The recall of MPs are a consequence of the High Court judgement on Chamisa’s unconstitutional seizure of power following the death of Tsvangirai to portray it as anything else is to refuse to face the reality and thus bury one’s head in the sand.
While a handful of party MPs have jumped ship and were now in the Khupe camp, Mahere insisted the rest have chosen to remain true to their conscience and will not fall for material benefits availed by one siding with the enemy.
Well, well! It is rich for Ms Mahere to be talking of “remaining true to one’s conscience and will not fall for material benefits”. Where was her conscience when she participated in the July 2018 elections in pursuit of gravy train material benefits ignoring all the warning against contesting without reforms?
Mnangagwa knows the likes of Biti, Mahere, Coltart and Chamisa will contest the 2023 elections even if not one reform is implemented and too will Khupe, Mwonzora and the rest from her faction. It is little wonder Zanu PF has no intention of implementing any democratic reforms; why should they and risk losing the elections when they know the opposition will participate no matter what and give the flawed process credibility. What is more, the opposition know this too as David Coltart readily admitted.
In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 GNU, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouting the electoral rules in the upcoming 2013 elections. It was clear the elections would not be free, fair and credible.
“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,” wrote Senator Coltart.
“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.”
So the MDC MPs and Senators sold-out by participating in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections for gravy train material benefits and now, to keep those benefit, they must swear alligance to Madam Thokozani Khupe whose political credibility is tarnished beyond the pale.
Yes, all MDC leaders in the 2008 to 2013 GNU lost 90% of their political credibility by failing to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU. Of course, the sold-out big time!
By participating in the flawed elections for the sake of the few gravy-train seats Zanu PF gave away as bait MDC leaders lost 9% of the 10% political capital they still had left. Madam Khupe’s poor showing in the 2018 elections left her in no doubt that she was washed-out and so gambled her remaining 1% to be Mnangagwa’s poodle in his POLAD talk-shop group.
Mnangagwa demanded that to join POLAD one had to endorse the July 2018 elections as having been free, fair and credible and Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies as the legitimate government. Endorse that position and you rule out any need for implementing reforms. If the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible then, of course, you do not need any reforms. And so by endorsing the rigged July 2018 as free and fair Madam Khupe and company proved themselves a Zanu PF project in all but name.
There is no denying that the High Court ruling restoring her as the leader of the MDC including the all MPs, Senators and Councillors the Chamisa led faction had won has given Madam Khupe a political leg-up! Nonetheless she is still damaged goods, nothing can repair the political damage done by joining POLAD. Nothing!
So, the former MDC Alliance elected leaders, like Homer’s Odysseus, are caught between Scylla and Charybdis, rock and a hard place. Madam Khupe wields the power to recall all those who do not swear allegiance to her and they will lose all their gravy-train material benefits. By switching their allegiance, they will be spared the chop but, just like Madam Khupe herself, they will lose the little political credibility they had left.
Some of the MDC Alliance MPs and Senators had come out with guns blazing in support of Chamisa they have found it near impossible switch loyalty back to Khupe. So far a total of 13 MPs and Senators have been recalled, some have switched and the rest are still sitting on the fence – a mighty uncomfortable position as any monkey would know!
Chamisa and his entourage’s refusal to accept that he had indeed behaved like a Zanu PF thug when seized power in 2018 has left them looking foolish. Only someone with no common sense would defend the indefensible! And so the Chamisa star is fading fast, chance of him or any of his followers staging a political comeback are slim.
The real tragedy here is, in the corona virus pandemic, Zimbabwe is facing the greatest trial of our generation and no one, even a mediocre opposition is better than nothing, is keeping an eye on the corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF regime blundering from pillar to post, as usual! No one because MDC are busy fighting among themselves over trivial matters. The nation is going to pay dearly for this in sweat, blood, lost treasure, heart-breaking suffering, anguish and many lost lives!
7 comments:
@ Mbofana
“As Zimbabwe mourns and buries another gallant liberation struggle hero, Stanley Gagisa Nleya - at the National Heroes Acre in Harare today - one can not help listening, with a very heavy and sore heart, the empty, thoughtless, and unsympathetic arrogant eulogies being regurgitated by the country's leadership - in their seemingly endless, but failing, attempts to cover-up their selfish, heartless, and repulsive impoverishment of the vast majority of the population, through institutionalized high-level corruption - by abusing the 'patriotism', or 'unpatriotism', tag on all those who dare speak out, and stand up against this festering rot.
“The ever-suffering people of Zimbabwe have had enough of all these sickening disingenuous statements by the ruling elite, who always try to bastardize and abuse the valiant legacy of genuine liberation struggle heroes - who fought for the betterment of the lives of all the country's citizenry, yet what has been shockingly and disturbingly witnessed ever since we attained this hard-won political independence from Britain in 1980 - has been the selfish and rapacious amassing of unbelievable wealth by only a small privileged oligarchical clique, whilst the rest of the population, including those brave men and women who sacrificed everything for our freedom, having been abandoned, discarded and reduced into lowly pitiful beggars, who mostly survive on hand-outs, and donations.”
Could not agree with you more! Our cause to end white colonial exploitation and oppression was a just cause and, sadly, it was not everyone who answered the clarion call to arms who believed in the cause. We had the heroes and heroines who risked all for justice, freedom and human dignity for all. We also had mercenaries in the trenches whose only wish was to remove the white oppressors but only for them to take their place as the new oppressors!
It is an outrage that after 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption that has left the country’s once promising economy in ruins and millions into a life of abject poverty. After 4 decades to being denying our freedom and human rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life. The corrupt and murderous thugs still insist in calling themselves liberation heroes and heroines!
Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have paid the ultimate price, sacrificed their lives, to end white colonial oppression. These men and women must be turning in their graves to see how Mugabe, Mnangagwa and the other Zanu PF thugs have hijacked the fruit of all their hard work on the very day the nation gained her independence. For the last 40 years and counting the nation has been fighting to end black oppression!
The country has six radiotherapy machines and only one is working.
The country has a population of 16 million. Government has money to build palatial mansions like Mugabe's Blue Roof, have a fleet of posh cars and have lavish lifestyle for most of the ruling elite but has no money to service key medical equipment, buy medicine, pay health care workers a living wage, etc.! This is the sorry state Zimbabwe, a Banana Republic, has sunk into!
The real tragedy here is, in the corona virus pandemic, Zimbabwe is facing the greatest trial of our generation and no one, even a mediocre opposition is better than nothing, is keeping an eye on the corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu-PF regime blundering from pillar to post, as usual! No one because MDC are busy fighting among themselves over trivial matters. The nation is going to pay dearly for this in sweat, blood, lost treasure, heart-breaking suffering, anguish and many lost lives!
MDC leaders have hit the self-destruct button; Chamisa by seizing power following Tsvangirai’s death. He and his supporters’ refusal to acknowledge he did indeed behave like a Zanu PF thugs, defend the indefensible, is the most foolish thing they can do.
Mai Khupe’s political career was all but finished when she failed to attract any crowd to her rallies during the 2018 elections. She was glad to accepting the POLAD seat even as Mnangagwa’s poodle; it gave her a voice and some income. The High Court judgement has believed new political life in her if only she could extricate herself from the POLAD poodle status – she cannot.
I totally agree, real tragedy here is that MDC leaders have chosen to commit hara-kiri at the time the nation is facing the greatest challenge of our generation in corona virus. Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence is turning this very serious tragedy into a Biblical catastrophe!
Instead of testing, tracking, tracing and, most important of all, telling the people the truth on the spread of the virus, for example, the government is not doing this. Zanu PF is determined to underreport corona virus cases and deaths to give the impression it is one of the government that was able to contain the virus.
Ignorance of the seriousness of the corona virus in the country has only helped the virus spread far and wide with tragic, tragic consequences!
One would have expected the MDC legislators to demand an explanation from the regime why it is not testing. As it is the legislators have been business fighting to retain their gravy-train seats. These who join Khupe to save their seat will be co-opted into POLAD and become poodles! What a waste!
@ Mahere
"This recall is a violent onslaught on the will of the people who elected MDC Alliance MPs into Parliament. We take the firm view that state institutions, including Parliament, are being abused to reverse the will of the people and replace it with an unholy alliance between Mr Mnangagwa and Ms Khupe. This great reversal of the people's will by ZANU PF Its a continuation of the electoral theft of 2018."
This is nonsense! The power to recall these legislators is derived from the High Court judgement that condemned Chamisa's take over of the party's leadership in 2018 as a violation of the party's constitution. It now pretend this is a result of Zanu PF abusing its dictatorial powers is foolish.
Yes Zanu PF has dictatorial powers and has used them to corrupt and capture state institutions including the judiciary and parliament. But the regime did not use its dictatorial powers in this case.
Chamisa shot himself in the foot by behaving like a Zanu PF thug and now he does not have the common sense to admit it! By refusing to admit Chamisa made a mistake, Chamisa and his supporters have lost whatever little political credibility they still had left. They have turned the shotgun from the foot to the head to commit hara-kiri! Mark my words, Chamisa et al are finished!
@ Paidamoyo
I agree that Mahere speaks too much and very little of it makes sense - but then this is a common weakness with all MDC leaders!
I would not criticise her for failing to pronounce Bulawayo - this is a trivial matter. We need to stop being obsessed by trivials like age, race, tribe, gender, etc. and focus instead on the real important issues - the ideas!
FORMER Minister Mandiitawepi Chimene, who fled into exile in Mozambique when the military toppled Robert Mugabe in November 2017, has revealed in a video that she is surviving by baking plain buns for sale.
Hapana chisingaperi! She played her part in imposing the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and now she is living in exile, fearful of the political system she helped create.
Masvingo Provincial Hospital is reportedly no longer admitting or treating any patients after nurses and doctors went on strike late last week citing poor working conditions underlined by poor pay, shortage of medicines and lack of personal protective equipment.
The problem of the economic meltdown, the collapse health care services, etc. are all a culmation of 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, vote rigging and murderous misrule by Zanu PF. For 40 years we have watched whilst Zanu PF thugs destroyed the country's economy and ride roughshod over our freedoms and rights. These problem have now come home to roost and the corona virus outbreak has helped bring these problem into sharp focus!
Good governance matters and if we still continue to do nothing to ensure we have a competent and accountable government then we are going to pay dearly for our folly until we do something!
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