The root cause of Zimbabwe’s crippling economic meltdown and political paralysis (politicians on both sides of the political divide are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless) is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. In this day and age; it is 2 500 years after the Greeks gave humanity democracy as a system of government and 40 years after our own national independence; one would think Zimbabweans have finally figured out what constitute free and democratic elections. Sadly, we are still shooting in the dark!
“Unless politicians explain to us the importance of voting in this current environment, I would suggest that Zimbabweans should boycott all elections,” twittered Prof Mlambo.
“How many disputed elections have we had so far & what has come out of it?” responded Lynne M.
“The liberation struggle reclaimed the vote for the indigenous population. That’s why the right to vote is in the Bill of Rights under s67 of the Constitution. To boycott such a fundamental right would be wrong & dangerous. The people must just fight to defend their vote. Period!” chipped in Professor Jonathan Moyo.
“One man! One vote!” was the clarion call used by the black nationalist leaders to mobilise the indigenous population in the fight to end white colonial oppression and exploitation. However, both PF Zapu and Zanu PF, the two main political parties waging the armed struggle against the white colonial government, ditched the idea of giving the populous a free vote long before the country attain her independence. They both wanted to impose a one-party state in Zimbabwe.
It was agreed in the Lancaster House talks that Zanu PF and PF Zapu will withdraw their freedom fighters to designated assembly points during the campaigning period leading to the elections to usher the country’s independence. Zanu PF left many of its operatives in the field and their message to the electorate was that if Zanu PF did not win the elections the civil war will continue.
So in 1980, the people of Zimbabwe voted to end the war.
Some people dismissed the Zanu PF threat of waging a new civil war if the party had lost as political posturing. The doubting Thomas were proven wrong when Zanu PF launch the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre whose principle purpose was to force PF Zapu to sign the Unity Accord clearing the way for the formation of the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country to this day.
Zanu PF has corrupted the state institutions turning the Police, Army, Judiciary, ZEC, etc. into Zanu PF departments in all but name whose principle purpose was to consolidate the party’s strangle hold on power. The country has held regular elections but Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections and has often resorted to the use of wanton violence silence it political critics and opponents.
It was as clear as day Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were after absolute power and the influence and wealth it brought with it and they considered absolute power as they just reward for having waged the war against the whites. They did not consider the freedoms and rights of the common people, including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life, as important.
To expect a ruthless, incompetent and corrupt thug like Robert Mugabe or Emmerson Mnangagwa to be a midwife to a free and democratic Zimbabwe is like expecting a hyena to play midwife to a goat! It will eat the birth sack, the kid and the mother!
Zimbabwe has had a number of opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and golden opportunities were during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. SADC leaders had arm twisted Zanu PF into agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to take away the party’s carte blanche dictatorial powers.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were tasked to implement the reforms. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and they failed to implement even one meaningful reform in 5 years.
SADC leaders tried to have Zimbabwe’s 2013 postponed until reforms are implemented.
“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 Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist 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.”
On return back to Zimbabwe, Zanu PF argued against postponing the elections on the grounds the proposed reforms should have been submitted to parliament. Patrick Chinamasa, then Zanu PF minister for Justice and Parliamentary Affairs explained that parliament has never block even one reform proposal throughout the GNU. It is worth noting the Professor Jonathan Moyo sat next to Minister Chinamasa at that press conference.
Of course, MDC would have looked foolish boycotting the 2013 elections to protest the failure to implement the reforms when they are the ones who failed to submit even one reform proposal in 5 years of the GNU.
Still, by participating in the flawed and illegal elections the opposition have given credibility to the election process and by extension given legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF.
Ever since MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented during the 2008 GNU, they have given up getting reforms implemented and focused instead on getting Zanu PF to give up as much as possible of the spoils of power - payment for continued participation and giving Zanu PF legitimacy.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding they will implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for. They have become jackals content to feed on whatever scraps the hyena leaves behind.
Zimbabweans have yet to cast a meaningful vote in free, fair and credible elections. It is rhetorical nonsense to say the “people must just fight to defend their vote”. One does not defend something they do not have and never had. This generation, just like the generation before independence is having to fight for “One man! One vote!”
Securing our right to hold those in office to account is the first base and without it we cannot stop the mismanagement, corruption and and tyrannical oppression. The fact that so many Zimbabwe still have no clue what the 2008 GNU was about and hence fail to appreciate how MDC leaders have sold out speaks volumes about how naive and gullible Zimbabweans are. As long as we remain naive and gullible, there will be rigged elections and we will remain stuck with the curse of bad governance.
Demand for the illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down, boycotting elections, street protests and all the other actions only assume a new meaning when exercised by voters who know and understand the freedoms and rights. Knowing what constitutes free, fair and credible elections is not rocket science, the only reason these things remain a mystery is because Zimbabweans have not made the effort.
12 comments:
@ Tinashe
“In 2009, former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai appointed the then MDC National Organizing Secretary, Nelson Chamisa to be in charge of Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and served as a cabinet minister until the expiry of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). His tenure as a cabinet minister exuded virtuosity and he won several minister of the year awards. The former President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe once described him as a supersonic minister following Chamisa's successful computerization initiative back then.
“Chamisa also served as Member of Assembly for Kuwadzana East and he also did excellent work to develop his constituency which includes successful feedback mechanism in the constituency, the MP scholarship fund for the girl child, computerization and internet connection for Kuwadzana schools and construction of state of the art Kuwadzana library.”
The trouble with some people is that they are not only single track minded but worst of all they do not listen to reason and will, given half a chance, dragged the nation into their foolishness.
We are in this political mess because Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF created this vote rigging de facto one-party dictatorship. Nelson Chamisa and his fellow MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms to end the dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They sold-out and failed to implement even one reform.
Zimbabwe needs to get out of this economic and political mess a.s.a.p and to do so we must implement the democratic reforms. Mnangagwa and Chamisa will not implement the reforms, they failed to do so already, and so why are we still talking of the two meeting and forming a new GNU!!!!
Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and exception a different result. Zanu PF has been in power 40 years and MDC 20 years and the insane still want the two to remain in power. “Hupenzi inyama yegakava!” as the Shona adage would say.
"Dialogue must be encouraged throughout all inceptions of our society in the spirit of constructive engagement, among others.
"This is the culture of the second republic, of national building ... peace... harmony ... unity and love as we develop the Zimbabwe we love," Mnangagwa said.
Enough of this nonsense of Zanu PF blatantly rigging elections and then eulogising to no end about the party’s love for peace, unity, dialogue, etc., etc.Zimbabwe is in this economic and political crisis because the country has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. These are the facts that we must now address and stop this time wasting foolishness of pretending otherwise.
To get out of the mess we are in we must implement the democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections. Since Zanu PF will not implement the reforms, we know this from the 2008 GNU, we must appoint others who will.
The idea that Zanu PF will hold the nation to ransom and refuse to step down is something we must tackle head-on. Those seeking to appease Zanu PF by suggesting the party must be allowed to remain in power no matter what, are not doing the nation any favours.
"The truth must be told, that presidential envoys remain presidential envoys from one President to another," said Mnangagwa.
"Party envoys remain party envoys from one party to another. Those who dream otherwise, allow them obviously to dream.”
"Politburo encouraged the ANC to rein in its errant elements who are communicating unfairly on our nation, contrary to what was agreed on and endorsed by the two parties in the communiqué," Chinamasa said.
Upon returning to South Africa, some members of the ANC insisted that Zimbabwe was burning and in a political crisis which needed Ramaphosa's intervention, statements Zanu-PF has described as "unfair".
Blade Dzimande, the Higher Education minister in South Africa, said denying that Zimbabwe was in a crisis was tantamount to denying self-evident truth.
Zimbabwe is facing a existential crisis, the economic meltdown of 2019 has been made a lot worse be the health and economic challenges on on by the corona virus pandemic. Zanu PF can ignore the tragic human suffering and deaths the nation is facing, the nation will be very foolish to do the same.
The fight with Zanu PF should be about getting the regime to step down and not over such trivial details of whether the situation in Zimbabwe should be called a crisis or challenge, who the envoys should met, etc. Zimbabwe does not have the time to waste on trivial matters and it is clear SA does not really appreciate the seriousness of Zimbabwe’s situation and SA’s own limitation on the matter.
"With 2023 elections in sight and our resounding and landslide victory imminent, let us remain unwavering in our revolutionary course by consistently strengthening and increasing our party membership base," Mnangagwa said.
A rigged 2023 election is unthinkable!
The MDC Alliance will soon unroll a series of programmes meant to enhance the party’s visibility in Chiredzi District.
Chiredzi District consists of Zanu PF strongholds- mainly as a result of vote buying and intimidation of villagers.
MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The party failed to implement even one token reform. Not even one!
Ever since the GNU MDC leaders have participated in the elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was offering as bait to entice the opposition to contest the flawed and illegal elections. The people of Zimbabwe must now wake up to the reality that they fight for free, fair and credible elections has all but complete stopped because the opposition politicians are now working in cahoots with Zanu PF in maintain the status quo of rigged elections.
Chamisa is on record saying he would “stop 2023 elections unless comprehensive reforms are implemented first”! And yet his party is already preparing for those elections although not even one reform has been implemented. Zanu PF know that when push comes to shove, MDC leaders will participating in the 2023 elections to win the bait seats on offer.
"One man! One vote!" was one of the core demands during the fight for Independence. Black nationalists like Robert Mugabe hijacked the revolution and chucked out "One man! One vote!" because it was not compatible with their desire to impose a one-party state and be the absolute ruler. Whilst one can understand why the rural peasants never challenged the imposition of the one-party state, it is not wise to do so when you are looking up the business end of an AK47 Rifle. The intelligentsia had no excuse for not questioning the one-party state ethos as it denied the people their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
“Unless politicians explain to us the importance of voting in this current environment, I would suggest that Zimbabweans should boycott all elections,” twittered Prof Mlambo. That captures the very essence of what is wrong in Zimbabwe.
After 40 years of rigged elections, of being denied your fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and, as a consequence, the nation in total economic ruins and millions forced into abject poverty; all you can ask for is an explanation from the politicians.
Last time, Zanu PF denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote and millions more, in Zimbabwe, were denied the vote because the regime made it impossible for them to register or some such nefarious scheme. Since Zanu PF does not have to produce a verified voters' roll, the party has an infinite number of ways of generating votes to ensure a landslide Zanu PF victory.
As long as the opposition continue to participate in these flawed and illegal elections for the sake of the bait seats Zanu PF is giving away; the election will have the credibility and legitimacy.
Zanu PF will use its coercive power to force people to participate in party rallies and to vote and so a complete boycott of the elections by all the voters will be impossible to achieve.
People like Prof Mlambo should boycott the elections, it is utterly pointless in participating in a flawed and illegal process and then complain about it afterward. However they must explain why they are boycotting by highlighting the flaws and illegalities in the electoral process and demand these are put right. They must explain why the opposition have sold-out by failing to implement the reforms and continue to sell-out by participating in rigged elections out of greed.
One can boycott elections and sulk or boycott as a means of fighting for the right to a meaningful vote!
Many people risked life and limb, and many have died, in the fight for "One man! One vote!" It is tragic that many Zimbabweans have given up this right without a fight!
There are somethings we should not even be arguing over but all agree and the fact that Zimbabwe's July 2018 elections were not NOT free, fair and credible is one of them. How can an election in which 3 million voters, which more than the 2.4 million Mnangagwa say he won, were denied the opportunity to vote; there was no verified voters' roll; the vote process was not transparent; etc.; etc. but anything but flawed and illegal? The only reason the opposition participated in the elections in droves regardless of the certainty that Zanu PF was rigging the elections is because Zanu PF was also giving away a few gravy train seats as bait. Chamisa and company could not resist the bait.
"People must defend their vote!"What exactly will the millions of voters in the diaspora who were denied the chance to register to vote be defending? And what will the rural voters who are nothing less than medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF chefs and their operatives, who voted for Zanu PF be defending?
The ordinary people are still fighting for "One man! One vote!" Indeed, for the rural villagers the white colonial days were better at least the white did not intimidate, harass, beat and even murder them to force them to vote one way or the other.
After 40 years of rigged elections we still have to wake-up to the reality that Zanu PF is rigging the elections and the opposition are going along for selfish reasons!!! Is it any wonder the country is in a real mess, with an electorate this naive and gullible; what else could it be!!!
And unless the people wake up and demand a clean electoral process the country will be talking about rigged elections and defending none existent votes until the donkeys sprout horns!
@ Mukwirivindi
“Wilbert, it could have actually earned you death had you by then stood up to talk about another person or party ruling Zimbabwe beside Zanu. It was treasonous, at least in the minds and norms of the rural people and comrades then. To the people, and even to the fighting comrades, the purpose of the war was for Zanu to rule, and not for democracy. I can assure you that the term democracy was never ever known to rural masses and the comrades who were fighting the war.”
It is true that talking about any other party ruling Zimbabwe beside Zanu PF has earned many harassment, a thorough beating and many have been murdered. We all know about the Gukurahundi massacre where over 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered in cold blood to establish the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. And ever since over 10 000 more innocent lives have been lost to retain the dictatorship. What do you think the 1st August 2018 shoot to kill order was about??
However it is not true all Zimbabweans subscribed to the notion the liberation war was for Zanu PF to rule. Indeed the Zanu PF thugs themselves knew the people wanted a meaningful vote and they many would not vote for Zanu PF and hence the need for the party to rig the elections and wage a war of attrition on the voters.
The people did not know about democracy no more than they knew about “scientific socialism”. Mugabe and his cronies knew of the two systems of government and imposed the latter for the selfish reason that it guaranteed absolute power to Zanu PF at the expense of the individual freedoms and rights.
UNDER-FIRE MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday said he was unfazed by the relentless attacks from fellow opposition MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe and the ruling Zanu-PF party, declaring his party was geared to come out stronger after the storm.
"We represent the new and com-ing. We carry the seed of new beginnings. Not even the angel of death can prevent its sprouting. We sympathise with those who attempt to stand in the way or are op-posed to us. It's game on!"
The people of Zimbabwe have to wake up to the reality of the mindless bickering in the MDC is Chamisa's own making. It is a historic fact that he violated MDC's own constitution when he seized power following Tsvangirai's death.
But most important of all Zimbabweans must wake-up to the reality that MDC failed to implement the democratic reforms that would have ended the curse of rigged elections. By participating in the 2013 and then 2018 elections with no reforms in place MDC gave credibility of the flawed and illegal elections and, by extension, legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF.
Nothing has done more damage to our call for democratic free, fair and credible elections than the opposition participating in flawed and illegal elections. Outsiders have been calling for reforms but they really is nothing they can do to force change if we, Zimbabweans, are happy with rigged elections.
The coming by-elections will not change the political reality of 2/3 Zanu PF majority in parliament. Which of the two MDC factions will do better is matter of indifference!
We are three years away from the next elections and not even one reforms has been implemented. Frankly, Zanu PF will never implement any reforms; the party knows that the opposition will participate even with no reforms in place just as they have done in the past. If the people of Zimbabwe do not wake-up to the reality that the MDC are now running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, then there will never end the curse of rigged elections.
@ Luke Tamborenyoka
“Morgan Tsvangirai, the late icon of Zimbabwe's tenuous democratic struggle, is a man I knew so well, having served as his spokesperson and trusted lieutenant for almost a decade until his untimely death in February 2018,” you said.
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends into power on the understanding they will bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. MDC has been on the political centre stage for 20 years, 5 of which they were in the GNU, and yet have failed to implement even one democratic reform. Not even one!
MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU but wasted it because Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a US$4 million mansion for the Tsvangirai, etc., etc. Of course, Tsvangirai and company sold-out big time.
The very fact that you are still, even now with all the benefit of hindsight, calling the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out Tsvangirai an “icon of Zimbabwe’s tenuous democratic struggle” goes to show just how shallow, thick and slow you are!
@ Luke Tamborenyoka
“Morgan Tsvangirai, the late icon of Zimbabwe's tenuous democratic struggle, is a man I knew so well, having served as his spokesperson and trusted lieutenant for almost a decade until his untimely death in February 2018,” you said.
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends into power on the understanding they will bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. MDC has been on the political centre stage for 20 years, 5 of which they were in the GNU, and yet have failed to implement even one democratic reform. Not even one!
MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU but wasted it because Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a US$4 million mansion for the Tsvangirai, etc., etc. Of course, Tsvangirai and company sold-out big time.
The very fact that you are still, even now with all the benefit of hindsight, calling the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out Tsvangirai an “icon of Zimbabwe’s tenuous democratic struggle” goes to show just how shallow, thick and slow you are!
It took 34 years for Joyce Mujuru to open her puppy-eyes and see Zanu PF as the corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical regime. You, Luke, will never see MDC leaders for the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out they are. Your physical eyes are open but the mental eyes have cataract so thick that nothing goes through.
Zimbabwean Professor Ibbo Mandaza has emphasised the need for South Africa to safeguard its democracy, the independence of institutions and to ensure that the military conforms to the constitution.
Mandaza was speaking at the ANC’s OR Tambo political school on the lessons that South Africa can learn from Zimbabwe’s post-colonial history.
Mandaza outlined the status quo in his country. “In Zimbabwe sadly the executive is unaccountable and is pervaded by the military. The legislature is not vibrant at all, it is largely an outcome of rigged elections since 2000, has been a major feature in which the military has been involved in all the elections ever since.
“You have a judiciary that is hardly independent when it should be the soul of the nation is a captured judiciary the commissions the gender commissions the peace and security commission all these are pervaded by the military; we have a mess in effect.”
I totally agree with Professor Mandaza, Zimbabwe's parliament and judiciary are utterly useless as they are a by-product of the country's corrupted political system. My beef with him is for his lack of consistence. He is one of those who have been advocating for a National Transition Authority (NTA) in which a body of technocrats are to be appointed to implement the democratic reforms. The technocrats are to work with the Zanu PF parliament and judiciary - the same he accepts is captured!
Zimbabwe needs a NTA or GNU, what is in a name, in which Zanu PF executive, parliament and judiciary will play no part. Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the party has no democratic mandate to govern and must it must step down. Period.
When Professor Mthuli Ncube made the decision to abandon the US denomination, wage earners, trade unions and banks were not consulted.
These intellectual prostitutes give government decisions the aura of respectability while ignoring the negative results on what Mandaza called the nation al question.
Pettinah Gappah's observation about these intellectuals is written in stone in my heart.
"They appear at international forums with the largest delegations, are the best dressed, are loud and boisterous and appear to know everything. But they have come to beg.”
They have even borrowed the plane they travel with.
In 1984, the Swedish ambassador told me that the first Mugabe cabinet had the largest number of doctorates in the whole world.
In 2016 during the height of a drought, I visited the Engineer ing Department at UZee. Just out side, across the road, was a water spigot spewing water. It had been like that for more than two years, supporting a satellite bamboo forest there.
I was treated with respect, I will therefore not say any more about that.
What a shame.
Zhuwao is no longer on my list as an intellectual prostitute. Bitter exile, the loss of his farm, and his inability to be readmitted into Zanu-PF has sobered him. He blames it on lack of procedures. Mature, he now understands Aristotle's dictum that the abandonment of procedures is the foundation of tyranny.
Without due procedures, my dear Mandaza, nothing is secure, no wealth can be safe, as Zhuwao has since discovered, and no national agenda can be achieved. Former President Barack Obama used to laugh at Republicans. They cannot chew gum and walk at the same time. He called it "nuancing".
The price we have paid, by tolerating these intellectual prostitutes, has cost us 40 years of desperation.
The story goes that Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors, kept a gold fish in his office. When he was asked why gold fish he replied, ”It is great to see something opening its big mouth and not ask for pay rise!”
Robert Mugabe may well have had “a cabinet with largest number of doctorates in the whole world” but they were nothing more that Henry Ford’s gold fish. Mugabe had the largest cabinet in the whole world and the most senior position were filled by dimwits like Simon Muzenda, Joice Mujuru, Emmerson Mnangagwa, etc. Mugabe’s cabinet was there to anticipate and/or rubber stamp Mugabe’s wishes.
The intellectuals were paid and paid well to give Mugabe and his regime a good name and then shut up! Professor Jonathan Moyo performed his duties with gusto and hence the reason he is the A1 and ace intellectual prostitute.
I, for one, am disappointed that EU, Americans and their western allies have slapped dimwits like Grace Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, etc. with sanctions but left out the intellectual prostitutes like Professor Mthuli Ncube and from the opposition camp the likes of Tendai Biti and David Coltart.
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