MDC admit ignoring SADC 2013 advice, a first - in judging 2018, will SADC ignore own advice

“President Chamisa told the (seven-member SADC Electoral Advisory Council) delegation, led by Advocate Leshele Thoahlane, that the Zimbabwe government has not been sincere on its commitment to a free, fair and credible plebiscite as it had not yet made public in substantive terms the roadmap to the next election,” wrote Luke Tamborinyoka in The Zimbabwean.

“He bemoaned the fact that the recommendations made by SADC in the 2013 election in terms of the implementation of key reforms had not yet been done, among them media reforms that would ensure equal coverage of all contesting parties.”

Luke Tamborinyoka, is the MDC-T Presidential Spokesperson and Director of Communication, in all his many articles and comments, he or any MDC leader for that matter, has ever even acknowledged that SADC leaders had made very important recommendation as regard the 2013 elections. SADC leaders recommended that the 2013 elections must be postponed to allow reforms to be implemented, as Dr Ibbo Mandaza explained.

“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,” Dr Mandaza explained to Violet Gonda.

“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’.”

As we all know MDC leaders returned to Zimbabwe and took part in the July 2013 elections in total disregard of the SADC leaders’ recommendations. And, as SADC leaders had rightly predicted, Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections.

It must be emphasised here that it would not have been necessary for SADC to propose that the elections must be postponed if Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues had implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU. SADC leaders had nagged the MDC leaders “to follow the GPA (Global Political Agreement) roadmap!” and implement the raft of reforms agreed. But MDC leaders ignore the warnings and failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!

Soon after the rigged July 2013 elections all the MDC factions passed party congress resolutions not to contest any more future elections until the reforms are implemented. “No reform, no elections!” This confirmed that MDC leaders had learned the lesson of their folly of failing to implement the reforms during the GNU and then disregarding SADC leaders’ recommendations to postpone the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented.

So, in his statement to the SADC delegates, Chamisa confirms that none of the key reforms SADC leaders had said must be implemented before elections can go ahead have been implemented. NOT ONE!

So, Why, OH WHY, is MDC contesting this year’s elections with no reforms in place, disregarding SADC’s recommendation and in violation of its own party congressional resolution?

MDC leaders have maintained stone-silence on why they disregarded the SADC leaders’ recommendation to postpone the 2013 elections to allow time for reforms. The nation has paid dearly in having Zanu PF back in power and gained absolutely nothing. It will be insane for the nation to go through the same futile process once again. MDC leaders must explain why they are dragging the nation into yet another flawed and illegal elections!

SADC leaders know that Zimbabwe has the great misfortune of having some of the most corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians in human history. One of the SADC leaders reportedly told The Zimbabwe Independent, when the scale of Zanu PF vote rigging of the July 2013 elections was known, that MDC leaders “were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” in sheer exasperation.  

“President Chamisa urged SADC to be in solidarity with the Zimbabwean citizens and not with the country’s leaders by ensuring that the ordinary people’s sovereign will is guaranteed and protected,” concluded Luke Tamborinyoka.

“On its part, the SADC team assured the party leadership that they will do all they can to ensure that Zimbabwe holds a truly free, fair and credible poll.”

The only sure way SADC leaders can absolutely sure they act in the best interest of the long suffering ordinary Zimbabwean is by making sure the elections are judged null and void if the process to deliver free, fair and credible elections. And what better place to start than asking whether all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA, SADC leaders themselves had recommended must be implemented before elections, were implemented.

SADC leaders cannot force Zanu PF and MDC to postpone the 2018 elections to allow the reforms to be implemented but what the regional leaders can do and MUST do without failure is judge whether elections with no free media, a corrupt and partisan Police, no verified voters’ roll, etc., etc. can ever be judge free, fair and credible!

Now that MDC leaders have had even more time to digest SADC leaders’ 2013 recommendation not to take part in any elections without first implementing the reforms, what excuse do they have for disregarding the recommendations again this year?

SADC leaders were proven right that with no reforms Zanu PF would rig the 2013 elections. Since not even one reform has been implemented since the last elections, it is a certainty Zanu PF will rig the elections as before. The big question is: Will SADC leaders stamp their authority and declare the process null and void or allow Zanu PF to get away with yet another rigged election?

Zimbabwe’s continued economic meltdown and political chaos, included last November’s military coup all have their origin in the country’s repeated failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. SADC leaders can help put an end to this carry-on and the tragic human misery it has brought to millions of ordinary Zimbabweans. All SADC leaders have to do is give an honest judgement of Zimbabwe’s electoral process. Surely, that is not too much to ask!