Mnangagwa did everything else but failed to hold free elections - failed his eye of needle test

IIf Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections were free, fair and credible would President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta have won the elections?

The answer must be an emphatic YES.

As much as President Mnangagwa and his junta have tried to rebrand themselves as having undergone some dramatic Damascene transformation since the November 2017 military coup that remove Robert Mugabe when push came to shove they refused to give up Zanu PF’s carte blanche dictatorial powers including the powers deny the ordinary people their freedoms and rights.

President Mnangagwa is nothing more than the Rich young man who knelt before Jesus and said “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus reminded the rich young man about keeping the Commandments.

“Teacher,” replied the young man, “I have kept all these from my youth.”

In our story. President Mnangagwa and his junta understood that if they were to revive Zimbabwe’s economic fortunes they must ditch Mugabe’s arrogance and isolationist rhetoric and re-engage with the whole world especially the western investors and lenders. They certainly hit the ground running preaching their “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra at every opportunity. They were everywhere in large numbers too, in their  conspicuous multi-coloured scarfs and broad smiles, they looked like a noisy flock of boisterous red wattle ground hornbills.

Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

Mark 10: 21 to 23.

The one thing our Zanu PF hornbill caravan lacked was to hold free, fair and credible elections. They knew that this was the ultimate acid test of their “new dispensation” democratic credentials. It was clear from the word go that the hornbills were not going to renounce Zanu PF dictatorial powers that had brought them absolute power and the vast wealth.

“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchingohukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for democratic change) bark! And bark!) President Mnangagwa had often said before the November 2017 coup and he said it again and again after the coup.

So when it came to Zanu PF holding on to absolute power, President Mnangagwa and his junta friends made it crystal clear that they will not implement even one democratic reform to dilute much less take away the party’s dictatorial powers.

Of course, the ordinary Zimbabweans were painfully aware that in spite all the talk of political change since last November’s coup Zanu PF was not going to grant the people their freedoms and human rights including their right to free, fair and credible elections.

It is a historic fact that Zimbabwe's 2018 elections were rigged.

How can the elections be judged free, fair and credible when there was no free public media? When 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote because Zanu PF feared that the majority of them would not vote for the party. When ZEC failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll and thus facilitated the many vote rigging schemes such as bussed multiple voting. When Zanu PF used traditional leaders, rogue war veterans and state machinery to harass and bribe the rural voters so they are beholden to the party and would not dare to vote for anyone else. The rural voters are no more than medieval serfs beholden to the landlord, Zanu PF.

So to ask again: If Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections were free, fair and credible would President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta have won the elections? One would have to have to add, knowing; as the people would have done given freedom of expression and free media, etc.; that was their chance to reclaim their full citizen rights and never again be treated as a serf? The people would have voted for freedom, liberty and human dignity! Zanu PF defeat was a certainty.

What is both tragic and frustrating here is that Zimbabweans knew that Zanu PF would rig these elections as long as the elections went ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to take away the party’s dictatorial powers. The nations has known of the sheer futility of holding elections with no reforms since the 2008 elections. The only reason elections have gone ahead with no reforms is because the opposition is greedy.

Zanu PF successfully bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into doing nothing about implementing the reforms for five years of the GNU. Mugabe dangled the promise of a few gravy train seats to make sure they would participate in the 2013 elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process. It worked! 

“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 (2013) elections,” admitted David Coltart, one of the MDC leaders, in his 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.”

MDC leaders participated in this year’s elections knowing fully well that not even one reform had been implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections.

So Zanu PF blatantly rigged these elections to secure the presidency and 2/3 parliamentary majority. By participating in these flawed elections; 60 political parties, 23 presidential candidates and whole plethora of independent candidates contested; the opposition gave the process the modicum of credibility. No doubt, MDC leaders like Tendai Biti and David Coltart, who won the few caveated gravy train seats, are over the moon with joy – paid for by the misery and deaths of povo.

The true cost of 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule is the country’s economic meltdown that has left ¾ of the population living on US$1.00 or less a day and the brutal political oppression has left over 30 000 murdered by the party in cold. The nation now faces the prospect of another five more years of the same corrupt and tyrannical rule!

Buckle up, those who can, we are in for yet another five years of hell-on-earth! Those who are hoping for the economic recovery, you can forget; the flood of investors and lenders President Mnangagwa promised will never come. By rigging the elections the junta confirmed to the world Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs. Investors do not do business with thugs. We are on our own and the economic hardship and political oppression are set to continue and get worse!

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” said Jesus.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Zimbabwe to achieve any meaningful political stability and economic recovery without first wrestling away Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers, especially now that the corrupt opposition is helping it hide the vote rigging.