a great orator and his strength is tangible deliverables of which his trump card would be the economy----and he has been obsessing with that to the extent that the opposition do not see his footprints in campaigns---in view of this I predict that the economy will make a sudden and momentous recovery wiping out especially the shortage of currency almost overnight---ALL THIS WILL HAPPEN BEFORE ELECTIONS. We might even have the Zimdollar in circulation by election time!”

On the first point Gara is right, ED is playing a game of CHESS and Chamisa is playing DAFT. What could be more daft than insisting in taking part in the elections you have been warned, repeatedly by SADC, the Americans, etc., are flawed, so flawed the “elections are done” months before the ballots are cast!

However, on the economy Gara could not be more wrong; there will be no “sudden and momentous economic recovery”.

ED’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call has failed to attract the flood of investors he expected. President Mnangagwa made the call as Dr Jekyll, whilst trying to hide the real ED, the mean, corrupt, vote rigging and manipulative Mr Hyde. It was not only Gara, as reveal here, would saw Mr Hyde behind the Dr Jekyll façade; many others did notably the shrewd foreign investors!

There has not been a flood of foreign investors into Zimbabwe because investors do not do business with cunning, manipulative and lawless thugs.

Ever if President Mnangagwa and his Junta should manage to hoodwink the international community, especially SADC, to turn a blind to another Zanu PF rigged elections, the regime still has the problem of the serious economic meltdown. Mugabe rigged the 2013 election but his troubles never went away because he could not rig the economic recovery; Mnangagwa will face the same nightmare only worse because the level of poverty is much worse now.

ED’s Achilles’ heel is that he is a thug and the post-coup new dispensation wanted him to be statesman. All attempts to hide his mean-spirited Mr Hyde persona with the multi-coloured designer suits complete with the “very loud” rainbow scarf to portray a more affable Dr Jekyll have failed. The real ED has burst out, he is rigging this year’s elections with the same characteristic “scintillating and "seamless" pace”, as Gara rightly said.

Zimbabwe's elections are abnormal, they are "done" before ballots are cast

Much as President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Junta regime would like the nation and the world at large to believe the 2018 Zimbabwe elections are a normal contestation; anyone with half a brain can see this is not so.

In a few weeks’ time Zanu PF will be launching its elections manifesto and MDC Alliance and all the other 107 political party so far registered to contest this year’s elections will follow suit. the there is nothing normal about these elections. Each party will be trying to convince the voters that its manifesto has the best policies to deliver the economic recovery the nation is dying for. With unemployment a nauseating 90%, ¾ of the population living on US$1.00 or less a day, basic services such as health and education all but gone, etc.; it is no surprise that the economy would the number one issue on most voters’ mind.

What makes these elections abnormal is that the winner will not be the one picked by the electorate in a free, fair and credible elections because these elections are NOT going to be free, fair and credible. President Mnangagwa has made a big song and dance about these elections going to be free and fair and yet has done nothing to make this happen.

When it comes to rigging elections Zanu PF showed the nation in graphic details what it can do in the 2008 elections. It ordered ZEC to recount the March vote and after six weeks of blatant cheating, whittled down Tsvangirai’s 73%, according to Mugabe’s own inadvertent admission, to 47% - enough to force the run-off. In the run-off the party used wanton violence, first, to punish the voters for having rejected Mugabe and Zanu PF in the earlier vote and, then, to make sure they vote for the tyrant in the run-off.

SADC leaders stepped in the Zimbabwe political crisis and order Zanu PF and the two MDC faction to go into a Government of National Unity (GNU) whose primary task was to implement the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and guarantee free, fair and credible elections.

Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, the GNU partners expected to drive the reforms, sold-out. Not even one reform was implemented during the GNU.

SADC leaders tried to have the 2013 elections postponed and get the reforms implemented first. It was not surprising that Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies wanted the elections to go ahead; the real big surprise was that MDC leaders went along.

“‘If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders had warned Tsvangirai and company in 2013, according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who was at the Maputo Summit that year.

For all his rhetorical posturing about post November coup Zimbabwe being different, a “new dispensation”, one thing has remained remarkable the same – Zanu PF’s power and ability to rig elections have survived the political purges that followed coup unscathed. President Mnangagwa has dismissed all calls to implement the reforms with his usual contemptuous arrogance.

“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchingo hukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you [calling for reforms] bark! And bark!) Mnangagwa used to say before the coup. It was the very first thing he said on his return from exile following the toppling of Mugabe in the coup!

President Mnangagwa has refused to implement even one democratic reform. Not even one!

Indeed, President Mnangagwa has followed the vote rigging plans Zanu PF had lined up before the November coup. He has dished out the twin cab trucks to each of the nation’s 282 Chiefs, a bribe Mugabe had promised the Chiefs. The Chiefs have been instrumental in corral rural voters to vote for Zanu PF.

Mnangagwa has appointed retired General Engelbert Rugeje, a well-known ruthless thug especially in the 2008 and 2013 reign of terror, to work with war veterans, many of them operatives of the 2008 and 2013 mayhem, plus recently deployed 2 000 to 5 000 soldiers. They task is compliment the Chiefs and coerce people to vote for Zanu PF.

The other vote rigging activities are also in full swing. NIKUV, the Israeli company that Zanu PF has used in rigging past elections, is working with ZEC to ensure as many opposition supporters are denied the vote by posting their details to the wrong polling station whilst Zanu PF supporters are bussed from one station to another casting multiple votes. The party continues to deny the opposition public media coverage, making a mockery of allowing the electorate to have an informed choice; etc.

With no reforms in place, Zanu PF is just going through its usual routine of rigging these elections. Indeed, the vote rigging is well organised and so effective it is no exaggeration to say, “this year’s elections are done!”, as SADC leaders will put it.

There is nothing ordinary about elections that are “done” months before the first ballot is cast, before the manifestos are out. All the hoo-hah about election manifestos is all a waste of time, a smoke screen to create the impression these are normal elections when they are not.

In the next few weeks Zimbabwe will be marking her 38 th year of independence. In all those years the country has failed to one even one free, fair and credible elections.

If the truth be told, it must be told, Zimbabwe is in this economic hell because the nation has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime for 38 years. The people realised 20 years ago, at the latest, that Mugabe was not delivering mass prosperity, “gutsva ruzhinji”, as he never tired of promising but mass poverty. The people have failed to remove the tyrant from office because he rigged elections.

The root cause Zimbabwe has fallen from its perch as the jewel of Africa is our failure to hold free and fair elections. In 1980 we were a rich nation with the potential to be the South Korea of Africa, today we are the poorest nation in Africa whose continued economic meltdown and political instability is threatening to plunge the whole region into chaos.

After 38 years of holding utterly meaningless elections which have only dragged the nation deeper and deeper into this economic hell-on-earth, we must call a halt to all this madness. Whilst we cannot undo the past; what we can do is the next best thing, learn from our past mistakes and make sure we do not repeat the same mistakes over and over again!

Let us agree that there is nothing ordinary about this year’s elections. Because the elections are going ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging election, the regime has been rigging the elections. The “elections are done”!

What is required here is for every thinking Zimbabwean out there to acknowledge the sheer futility and madness of participating in flawed elections, so flawed the “election is done” months before voting has even began, for 38 years now. In this, the 38^th year of our independence, we must pledge that Zimbabwe will never ever hold another flawed elections; we must demand the implementation of all the reforms BEFORE the election, the only guarantee the elections will be free, fair and credible.

Let this year, the 38^th year of our independence, go down in our history as the year the people of Zimbabwe said no to rigged elections!