"MDC launched vigorous 1m voter registration in memory of murdered youth" - murdered by whom and why P Guramatunhu

 

“Yesterday (MDC) Mhondoro youths launched a vigorous voter registration campaign under the 1 million campaign banner in memory of one the youths who was brutally murdered!” announced mdcmhondora on twitter. The comment was copied to the party’s leaders, Nelson Chamisa and far and wide.

Murdered by whom?

What crimes had the youth committed?

Where the murderers arrested and punished?

What assurance are there that this will not be repeated again?

There are a thousand and one questions one would ask. The answer to the first and last questions above are by Zanu PF operatives and the one thing that is certain is the Zanu PF inspired violence will return if the party should ever feel it’s iron grip on power is threatened.  

Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections were a watershed in that Zanu PF showed the world just what the party would do to retain absolute power. The party ordered the counting of the March 2008 vote to stop and in the six weeks recount it whittled down Tsvangirai’s 73% vote, by Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, to 47% - enough to force a run-off.

Zanu PF’s primary focus during the run-off was to punish the people of Zimbabwe for having rejected Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March vote. The party used war veterans and Zanu PF youths backed by the Police, Army and CIO to destroy property, intimidate, beat, rape and over 500 people were brutally murdered.

“What was achieved by the bullet cannot be changed by the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe.

The 2008 to 2013 GNU was meant to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the blatant cheating and wanton violence of 2008 will not be repeated ever again. Sadly, not even one reform was implemented. Not one!

The task of implementing the reforms during the GNU fell to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they completely forgot about the reforms for the five years of the GNU.

SADC leaders, who were the guarantor the GNU would implement the reforms, tried to have the July 2013 Zimbabwe elections postponed until reforms were implemented. They warned Tsvangirai and company it would be folly to participating in the elections with no reforms.

“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai in June 2013, according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who attended the SADC Summit in Maputo, Mozambique. Tsvangirai and company paid no heed.

Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections as SADC leaders had rightly predicted.

There was very little violence in 2013 and 2018, nothing compared to 2008, but only because Zanu PF had completely overhauled its vote rigging schemes to deliver a landslide victory without having to resort to the use of violence. The party has deployed the war veterans and other party operatives just to remind the electorate the party has the capacity to use violence and can and will use violence if election victory is threatened.

So, every MDC leader and supporter knows that if this so called “vigorous voter registration campaign under the 1 million campaign banner” was ever successful then Zanu PF will respond by stepping up the violence. Remember, Zanu PF has retained all its 2008 carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections thanks to MDC leaders’ failure to implement the reform and stubborn refusal to postpone elections until the reforms are in place.

What is almost certain to happen is that the 2023 elections will be relatively peaceful because Chamisa and company have no intention of posing a serious political challenge to Zanu PF. Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders have given up on implementing the reforms to guarantee free and fair elections for a cosy you scratch my back and I will scratch yours arrangement with Zanu PF.

The post 2008 GNU political arrangement entails Zanu PF remaining the ruling party with the vote rigging powers to secure 2/3 majority plus the presidency. The party will keep all its 2008 vote rigging powers but will only evoke these powers if anyone should threaten its dominance. MDC leaders will contest the elections to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and will win the 1/3 or so of the gravy train seats plus the corresponding share of annual Political Party Finance Act pay out.

Zanu PF’s legitimacy is derived from MDC leaders getting the ordinary Zimbabweans to participate in the flawed elections. The MDC leaders have been telling the people that the reforms are no longer necessary because the party can still win rigged elections.   

In their naivety in believing MDC can win rigged elections the people are giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus help perpetuate their own oppression and suffering.

Of course, it is insane for anyone to believe in win rigged elections especially when there are no limits to what Zanu PF can do as the 2008 elections showed! How many more years will it take before the penny finally drop on the sheer stupidity of participating in flawed elections to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy?

Chief Ndiweni's "MyRight2Vote" is not a "game-changer" because 2023 rigging is done and dusted N Garikai

 

“What will make voter registration different this time around if it did not make a difference in other elections. Has it become generic to be part of the exercise to register; go to the elections and lose; cry foul that the elections have been lost therefore no legitimacy for Mnangagwa government?” asked Nomazulu Thata

“It is a farce to talk about reversing laws that would have been democratic if that very democracy has never existed in the first place. You (Chief Ndiweni) say you have found a ray of light in your roadmap code: "MyRight2Vote" in your rallying call. I fail to come to terms with the fact that you genuinely think that Mnangagwa's Zanu PF will be ousted by elections?”

These are all pertinent issues Zimbabweans have ignored for many moons and we are all paying dearly for our folly. Thank you very much Nomazulu for forcing the nation out of our sloth-like slumber to deal with these matters now before it is too late.

MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms; the pre-requisite for free, fair and credible election; during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Mugabe bribe them with the trappings of high office and with their snouts in the feeding trough Tsvangirai and company forgot all about the reforms. They failed to implement even one token reform in five years.

Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders with the encouragement of the Zanu PF apologists and double agents have been selling their naïve and gullible followers that the opposition can win rigged elections. “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” boasted Chamisa before the 2018 elections. All nonsense, of course.

The 2023 elections are rigged in Zanu PF’s favoured already! 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora have, once again, been denied the vote. 5 million voted in 2018 and so the 3 million in the diaspora constitute 3 out 8 or nearly 40% denied the vote. What stringent measures will  Chamisa have to reverse something that is already done, a fait accompli.

President Mnangagwa had time to pass the two constitutional amendments changing over 30 sections of the constitution to consolidate Zanu PF’s dictatorial strangle hold on power. The regime did not have time to add a clause in the electoral law to enable 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora to register and vote.

The regime welcomes the diaspora’s generous remittance contributions but cannot abide giving them a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

“MyRight2Vote”, yeah tell that to the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

Chief Ndiweni must know the political significance of President Mnangagwa giving away the first batch of Twin-cab Isuzu trucks to the country’s 270 chiefs. He knows this is a down payment to the chiefs who will then flex their muscle to make sure the majority of voters in their area vote Zanu PF without failure.

President Mnangagwa has already started mobilizing the war veterans and the youth militia, the party’s tried and tested foot soldiers, who would be deployed to step up the harassment and intimidation of the rural voters if they dared to defy the party’s orders. The party is geared to carry out the wanton violence of 2008 if need be!

MDC leaders know that by participating in these flawed elections they are giving credibility to the process and, by extension, giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. They have soldiered on and participated regardless for one reason and one reason only (the same reason that stopped them implementing reforms during the GNU) – greed.

“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,” admitted David Coltart 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.”

Robert Mugabe and now Mnangagwa have known that as long as MDC leaders continue to participate in flawed elections, Zanu PF’s legitimacy will be assured. And as bait to guarantee the opposition’s participation; the dictators offered a few gravy train seats, a portion of the annual Political Party Finance Act pay-out and, a Mnangagwa addition, a Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) to buy off Zanu PF’s political critics’ silence. “Vhara muromo!” as one would say in Shona.  

It is clear why Zanu PF has ignored all demand to implement any democratic reforms. Why would the party concede to reforms and risk losing power when, by exploiting MDC leaders’ greed and the electorate’s naivety, it is guaranteed of legitimacy no matter how flawed and illegal the process got.   

“The constitutional amendments are made daily to consolidate Mnangagwa's dictatorship. Out of nowhere HRH Chief Ndiweni comes up with a political slogan "MyRight2Vote" and he calls this a "game-changer" in the 2023 election campaign,” Nomazulu pointed out.

With the 3 million in the diaspora denied the vote, the rural voters cowed into submission, etc. it is no exaggeration to say Zanu PF has rigged the 2023 elections in advance. The elections are, indeed, done and dusted. It is naïve to participate in an election process whose outcome is already done and dusted hoping for a different outcome but only to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy!  

If the people of Zimbabwe allow themselves to be conned into participating in the 2023 elections and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy for another five more years of this corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship, then the nation deserves to suffer the consequences. No one can ever say they were not warned it is insane to keep hoping to win rigged elections!

"Zanu PF has caused an constitutional crisis" says Mutambara - and who is giving junta legitimacy P Guramatunhu

“As we have explained before, both Constitutional Amendments (No 1 and 2) Acts are unconstitutional and illegal,” wrote Professor Arthur Mutambara.

“The three arms of the state (Executive, Judiciary and Legislature) have been brought into unquestionable and dishonourable disrepute by irresponsible, reckless and self-serving activities of the junta.

“This is unacceptable.”

This is true but we must never ever forget that Zimbabwe had golden chance to implement the democratic reforms to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. And we are still stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF to this day because that golden opportunity was wasted. It was none other than Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister in the GNU, and his fellow MDC friends failed to implement even one reform in five years. Why?

I will tell you why. Mugabe bribed Mutambara and company with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the reforms.

They not only sold out on implementing the democratic reforms during the GNU but have participated in flawed elections knowing that doing so would give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. They knew Zanu PF was offering a few gravy train seats as a bribe and that they could not resist.

Arthur Mutambara and company are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections and all this posturing and grandstanding against the two amendments is for one purpose and one purpose only to present themselves as the champions of good governance and of the suffering masses. What Zimbabweans should understand is that by participating in the flawed elections the nation would once again give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. How anyone can argue that is in the national interest, good governance and will end the suffering of the masses beggars belief!

It is clear Zanu PF will not implement any democratic reforms before the 2023 elections. The regime’s vote rigging juggernaut is already going through the gears. In September 2018 President Mnangagwa promised to restore the right to vote of the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora stealth. He has done nothing about it. And so, 3 million compared to 5 million who voted in 2018, 38% of the potential voters, will once again be denied a vote.

In December last year ZEC announce the commission was starting “a massive voter registration exercise”. One thing is certain, there will be no verified voters’ roll for 2023 elections.

On Tuesday 25 May, President Mnangagwa handed the keys of the first bunch of new twin-cab Isuzu Trucks to the Chiefs. All 270 chiefs are going to receive the new trucks. This is nothing new, before the 2018 elections the chiefs got new twin-cab Isuzu Truck, down payment for campaigning for Zanu PF in the elections.

The cost of the twin-cab Isuzu Truck is US$300 000 and total cost of the 270 is US$ 81 million. Small potato considering the nation is losing US$1.2 billion per year from gold smuggling alone. The smugglers and looters are the ones bankrolling the regime’s vote rigging juggernaut.

It is clear as day that the Zanu PF has already rigged the 2023 elections, long before the first ballot is cast. The regime is counting on Mutambara, Chamisa, Biti and all the usual opposition opportunists convince their naïve and gullible supporters to participate in the election process and give the regime legitimacy. The party is dangling the usual few gravy train seats and already the opposition camp is a bee-hive of activity.

“Mnangagwa has shown an extreme lack of leadership - complete dereliction of duty,” continued Mutambara.

“In the midst of a global pandemic and economic meltdown, our country has been plunged into meaningless political shenanigans and a constitutional malaise.”

Shut up! Zanu PF is still in power today because MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU. What leadership did you lot show then!

Mutambara, Chamisa, Biti and the rest in the opposition will drag the nation into yet another flawed and illegal election, give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy just for the sake of getting back on the grave train. We cannot stop them participating but show them for whom they really are - corrupt, incompetent and sell outs whose greed knows no bounds. A totally discredited opposition!  

Zanu PF is not going get legitimacy from the participation in flawed 2023 election by a totally discredited opposition.

Zimbabwe hit by new corona virus wave - where is Chiwenga's 5 star Health care service? N Garikai

 Zimbabwe will have a five star health care service, promised VP Constantino Guveya Chiwenga took over as the country’s health Minister. 

”Things will never be the same again. We are restructuring and reforming our health delivery system. We want to rebuild the structures from village to referral level. Things will never be the same again," he said.

"We have already identified the problems and we do not want a repeat of what was happening before.”

He said that in August 2020, nearly a year ago now. Things have not improved. Indeed, if anything the situation is dire now than even.

Zimbabwe’s health care services have all but collapsed because of decades of being starved of funds. The country has haemorrhaged so many health care workers over the years forced to leave the country in search of a living wage and a future for themselves and their family. As we speak, many nurses are back on strike demanding better wages and working conditions. Government is still failing to provide adequate PPE for the corona virus frontline health care workers. 

The feared new corona virus outbreak is upon us with reports of 1 820 new cases and 26 deaths in one day. Health care workers are amount the new cases with 25 and 3 nurses from Zvishavane Hospital and Claybank Hospital respectively on that list. 

“Nurses have been on strike for the 34 days with only student nurses and those on probation reporting for work at hospitals. Other health workers, fearing to contract the deadly virus, are reportedly taking leave days, forcing some hospitals to shut down even casualty departments that had remained operational,” reported Bulawayo 24. 

“To this end, all nurses including those on probation are advised not to continue to go to work and to withdraw their labour. This is no longer an issue about remuneration only but it is also about their health,” said Enoch Dongo, Zimbabwe Nurses Association president.

“People are dying at home.”  

This only serves to highlight the glaring discrepancy between Zimbabwe’s official 38 682 corona virus cases and 1 586 deaths. All those people who are sick and dying at home are never tested and therefore are never included in the official figures. 

It is worrying that many health care workers should be infected since they are supposed to be all vaccinated by now. But with under 600 000 or 6% of the target 10 million vaccinated, it is quite possible many of the health care workers are yet to be vaccinated. 

Many nations have already vaccinated 70% plus of their people and are set to reach their target herd immunity in the next two or three months. Only VP Chiwenga can answer why Zimbabwe has taken six months since the first vaccines were approved to vaccinated a measly 6% of the target 10 million?

“While covid-19 is spreading all over, the government is not doing anything to capacitate our hospitals. We are surely bound to lose the fight against covid-19 with this sort of approach,” warned Dongo.

The truth is with the hospitals that are so poorly equipped, not even clean running water, no nurses and doctors poorly; of course with have lost the fight against even the common cold much less covid-19! 

VP Chiwenga was only boasting about Zimbabwe a five star health care service. He is just a blundering buffoon whose only care is to remain in power so that he and his fellow Zanu PF cronies can continue to rob the nation blind. 

A lifestyle audit of VP Chiwenga and the Zanu PF ruling elite will show they are the Godfathers of the wholesale looting that has created a filthy rich ruling elite at the expense of the millions now living in abject poverty. The ruling elite have built sprawling palatial mansions, with fleets of posh cars and live extravagant lifestyles. VP Chiwenga has indulged his love of watches; he has over 45 gold watches alone. 

Zimbabwe is not a poor country, it only appears so because the country’s vast wealth is being creamed off to feed the insatiable greed of the ruling elite and their foreign masters. Andrew Flaming, renamed Parerenyatwa Hospital after independence, was a five star hospital. It has long since lost all the star rating.  

What a time for the country’s health care services to collapse! Zimbabwe will pay dear dearly, in lost opportunity and cash plus heartbreaking human suffering and lost lives, for doing nothing these last 41 years whilst the country went to the dogs. And as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs, there will be no meaningful economic recovery, no sound health care, no education, etc.

Zimbabwe will have a five star health care service! That was just the “boastful dog claiming to put out the furnace fire with its punny fart!” as the great Chinua Achebe so aptly put it. 

"How can SA help Zimbabwe?" asked Minister Pandor - what a foolish question to still be asking W Mukori.

 “Ramaphosa's SA remains concerned over Zimbabwe's worsening political situation!” screamed the Bulawayo 24 headlines.

Many Zimbabweans did not even bother to read the article because they have heard it all before. Those who did read the article expecting something new were once again disappointed. “Same shit, different day!” as Rasta man would aptly put it!

ZIMBABWE'S new foreign minister arrived in South Africa on Friday, his first official visit to the country since taking up his position.

Frederick Shava met with in Cape Town.

"I really would like to put the question that I always put to my colleagues, this will be the first time we're having a formal meeting, He's the new minister of foreign affairs and I just want to ask him, how can we help Zimbabwe?" SA’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Naledi Pandor told News24 ahead of her meeting with Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frederick Shava.

"We want to be of help.

"Their stability is very important to our stability. Their economic progress is important to South Africa's economic progress and the South African have access, particularly to low-skilled, labor-intensive jobs".

This is just reminiscent of SA’s President Thambo Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” and denial of the worsen economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe. “Crisis! What crisis?” he remarked in 2008. Fast forward to 2021; other than the musical chair changes of Cyril Ramaphosa and Emmerson Mnangagwa are now the President of SA and Zimbabwe respectively, nothing much has change. 

Following the blatant cheating and wanton violence in Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections, SADC leaders were finally forced to act. They forced Robert Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms and the writing of a new democratic constitution as the roadmap to end Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis.

A Government of National Unity (GNU), comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions was tasked to implement the reforms and write the new constitution. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were expected to lead in this task and not Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies for obvious reasons. 

It was SADC’s responsibility, as the guarantor of the GPA, to ensure Zimbabwe followed the roadmap and restored the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and saved the country from a repeat of the 2008 election barbarism. 

Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends took their eyes off the ball and failed to implement even one reform in the five years of the GNU. The new constitution the nation was steamrolled into accepting in the March 2013 referendum was not even worth the paper it was written on!

SADC leaders made a desperate last minute attempt to have the up coming elections in Zimbabwe postpone until reforms were 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, Director of SAPES Trust, told the 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.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”

As we know MDC leaders ignored the warning and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections and this was repeated again in 2018. By participating in the flawed and illegal elections MDC have giving credibility to the flawed process and, most important of all, legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF.

Whilst no one in their right mind will ever blame SADC for the failure to implement even one reform during the GNU and for the rubbish constitution; there was no excuse why SADC tacitly or otherwise endorse Zimbabwe’s rigged elections. “The (2018) elections went well!” said President Cyril Ramaphosa, knowing fully well that was a lie!

Minister Naledi Pandor is right the economic prosperity of Zimbabwe is the economic prosperity of SA and the rest of SADC. The political stability of Zimbabwe is the political stability of SA and SADC. 

Zimbabwe is facing total economic meltdown, decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country in economic ruins. Unemployment has soared to dizzying height of 90%, the country’s basic services such as education and health care have completely collapsed and 49% of the Zimbabwe population now live in abject poverty. 

Zimbabwe is, in point of fact, a failed state, a Banana Republic, whose economical and political instability are now well established and beyond dispute. It is not a matter of Zimbabwe’s instability may spill over and affect other nation, it spilt over a decade ago now when Zimbabwe’s economy shrunk by a staggering 50% in the period 2000 to 2008 alone and has never recovered. 

“How can we help Zimbabwe?” Minister Naledi Pandor, is asking! What a foolish question when SADC leaders answered the question by proposing the 2008 GPA and begged, literally, to have the Zimbabwe’s 2013  elections postponed until reforms are implemented. 

Minister Naledi Pandor, if you are serious about wanting to help Zimbabwe then you must tell Foreign Minister Frederick Shava that Zimbabwe must revert to the 2008 GPA and implement the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible.

The economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is a man-made crisis, a product of decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule and per se one we could and should have avoided. Decades of failing to end the curse of rigged elections which is the root cause of bad governance have allowed the crisis to morph into a human tragedy that is now spilling beyond Zimbabwe’s borders. 

“Help us to get the sanctions imposed by the West lifted!” Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister must have answered. 

“And while we wait, can we have US$500 million per month budgetary support, SA must write off Zimbabwe’s unpaid electricity bill, . . . . “

Ask a foolish questions and you get a foolish answer! 

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are gearing to rig the 2023 elections, indeed with not even one token reform in place, Zanu PF has rigged the elections in advance. SA and SADC must once again repeat the June 2013 demand to have the elections postponed until the reforms are implemented. 

If Minister Naledi Pandor does not know what is wrong in Zimbabwe and thus what help the country needs to end the tragic situation there, then she should be blind, thick and slow. She really should not even be a Minister! 

Calling Mwonzora Mwonzorewa, after Muzorewa, is one thing making him MDC fall guy is foolish and dangerous P Guramatunhu

 “MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora has often been described as a sellout and likened to Rhodesia-Zimbabwe quisling Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Mwonzora, nicknamed "Mwonzorewa" by critics who are determined to ensure that the Muzorewa analogy sticks for posterity, took over from Thokozani Khupe as party leader at last year's congress,” reported The News Hawk.

The characterisation of Mwonzora as a Mnangagwa puppet no different from Muzorewa as an Ian Smith puppet is spot on. 

As much as Zimbabweans are hungry for meaningful political change to restore the fundament freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote, the same things they were crying for before independence; the people know they will never get them from Mnangagwa just as they knew they would not get them from Smith. 

Ian Smith tolerated Muzorewa as a stooge he could use to give himself legitimacy as representing the blacks. Ian Smith decided how many black MPs Muzorewa was to get and everyone knew the whites controlled everything and called all the shots in the Rhodesia-Zimbabwe. 

Similarly Mnangagwa has the dictatorial powers to ensure Zanu PF wins 2/3 majority and the presidency in any elections and Mwonzora must be content with whatever scraps Zanu PF gives him. Mnangagwa tolerates MDC for the sole purpose of legitimacy. 

But if the truth be told, MDC became a compromised and utterly useless opposition party during 2008 to 2013 GNU. The MDC’s primary task in the GNU was to implement the necessary democratic reforms to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and replace it with a healthy and function democracy. Morgan Tsvangirai and company failed to deliver even one democratic reform. 

The GNU was tasked to draft a new democratic constitution and produced instead a dictator’s creed. Paul Mangwana, the Zanu PF co-chairperson on the parliamentary committee that drafted the constitution could not resist boasting that it was Mugabe who had “dictated” 

MDC leaders, en masse, came out in support of the new constitution. “This is the most democratic constitution ever!” said Professor Welshman Ncube, President of MDC-Ncube and Minister in the GNU. “And I am speaking as a constitutional lawyer in my other life!” He was a retired UZ law Professor. 

“The new constitution is an MDC child!” insisted MDC - T President and Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. 

The people were convinced and approved the new constitution by a staggering 93% in the March 2013 referendum. 

SADC leaders were not so easily fooled and wanted the July 2013 elections postponed until democratic were implemented. “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” they warned Tsvangirai and company. 

MDC leaders paid no heed to the warning and, as the SADC leaders had rightly predicted, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections and thus proving beyond all doubt that the so called “MDC child” democratic constitution was if fact a dictator’s creed dictated by Robert Mugabe himself. 

MDC leaders participating in the 2013 and then 2018 elections as nothing more than Zanu PF’s acolytes, there to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats and a share of the annual Political Party Finance Act payout. President Mnangagwa has since extended the reward to include all the presidential candidate who joined his POLAD. 

It was USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who predicted that Morgan Tsvangirai was “flawed and indecisive character who will become an albatross round the nation’s neck if he got into power!” Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did get into power in the 2008 to 2013 GNU and by failing to implement even one reform and then participating in flawed elections to give the vote rigging Zanu PF they have become the milestone round the nation’s neck, dragging us all deed into the crashing abyss. 

All MDC leaders involved in the 2008 to 2013 GNU have proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. To therefore single out Douglas Mwonzora and a few around him as the corrupt, incompetent and Mnagagwa puppets is wrong and dangerous because it gives the impression that Chamisa and the rest still in the MDC A factions are clean, innocent and the epitome of the competent leaders the nation has been dying for. Nothing could be further from the truth!

It should be remember here that Bishop Tendekayi Abel Muzorewa was once upon a time a darling of the nation. He fall out of favour when he signed his Rhodesia-Zimbabwe agreement with Ian Smith.

Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF leaders were themselves the nation’s liberation heroes and heroines and rightly revered until they imposed the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship. Corruption and mismanagement destroyed the nation’s economy forcing millions into abject poverty and over 30 000 were murdered to establish and retain the dictatorship. 

Mugabe and a few others around him were booted out of power in the military coup of 2017 by Mnangagwa and company. Mugabe and the G40 faction were blamed for all the evil of the 37 years of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule although it was none other than Mnangagwa and many of the coup plotters who had carried out the blatant vote rigging, the wholesale looting, etc. 

Making Mugabe the fall guy for all the evil of Zanu PF of the last 37 years and giving Mnangagwa and company a squawky clean bill of health was a grave mistake and one the nation so regretted. 

Mnangagwa and his coup plotters promised to revive the economy with the clarion call “Zimbabwe is open for business!” Promised to stamp out corruptions, to hold free, fair and credible elections and a host of other things. The regime never kept any of the promises because Zimbabwe was still a pariah state, same as it was under Mugabe.

It is one thing nickname Mwonzora Mwonzorewa after Muzorewa but it would be folly to make him the fall guy of all MDC’s blunders and betrayals and give Chamisa et al a clean bill of health just as we did with Mnangagwa and the coup plotter in 2017. The GNU proved that Chamisa, Biti and the rest in MDC A are just as corrupt and incompetent as Mwonzora. 

Both Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A and Douglas Mwonzora and his MDC-T are set to participate in the flawed and illegal 2023 election just as they did in the 2018 elections. Zanu PF will rig the elections to get 2/3 majority and the presidency and the two parties’ participation will give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

The grime reality of yet another five year term of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule is simply too gustily to contemplate. The election will settle the question of which of the two gentlemen, Chamisa and Mwonzora will have the bragging right to call himself leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition but why has that to be at the expense of once again giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy! 

Douglas Mwonzora is just as corrupt and incompetent as the other MDC leaders Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, David Coltart, etc. They are all peas from the same MDC pod of the 2008 to 2013 GNU era. They will all dragged us into a flawed and illegal 2023 elections for the sake of a few gravy train seats and once again give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. After 41 years of rigged elections we must stop this madness by refusing to participate in these flawed elections. 

We must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections before election. If Zanu PF and MDC cannot implement the reforms, the clearly failed to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, then we must appoint others who can. 

In the grand scheme of things, we will never forgive ourselves if Mwonzorewa sticks and Zanu PF rigs the 2023 elections and we gave the regime legitimacy by participating. We really need to focus on what real matter - stopping Zanu PF getting away with another rigged election. 

Zanu PF voted against UN resolution to protect against genocide - but of course, "Zanu PF ndeye ropa!" N Garikai

 

“ZIMBABWE was one of the few countries that Tuesday voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution seeking to protect vulnerable populations against “genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” Reported New Zimbabwe.

“However, the resolution was adopted after 115 countries including neighbouring South Africa, and Botswana voted favour while 15 including Zimbabwe, voted against.”

Zimbabweans should not be surprised at all. These Zanu PF thugs fought the white colonial rule not to end oppression but to be the new oppressors.

Robert Mugabe and his fellow black nationalists presented themselves as the champions fighting for freedom, justice and liberty. The masses were promised one-man one-vote. This was just cheap propaganda and a clever rallying call to mobilise the masses behind the fight for independence.

During the Lancaster House talks to chart out the roadmap for independent Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF nationalists made it clear they wanted a one-party state and not a multi-party democratic Zimbabwe. The British arm-twisted them to accept a multi-party democratic constitution.  

By the time the elections were announced, Mugabe and company had already hatched a plan to ensure Zanu PF will win the elections. Zanu PF’s campaign mantra was that if the party did not win the elections then the bush war will continue. The long cherished one-man one-vote clarion promise to the masses was ditch without so much as by your leave.

The people voted to end the war. They knew better than argue looking up the business end of an AK47 rifle.  

Mugabe and company went on to consolidated Zanu PF’s strangle hold on power by launching the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre that forced the late Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu to join Zanu PF. Mugabe got his long cherish wish a de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship.

As the country’s new oppressors Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have never seen anything wrong them riding roughshod over the regime’s critics and opponents. Zanu PF leaders believe they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe and therefore anything they do, rigging elections and even committing mass murder, to secure the party’s iron grip on power is divinely sanctioned and authorised.

Indeed, it would have been hypocritical the regime had not voted against the UN resolution protecting vulnerable populations against genocide, etc. because Zanu PF has committed similar crimes itself in the past and will do so again in the future as its grip on absolute power is totally dependent on such underhand brutality!

“Zanu PF ndeye ropa!” (Zanu PF is not averse to shedding innocent blood!) Zanu PF leaders have often boasted.

"MDC must avoid inter-party fighting to win 2023" - subtleties of "rigging" are greatest mystery to simpleton N Garikai

 

The one thing Zanu PF apologist and propagandist have done well since the 2008 to 2013 GNU is convince the brain-dead MDC leaders and their supporters that the democratic reforms SADC leaders set out in the 2008 Global Political Agreement that gave rise to the GNU were all unnecessary because MDC had massive popular public support. MDC will win the elections regardless how much Zanu PF tries to rig the elections. And the result was that MDC leaders failed to implement even one token reform during the GNU.

When Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections to secure a landslide victory, Morgan Tsvangirai and many of his MDC leaders were shocked! They were speechless!

MDC-T resolved the party will never again participate in future elections until all the democratic reforms were implemented. “No reform! No elections!” The other MDC factions soon followed suit and adopted the resolution as their position too.

The Zanu PF double-agents knew MDC leaders’ weak point, Achilles’ heel, was greed. As long as Zanu PF continued to dangle the few gravy train seats to all those who participated in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be they knew the MDC leaders’ resolve to demand reforms before elections will disappear like the morning mist. All the double agents needed to work on is provide the excuse why MDC lost the 2013 elections – fit that and victory was certain.

We are being told here that opposition will win 2023 elections is the various factions are united.

“Avoid inter-party and intraparty fighting,” wrote Canisio Mudzimu.

“The infighting and Mickey Mouse battles that have characterised the opposition in this country have managed to divert its attention from the reason for its existence — opposition.

“It is paradoxical that the energy, resources, time and effort expended on the fights have moved opposition parties' eyes from the ball and by the time they smell the coffee, it will be too late.”

What Mudzimu is conveniently forgetting is that the two MDC factions he is arguing to unite contested the July 2018 elections one united coalition, the MDC Alliance. Once again, Zanu PF prevailed because the party rigged the elections.

Zanu PF has used its carte blanche coercive powers to reduce the rural voters, constituting 60% plus of the votes, into nothing short of medieval serfs beholden to their overbearing landlords. Every time the party has felt its strangle hold on the rural populous threatened the party has gone up a gear to counter the threat.

It is no secret that President Mnangagwa’s cocky “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra is dead in the water. The flood of investors, he was sure would come, has never materialised. By blatantly rigging the 2018 elections Mnangagwa confirmed to all, especially the shrewd investors, that Zimbabwe was still a Banana Republic, a pariah state, and the November 2017 military coup had changed nothing of substance.

Investors have shied away from investing in Zimbabwe because it is notoriously difficult to do business in a pariah state. And as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery.

The Zimbabwe economy has all but collapsed, unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as health care and education have all but collapsed, 49% of the population now live in abject poverty. The people are restless for change and we all know desperate people do desperate things like defy the overbearing Zanu PF landlords.

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are not going to give up their electoral advantage without a fight and have thus responded to the threat of electoral rebellion by going up a gear or two on the party’s coercive machine. Starve those who dare challenge the party’s authority.   

“Some Zanu-PF leaders purchased all the subsidized mealie-meal and went on to sell it to Zanu-PF members only, thus depriving thousands of people desperately needing the staple food, but did not have Zanu-PF membership cards,” reported Justina Mukoko’s Zimbabwe Peace Project.

“The partisan distribution of government food aid is a recurring problem in most rural areas which have been extensively reported on by various civil society organisations. It has left thousands of people food insecure when they desperately need food assistance during the difficult times of COVID-19.”

President Mnangagwa has already started mobilising the war veterans and the party’s youth militia, the green bombers, these are the party’s foot-soldiers if the party should see the need to go up a few more gears to coerce the voters. In the 2008 elections Zanu PF launched the “Operation Mavhotera papi!” to punish the voters for having reject Mugabe and the party in the March vote. The party went into overdrive, as the party’s foot-soldiers supported by the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services personal destroyed property worth millions of dollars, harassed, beat and/or raped millions and over 500 were murdered.

“What was accomplished by the bullet cannot be changed by the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe to spur the wanton violence on!

In 2018 MDC A was a united opposition but failed to win the elections because Zanu PF rigged the elections. Why is that simple reality so difficult to comprehend?

This idea that the opposition will win rigged elections is as nonsensical as someone who stubbornly continue betting on the coin landing Tail even thou the last 100 tosses plus have landed Head! The village idiot cannot comprehend the reality of a dodgy coin with two Heads! Stick two coins Tail side to Tail side and you have a dodgy coin with two Heads!

After 41 years of trying to win rigged elections, has it ever occurred to Mudzimu that we can have the democratic reforms implemented so we finally hold free, fair and credible elections!

Of course, it is insane to keep participating in flawed and illegal elections and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. The alternative is to refuse to participate deny Zanu PF legitimacy as happened in 2008 only this time we must make sure the GNU implements the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.

Professor J Moyo, if you are not a Zanu PF mole then why are you giving the regime legitimacy W Mukori

 

“Some people have said to me, ‘If you want us to believe you are no longer working for Zanu PF then tell us how Zanu PF rigged the elections!’ They say that expecting some Mafia like, Movie like, ways that are used to rig the elections. No!” Professor Jonathan Moyo told his audience in a recent SAPES Trust panel discussion.

“The major, major thing with ZEC vote rigging is undercounting the opposition votes by having 14 or 15 ballots in a supposedly 10 ballot – lot; whilst overcounting Zanu PF votes by having 7 or 8 ballots in a 10 ballot -lot. ZEC will do the same with 10 lot – bundles.”

He went on explain the critical importance of having election agents, “each Polling Station should have at least four election agents”, he said.

Even if one had eagle-eyed election agents who saw to it that very candidate, Zanu PF or opposition, 10 ballot – lot had exactly 10 ballots, every bundle had exactly 10 lots, etc. Counting may be the “major, major thing” still it is not the only thing that can go wrong.

Even the eagle-eyed elections agents will not be able to check everything that all the ZEC officials especially since it is common knowledge that very often loyal Zanu PF officials and/or CIO double up as ZEC officials. The eagle-eyed election agent will not know that known Zanu PF supporters who are not on the voters’ roll are being allowed to vote whilst opposition supporters are being denied the vote under the pretext they are not on the voters roll when they are.

The 2008 elections were a watershed in that they revealed the wide spectrum of Zanu PF’s vote rigging capabilities from the blatant cheating in the six weeks “recounting” of the March vote to the use of wanton violence to turn over Tsvangirai’s 73%, according to Mugabe’s Freudian slip, to a massive 84% for Mugabe.

The 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) was a SADC initiative in which Zimbabwe was tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the vote rigging of 2008 would never be repeated ever again. The primary task of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the democratic reforms. Sadly, not even one reform was implemented.

SADC leaders wanted Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections to be postponed until the democratic reforms were implemented. “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who attended the June 2013 SADC summit in Maputo.

Zanu PF refused to have the elections postponed and played their trump card. Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in the GNU called a press conference to explain.

“As Zanu PF we are of course contesting the idea that there is any need for reforms whether its media reforms, whether it’s Posa, whether it’s Aippa, we are contesting and we made it clear in the summit that the MDCs are accustomed to making generalised calls for reforms," said Chinamasa.

“In particular I made a point that in 2011, July 2011 they were making these generalised calls and I specifically asked them to make their proposals specific and to table them with the forum of negotiators but up to now since 2011, no specific proposals to Posa or Aippa or to any of the pieces of legislation they complain about have been tabled for our consideration.

“We can only implement that which we have agreed, we cannot implement disagreements, they are not implementable. We can only implement that which we have agreed. If we do not agree then there is nothing to implement, until we agree on a particular reform then there is nothing to reform. If there are disagreements then it is up to the political parties to take those issues to an election so that those disagreements are part of the election manifestos of the respective parties...”

Professor Jonathan Moyo attended the post SADC summit press conference hosted by Minister Chinamasa. Of course, Professor Moyo knew the full import of both SADC leaders concerns on holding elections without first implementing the reforms and of Chinamasa’s statement blaming MDC leaders for having failed to submit reform proposals.

What is really infuriating is that MDC leaders themselves knew Zanu PF was rigging the 2013 elections and the “obvious” thing to have done was to boycott the elections. They continued and participated regardless out of greed as David Coltart readily admitted in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“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,” wrote 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.”

David Coltart was an MDC-N Minister in the 2008 to 2013 GNU.

The July 2013 Zimbabwe elections went ahead with no democratic reform in place and Loo Behold Zanu PF blatantly rigged the plebiscite just as SADC leaders had predicted. By participating in the flawed elections MDC leaders gave the process “credibility” and by extension gave the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, as MDC leaders knew.

It is important to emphasise that once MDC leaders had ignored SADC leaders’ warning not to participate in the flawed elections, the regional leaders were powerless censure Zanu PF for rigging the elections.

In 2018 history repeated itself because nothing had change, not even a token reform was implemented since the rigged elections in 2013, and so Zanu PF once again blatantly rigged the elections. All the opposition parties participated giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

History is set to repeat itself yet again in 2023 because, again, not even one token reform has been implemented and with two years left it is too late to implement any. It is clear, Zanu PF will rig the elections.

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A, Douglas Mwonzora and his MDC–T and all the other opposition politicians who participated in the last election will do so again giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Frankly, it would be hypocritical for any of them to boycott the elections to demand reforms because they did not do so in the past.

The SAPES Trust topic of discussion was “The Stampede Towards 2023 Elections: Is History about to Repeat itself in Zimbabwe?”

Of course, one would expect Professor Jonathan Moyo, a political academic and seasoned political practitioner, to know what the 2008 to 2013 GNU’s primary task was to implemented the raft of democratic reforms to stop the blatant vote rigging of 2008 being repeated ever again. Professor Moyo knows not even one reform saw the light of day, knows that Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders to forget about the reforms and, most important of all, he knows until we implement the reforms there will be no free, fair and credible elections. And knows that the opposition’s participation in these flawed elections is only giving legitimacy to vote rigging Zanu PF!

Yet Professor Jonathan Moyo has not only encouraged Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A to participate in the flawed 2018 elections and is he is doing so again for the 2023 elections knowing fully well this is foolish. It is no secret that Professor Moyo was Zanu PF’s chief strategist and propagandist and has played a major role in the establishment and retention of the de facto one-party dictatorship. And so one comes full circle to where we started and ask again; ‘If you want us to believe you are no longer working for Zanu PF then tell us why you want us to participate in rigged elections?”