The Commission of inquiry chaired by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, into the killing of seven unarmed civilians on 1 st August 2018 is now entering its home straight.
Many people have given their reasons for dismissed the Commission as a waste of time and money but the most valid reason of all is that the Commission will not establish who deployed the soldiers with orders to shoot to kill. The Commission’s terms of reference and the line of questioning of the string witnesses who have appeared before the Commissioners so far would suggests finding who ordered the killing is beyond their remit.
Nelson Chamisa, the MDC Alliance presidential candidate; whose party leaders and supporters are accusers of instigating the street protests; has dismissed the Commission as a waste of time. He and his party members have, so far, refused to participate in the public hearings.
“Historically, we have been at pains to explain how Zimbabweans are living under oppression and subjugation from a captured state. It is characterised by the following;-
i. There is no iota of accountability
ii. There is total disregard of constitutionalism and the rule of law
iii. There is blatant abuse of State institutions
iv. Absence of transparency
v. Total disregard of people s rights and freedoms”
MDC said in a recent public statement. No one can ever dispute that Zimbabweans have lived these last 38 years under a corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical de facto one-party dictatorship.
However it is not so much the historic evidence of MDC’s “pains to explain how Zimbabweans are living under oppression” that is of interest here but rather the mountain of evidence of the many wasted golden opportunities MDC had to dismantle the dictatorship. As regards this ongoing Motlanthe led Commission; MDC leaders have three key questions to answer:
- Why has MDC failed to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, especially during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so? In all MDC’s 19 years on the political stage, the party has failed to bring about even one democratic change.
- Why did MDC choose to participate in the elections knowing the process would be flawed and illegal? The party was warned countless times not to take part in the elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop vote rigging; but has ignored the warnings. The primary cause of the street protest was against yet another rigged election, something we all knew would happen.
- MDC knew of Zanu PF’s “state capture and blatant abuse of state institutions” like ZEC and Con-Court and still Nelson Chamisa and company chose to take part in the recent election and the court challenge of the declared result presided over by the two institutions. Of course, the Motlanthe Commission was going to be subjected to the same Zanu PF political shenanigans as all the other state institutions. So having accepted the power and authority of the politically compromised ZEC, Con- Court, etc.; why is MDC now refusing to cooperate with an equally compromised Motlanthe led Commission?
Both Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti have since been “invited to share their views” with the Commission of inquiry.
"They must invite Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and Mohadi also. If Mnangagwa does not go why should I go alone? The commission is working from the answer going backwards. It is a script and the script is to decimate the opposition,” Nelson Chamisa told a press conference yesterday.
This is manna from heaven to The Herald, ZBC and all the Zanu PF controlled public media. They will whip the refusal by MDC leaders to testify as proof of guilty. They will now draw attention away from the real big issue here - Zanu PF has just once again rigged the elections and thrown away the nation’s chance of getting out of the hell-hole the party landed us in.
Zanu PF and its surrogates in The Herald, etc. will be hoping to achieve their primary objective of drawing attention away from the real two burning issues here i.e. that Zanu PF has once again rigged the elections and that the shooting was a brazen Machiavellian move to silence all political dissent.
The EU, Commonwealth, the Americans, etc. all condemned the recent elections as flawed and illegal but so what. Chamisa and the other 22 opposition presidential candidates knew that still they were tripping over each other to participate. Even when the regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, that did not stop Chamisa et al taking part!
"Instead of being thanked for trying to preserve peace in this country, I am being attacked,” Chamisa complained.
No, Mr. Chamisa by failing to implement even one democratic reforms in 19 years and participating in flawed and illegal elections you and you opposition friends have help Zanu PF keep its dictatorial powers and to rig elections and give the process some modicum of political credibility! You have help preserve the Zanu PF dictatorship and only Mnangagwa and his cronies will thank you for it!
3 comments:
@ Nomazulu
“It is these youthful demonstrators he used and abused previously; he uses and abuses all the time to square up his leadership challengers; now he is discarding them as "stupid rats" because it is those demonstrators who are now in trouble with the law. They have to testify before the commission, after the commission, they will be prosecuted for the criminal activities meted during the demonstrations. Chamisa, to get himself cleansed from the brutal killings resulting from the demonstrations, he is discarding them, they are "stupid rats," he said at the Marondera rally. Is that not callousness of the highest order?” you said.
The sheer contemptuous arrogance with which our political leaders hold the people is breath-taking! The minute they are elected into a position of power and authority the politicians place themselves on a pedestal way above everyone else, they are infallible hence the reason it is an insult to question let alone criticise they.
Even if the politician got into power through a democratic process, once in power they will undermine if not destroy the democratic process. They consider themselves such a God given gift to the nation, they consider it an outrage that mere mortals like povo should ever have the political power through a free vote to remove from office God’s gift to the nation! This is why both tyrants like Mugabe and Mnangagwa and upstarts like Tsvangirai and Chamisa have no qualms rigging their own party and national elections.
This year’s elections should have never gone ahead, not without first implementing the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The elections went ahead because “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging,” Chamisa told the nation. Even when the regime failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, Chamisa and company did not flinch!
Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the elections.
It was none other than Chamisa himself who, in his Con-Court challenge of election results, highlighted the case of 16 polling stations in which two or more stations within a short distance from each other had exactly the same number of total ballots cast and the contestants received. The evidence suggested there was multiple voting and a close examination of the verified voters’ roll would have confirmed this.
There was really no excuse for the opposition to drag the nation into yet another flawed and illegal election process because they knew the elections would be rigged. The people’s street protests against yet another rigged elections was understandable; they were airing their bottled frustration. Chamisa is showing his arrogance in dismissing the protestors as “stupid rats” when he is the one who dragged the nation into these elections on the false promise “MDC had stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!”
If the Zimbabwe electorate had been paying attention to what was happening, as is their duty to, then they should be not only be angry with Zanu PF for rigging the elections but angry at MDC leaders for dragging them into a flawed and illegal elections. Chamisa owes the people of Zimbabwe an apology for all the years of selling out but instead insult them!
One can only hope that being called “stupid rats” would be the kick in the backside Zimbabweans needed to force them to take their duty of electing competent leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands.
"It was very stupid even for people who demonstrated, to demonstrate for the results to be released. It was stupid because they then opened themselves for attacks and for manipulation," Chamisa told journalists in Harare yesterday.
"I think those who demonstrated have their rights, but I feel that it was uncalled for and that is my view. I am not insulting them but I have a right just like any other because it was premature. It was not strategic and open to be manipulated by the enemies of the people, the enemies of peace, the merchants of violence, the archbishops of violence.”
"We have said we have no time for these shenanigans. We know that this is choreographed and they are working from a conclusion. Once you said you want to know what necessitated the use of violence, you are already saying the violence was necessary," he said.
"Once you want to say who sent the people you are already assuming that the people were sent. What about if they were not sent? It's clear that they are working from an answer and they have a script which is to decimate the opposition, the script is to destroy the MDC.”
Chamisa and his fellow MDC leaders are their own worst enemy; they have had many golden opportunities to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, especially during the GNU, they wasted them all. In the MDC party’s 19 years on the political stage, they have failed to implement even one democratic reform. Not one!
MDC leaders dragged the nation into these flawed and illegal elections on the basis that “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections”. That was clearly a lie as MDC leaders themselves are the one claiming the elections were stolen.
Zanu PF had ZEC to front the vote rigging, had Con-Court to rubber stamp the party’s election victory and now it has lined up this Motlanthe Commission to rubber stamp the party’s use of brute force to silence all would be protesters against the rigged elections as justified. MDC has foolishly participated in the election, the Con-Court charade and now Chamisa and company are expected to appear before the commissioners and say their piece - not that it will make any difference.
When all is said and done, history will know that Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections and MDC Alliance and all the other opposition candidates who participated in the flawed and illegal electoral process played their part in misleading the people into believing the elections would be free, fair and credible.
Of course, the opposition sold-out big time! The very fact that Chamisa had chutzpah to then call those protesting the rigged elections "stupid rats", the people he had brazenly betrayed, underlines the contemptuous arrogance of our politicians.
The sheer arrogance of corrupt and incompetent leaders like Nelson Chamisa is insufferable! He is the one who insisted in dragging the nation into these elections with no democratic reforms implemented. Zimbabwe would not be talking of rigged elections still if MDC leaders had honoured their promise to the nation to bring about democratic change.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect this MDC leaders into power and yet after 19 years the party cannot name even one democratic change it brought about! Not one!
Of course, MDC leaders sold out, especially during the GNU when they had the best chances to implement the reforms. They "were to busy enjoying themselves they forgot why they were in the GNU to do!" commented one SAD leaders in sheer exasperation at MDC leaders' failure to get even one reform implemented.
So Chamisa wants the nation to thank him for preserving the peace by keeping Zanu PF in power? The sheer stupidity of the man beggars belief!
Still, the situation underlines the importance of the thousands of Zimbabweans who still continue to follow corrupt and incompetent leaders like Chamisa! Nations get leaders they deserve and we certainly deserve Mnangagwa, Chamisa, etc.!
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