The trouble with Zimbabweans is they have no clue what constitutes a competent leader and it is little wonder the nation has blundered from pillar to post, the blind leading the blind into the ditch.
It therefore is no surprise that some Zimbabweans are already seeing Douglas Mwonzora, the recently elected MDC-T leader, as the man who could lead the nation.
“What l would like to state clearly and as background knowledge is that the powers of the opposition have been going down since 2008 when MDC got 110 seats in parliament, then 2013 got 60 and then 2018 they got around 40 and if the probability that we learnt at school is to be applied it means the opposition is likely to get 30+/- seats in 2023 unless there comes a third political party,” wrote Kumbirai Chivhuna in Bulawayo 24.
“The second thing is that Zanu learnt a big lesson in 2008 with Mugabe clearly telling the politburo Kuti kukurukura hunge wapotswa and from there they made sure that they win the first round election and no room for rerun or runoff.
“Then thirdly Zanu Pf has monetized politics to an extent that whoever has the money will have more than 50% odds in favour of him before the campaign starts.”
Any one who does not understand what the 2008 GNU was about is not ill qualified to propose a way forward for Zimbabwe. Chivhuna has no clue what the GNU was about.
The first thing Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs learned from the 2008 to 2013 GNU was that MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. There is no deny that Mugabe bribed them to forget about implementing the reforms and not even the repeated nagging by SADC leaders to implement the reforms could get MDC leaders to do it.
The second thing they learned was that they can keep their dictatorial powers including the powers to blatantly rig elections, as long as they bribe MDC to participate in elections no matter how flawed and illegal the process.
So Zanu PF has rigged the elections to secure the presidency plus the 2/3 or so parliamentary majority. The party has then used the remaining 1/3 of the gravy train seats as bait to entice the opposition to participate in elections regardless how flawed and illegal process got!
Douglas Mwonzora is a long standing senior MDC leader and he was in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one reform.
Mwonzora participated in the 2013 and 2018 elections without any reservations.
MDC-T is going to receive $ 13.6 million, its share of the $100 million 2021 national budget allocation from the Political Party Finance Act (PPFA). And as the party’s new leader Douglas Mwonzora will get 20% or $2.72 million.
One can ever talk the likes of Mwonzora to demand the implementation of reforms and boycott elections to pressure Zanu Pf to implement reform is naive. Mwonzora and company will never risk losing the MP and Senator salary and allowances, the PPFA payout and the other benefits Zanu PF is offering.
“l would say that Mwonzora stands a big chance become the biggest opposition by 2023 if he plays well but with regards to winning the presidential election that's far fetched coz Zanu has solidified maybe for 2028,” argued Kumbirai.
Participating in the 2023 elections with no reforms will only serve to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship, the very thing the nation is desperate to end. Of course, it is foolish to seen stagnation as progress!
Anyone suggesting the MDC idiots who have already proven to be corrupt and incompetent are fit to hold any public office much less the highest office in the land suffers a deplorable lack of imagination!
After 40 years of rigged elections, the root cause why we are stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, Zimbabwe is going to implement the democratic reforms and finally hold free, fair and credible elections.
If Zanu PF and its cohort opposition opportunists do not implement the reforms, then the 2023 elections must be declared null void.
There will be no compromise in the demand for reforms and holding of free, fair and credible election.
9 comments:
If there is one thing that should be crystal clear to every thinking Zimbabwean out there by now it is that MDC leaders have completely given up the fight for democratic change. Yes they promised to deliver democratic change but in much the same spirit as Mugabe and Zanu PF thugs promised freedom and liberty before independence; to help them get into power.
Once in power, MDC leaders quickly forgot about the masses' desperate need for reforms as they concentrated in feathering their own nests just as Zanu PF thugs forgot about the people's cry for freedom and liberty to feather their own nests. Mugabe was quick to see this weakness in MDC leaders and did not waste time in exploiting to his advantage; he bribed the lot.
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC leaders have learnt to enjoy the gravy train luxuries and not rock the boat!) seasoned Zanu PF thugs used to boast during the GNU when asked why MDC leaders had all but ditched the important task of implementing the reforms.
Douglas Mwonzora and his MDC-T will be battling it out with Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A to which one of them will win most of the Zanu PF's bait 1/3 or so gravy train seats; as for which one prevails its a matter of indifference. Indeed, Zanu PF may even take advantage of the infighting to cut the size of the bait even more and the pundits will blame the opposition for being divided and complete ignore the elephant in the room - Zanu PF's blatant rigging.
What matters to the ordinary people will be that the nation will still be stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and their lives continues to be hell-on-earth. People like Kumbirai Chivhuna will made a big song and dance about who Mnangagwa's side-kick is; the long suffering povo will have better things to do than that.
The really shocking reality is anyone should be taken in by these MDC leaders that there is such a thing as winning rigged elections. And yet there are many who have been taken in and many of them even boasted of being intellectuals! Poor, poor Zimbabwe!
@ Patriot
“Mwonzora courted public eye by mindlessly recalling elected MPS, Senators, Councilors and Mayors as a way to decimate MDC Alliance and leaving Zanu PF alone to do what they want without being challenged in parliament,” you said.
I am disappointed with the public that saw the mindless recall of the elected MPs, etc. but failed to see, even now with all the benefit of hindsight, the blatant betrayal by MDC leaders during the GNU in failing to implement the democratic reforms. The recall is but a molehill compared to the mount Everest of the reforms. How anyone can be so shallow, thick and slow beggars belief.
It is the failure to implement the reforms that disqualifies Chamisa, Biti and all the other MDC from holding public office.
None of the MDC leaders are ever going to implement the reforms and thus end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. They all failed to get this done during the GNU and ever since have been participating in flawed and illegal elections just for the bait gravy train seats Zanu PF offered them. What else do these MDC leaders have to do to finally convince you they are corrupt and incompetent and sell-outs!
It is most disconcerting that the people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the clear understanding that once in power the party will implement the democratic changes necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, the nation has been dying for. After 20 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC have nothing to show for it.
Indeed, instead of doubling their efforts in getting the reforms implemented MDC leaders have now taken it upon themselves to remind us at ever turn at how wretched we all are under this Zanu PF dictatorship. There are now competing with each other for the headlines and have completely deserted the fight for reforms. Those who win the headline rat race will also win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as bait.
By participating in these flawed and illegal elections these MDC leaders are giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy all for the sake of greed. To cover for their greed the MDC leaders have either ignored all questions challenging the folly of participating in rigged elections or, on the odd occasion, have claimed they have the mojo to win rigged elections.
Of course, MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent and the only reason they still command any public following is because the Zimbabwe electorate is one of the most naive and gullible in the world. If we are serious about getting out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has landed us into then we need to snap out of our sloth-like slumber quick smart!
@ Vitalis Kuwada
“ZANU is never bound to accept any reforms my friend. Remember the statement, 'We will never reform ourselves out of power'. The main mistake was to even accept the GNU. All they were supposed to do was claim for an outright independent investigation of the 2008 first round results that was delayed for 6 weeks. What was happening during the delay. MRT got more than 50% +1 vote outrightly. So the GNU reforms idea was, is, and will never happen even if state it infinity times.”
I totally agree with you that MDC should have refused to go into the GNU because they did not have to particularly given the blatant cheating in the March vote and the wanton violence in the run-off.
Many people, notably USA ambassador to Zimbabwe, James Mcghee, advised MDC leaders not to go into the GNU but was ignore. The ambassador described the GNU as “Swiss cheese with holes so big one can drive a truck through” in sheer frustration.
Still, having agreed to the GNU the question one has to ask is why did MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform agreed in the Global Political Agreement. SADC leaders did their best to get MDC leaders to implement the reforms but they too were ignored. It is little wonder the SADC leaders have in turn ignored MDC leaders ever since the GNU.
The real surprise is why have Zimbabweans themselves remained doggedly loyal to MDC leaders even with all the evidence they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent? The reason is Zimbabweans are naive and gullible and have completely failed to see MDC leaders for the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out they are, even now with the benefit of hindsight they still fail to see it.
Yes we are right to blame Zanu PF for landing us into this hell-on-earth but if the truth be told we must blame MDC leaders for wasting the golden opportunity to get us out of the hell-hole. But above all, we must blame the naive and gullible Zimbabwe electorate for allowing both Zanu PF and MDC leaders to ride roughshod over them.
Nations get the government they deserve and Zimbabweans certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of equally corrupt and useless MDC opposition.
We do not deserve a democratic and good government. Indeed, even if one was given to us in a silver platter; if we got it in the morning by noon we will have lost it already!
Some people are very easily distracted!
20 years ago the nation consensus was on the need for democratic changes as the only way to end Zanu PF’s corrupt and tyrannical rule. The democratic changes would stop the regime rigging the elections. Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding they would implement the democratic reforms the nation was dying for.
MDC leaders have been in power for 20 years, 5 of which in the GNU, and they have failed to implement even one democratic reform. Not one!
Instead of the MDC leaders apologising to the nation for selling out they are masquerading as if they have done their bit and participating in flawed and illegal elections is the next logic step. Who gives a damn who will be Mnangagwa’s side-kick!
Like it or not, nothing of substance can ever be accomplished until we implement the democratic reforms and rid ourselves of the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime! And giving the tyrannical regime legitimacy is hardly the way to end the dictatorship.
All this hype and euphoria on whether it is going to be Mwonzora or Chamisa who will be Mnangagwa’s side-kick is as foolish as a child who gets distracted by the wrapping paper of his Christmas present and forget the present!
An undated video by ZANU-PF political commissar and Deputy Minister of Defence Victor Matemadanda has caused a stir on social media.
Matemadanda talks too much and its all hot air. He talks of the “people will not vote for you (leaders” when the idiots knows all too well that in Zimbabwe the people’s vote counts for nothing because Zanu Pf rigs elections. As the war veteran leader, he has played his role in Zanu PF’s harassment, intimidation and beating of the voters. In 2008 the war veterans played their part in the murder of over 500 innocent Zimbabweans, punished for having rejected Zanu PF in the earlier vote.
“Her detention from that time was unnecessary,” Mahere’s lawyer David Drury told the court adding the conditions of the police cells were “unbearable”.
“They are filled with the stench of stale urine and there are no blankets. There were no temperature checks or sanitisers at the police entrance. There is no social distancing in the waiting area or holding cells. No masks are available in the cells as cellmates had old masks.
“There is also no provisions of sanitary ware in the cells. The toilet was a pit latrine surrounded by a puddle of urine. There is no separation with the beds and toilet hole as well as privacy during menstruation.”
No human being should ever have to live in these condition and yet we know that prison conditions are even worse!
We must never ever forgotten that Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to end this nightmare of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule and MDC leaders wasted it. And by participating in flawed and illegal elections Mahere and her fellow opportunistic opposition politicians are perpetuating this Zanu PF misrule.
We can be 100% certain that Mahere will be participating in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place. Indeed, she is keeping a folder of all the newspaper stories and adventures, these are trophies for bid for future elections. She does care that her bid for the gravy train seats Zanu PF is giving as bait is at the expense of keeping Zanu PF in power.
I am no hypocrite and therefore have no sympathy for Mahere and her sell-out friends who helping to keep Zanu PF in power. Zimbabwe’s opportunist opposition politicians are now a curse to the nation!
People like Mahere and Sikhala participated in the July 2018 elections knowing doing so would give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy all out of greed. They knew Zanu PF is offering a few gravy train seats as bait to entice the opposition to participate and they could not resist.
Zanu PF got the presidency and its 2/3 majority in parliament and so has been able to do as it pleased. We are still stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical regime. The nation gained absolutely nothing from legitimising Zanu PF but lost everything instead. We cannot afford this madness of keeping Zanu PF in power just to gratify the few corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition politicians.
Now prizes for guessing Mahere, Sikhala and the rest of her fellow MDC A leaders will all be participating in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place. We really cannot afford to allow this madness to continue. The nation cannot be sacrificed on the altar of greed to gratify a select few.
Uganda ordered internet service providers to block all social media platforms and messaging apps on Tuesday until further notice, a letter from the country's communications regulator seen by Reuters said.
A source in Uganda's telecom sector said the government had made clear to executives at telecoms companies that the social media ban was in retaliation for Facebook blocking some pro-government accounts.
The U.S. social media giant said on Monday it had taken down a network in Uganda linked to the country's ministry of information for using fake and duplicate accounts to post ahead of this week's election.
Well done Facebook, for the first time ever tyrants are beginning to fell that they are not always going to get away as they have done until now!
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