"MDC A reiterates call for electoral reforms" - but, of course, will participate in 2023 regardless N Garikai

 ZEC has barred MDC Alliance from attending a ZEC organised all political parties meeting and the reaction from the MDC A spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere has been “full of sound and fury signifying nothing,” as William Shakespeare would say.

“Hon. Madzimure of the MDC Alliance has been barred from ZEC’s provincial consultative meeting for political parties which is scheduled for tomorrow in Harare. ZEC has an obligation to consult all stakeholders and to be independent,” said Mahere on Twitter.

ZEC has done a lot worse things than barring opposition members from attending stakeholders’ meetings which, from past experience, are just time wasting talk-shops. MDC A leaders know that ZEC; as is the case with the rest of the judiciary, Police, Army and all the other state institutions; is incapable of delivering free, fair and credible elections because it is a Zanu PF department in all but name.

“We reiterate our call for electoral reform and constitutional conduct on the part of ZEC,” continued the effervescent Mahere. 

The 2008 Zimbabwe elections were a watershed because Zanu PF showed the full array of the party’s ability to rig elections. The part stepped in to stop ZEC announcing the result of the March 2008 vote and after six weeks of cooking up the figures Morgan Tsvangirai’s 73%, by Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, was whittled down to 47%, enough to force the run-off. 

As far as Zanu PF was concerned, the run-off was all about punishing the people for having rejected the party in the March vote. And the people were punished; property was destroyed, the people were beaten, raped, abducted and over 500 were murdered in cold blood. 

SADC leaders forced Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement a raft of democratic reforms to restore the independence of ZEC, Police, Army, etc. and stop a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence of 2008.

The GPA established the Government of National Unity (GNU) in which Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T and Arthur Mutambara and his MDC-M constituted the major partners. During the five years of the GNU, MDC leaders could do a lot more than “reiterate the call for democratic reforms”; it was in their power to implement the reforms! 

Sadly, it was not to be; MDC leaders failed to implement even one token reform in five years of the GNU. Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts buried in the feeding trough, MDC leaders forgot about the reforms for five years. 

SADC leaders were the guarantor of the 2008 GPA and they made one last minute bid to get the reforms implement. They wanted the scheduled July 2013 elections postponed until the 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 of SAPES 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.

“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 Tsvangirai and company ignored the SADC leaders’ warning and participated in the 2013 elections for the same reason the MDC leaders had failed to implement the reforms during the GNU - greed. MDC leaders knew Zanu Pf was offering a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition and they found the bribe irresistible. 

At it 2014 MDC-T congress the party resolved they would never participate in future elections until the reforms were implemented. “No reform, no elections!” they said. 

By the end of the following year, 2015, it was clear the party was going to participate in future elections even if not even one token reform was implemented. Greed had once again got the better of MDC leaders.   

By participating in the flawed and illegal elections, MDC A is gives the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and in return the MDC leaders get a share of the spoils of power. 

MDC A’s repeated calls for reforms are worse than Judas Iscariot’s futile gesture of throwing away the thirty pieces of silver after the deed was done. At least Judas was sincere in his remorse since he not only throw away the blood money but went on hang himself. MDC leaders are stubbornly refusing to admit they sold-out in failing to implement any reforms but worst of all are now the ones keeping the Zanu PF dictatorship in power as long as the later keeps paying them the thirty pieces of silver. 

“We reiterate our call for electoral reform and constitutional conduct on the part of ZEC,” continued the effervescent Mahere. 

“We decry partisan conduct that serves the interests of the regime in Harare. The only explanation for this unusual conduct by ZEC is that they are being unconstitutionally influenced to try and decimate the main opposition to serve the interests of a few elites. The people will not allow this to happen.”

It is happening, Zanu PF has been rigging elections for 41 years and counting and it is you, MDC leaders, not the people, who are allowing this to happen. The people have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party will implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for. After 21 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC has not implemented even one token reform. 

Indeed, instead of implementing the reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections it is MDC that is now giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship. 

It was USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who warned in a leaked cable to Washington that Morgan Tsvangirai was “a flawed and indecisive character who will be come an albatross round the nation’s neck if he ever got into power.” 

MDC leaders have been in power, they have tasted power and are now as addicted to it as the Zanu PF thugs, and to end the Zanu PF dictatorship we now have the added task of having to fight MDC first. MDC leaders have failed to implement any reforms and yet they not only refuse to admit failure, they are fighting to remain in office. MDC leaders have indeed become the milestone round the nation’s neck dragging us down into the crashing abyss. 

UN to access negative impact caused by West sanctions - and UN sanctions on Rhodesia didn't hurt N Garikai

 UN special rapporteur Alena Douhan, from Belarus, is expected to be in Zimbabwe from on October 18 to 28 at the invitation of government.

"She is currently seeking the views of all relevant stakeholders to inform the thematic and geographical focus of the visit and subsequent reporting," reads the UN Human Rights High Commissioner statement. 

"In order to gather first-hand information related to the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights in a specific country, enabling her to conduct her assessment and evaluation of such impacts, and thus to prepare relevant recommendations and guidelines on means to mitigate or eliminate these adverse impacts, the special rapporteur undertakes field visits.”

The UN is the custodian of international law and the sanctions imposed on Zanu PF ruling elite and a selection of companies were not approved by the UN and per se are illegal in accordance to international law. The UN special rapporteur does not need to visit Zimbabwe to investigate and report on that!

Sanctions, targeted or not, will cause some economic disruption and the consequences of such disruption are bound to be felt by everyone directly or indirectly, sooner or later. So the answer to the question; are sanctions causing economic hardships to the ordinary people, can only be yes. 

Accessing the severity of the economic hardships caused by the sanctions is more difficult because there are a multitude of other causes to the country’s economic meltdown. One way to access the effect of the sanctions would be to compare the economic activities of the individuals and companies on the targeted sanctions before the sanction and after. All attempts to get such details have been drawn a blank. 

Most people have estimated the total value of the frozen assets at US$ 500 million to US$ 1 billion resulting in US$100 million of lost business for the country. This is nothing compared to the US$1.2 billion per years lost to gold smugglers, Mugabe revealed the nation was being “swindled” of US$ 15 billion in diamond, etc. 

When President Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, he promised “zero tolerance on corruption”. He has yet to arrest one diamond swindler and recover one dollar. If anything, the looting is worse now as it has spread to other areas with the emergence of cartels in finance, fuel procurement, etc.  

The most common complain from the Zanu PF government is that sanctions are stopping the regime from accessing financial assistance from such bodies as IMF, WB and Paris Club. These financial institutions stopped assisting Zimbabwe in 2000, long before the 2001 sanctions were imposed, because the country’s national debt had already ballooned in two decades to US$10 billion and the regime not failing to service the debts. 

After falling out with the IMF, etc., the late Robert Mugabe came up with his “Look East” policy and Zimbabwe started doing business with far east, especially China. The Chinese too soon stopped giving Zimbabwe any financial assistance and loans for the same reason IMF stopped - Zimbabwe was a bad debtor! 

A recent Auditor General report showed that Zimbabwe had wasted US$890 million of donor funds to help alleviate the economic hardships brought about by the corona virus pandemic. It is little wonder then that the international community has been loathed to give Zimbabwe even humanitarian aid, a consequence that has made the human suffering even worse.

The reason why Zimbabwe is in such an economic and political mess is because the nation has been stuck for 41 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime that has rigged elections to stay in power. 

Zanu PF will be telling the UN rapporteur that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the sanctions. The very fact that the visit is taking place is a great victory because the regime is desperate to draw attention away from gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, the real big causes of the economic meltdown. 

The regime is also keen to use sanctions as the lightening conductor drawing criticism away from its failure to hold free, fair and credible elections, a big issue as the 2023 elections approach.

West imposed the sanction on the Zanu PF leaders because of the regime’s bad human rights record including the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. There is no denying Zimbabwe has failed to hold free and fair elections ever since the country’s independence in 1980.

If UN sanctions against Ian Smith’s Rhodesia were justified and the economic hardship by the ordinary people were a price worth paying to end white colonial oppression then the against this Zanu PF regime are justified too because the nation is suffering under the same yoke of oppression. The hypocrites calling for the lifting of the sanctions today were the ones demanding the imposition of sanctions against Rhodesia. Sanctions hurt but political oppression hurt even more. Oppression is oppression regardless of the colour, gender or creed of the oppressor!

If it was not for countries like China, whose human rights record is as dirty as they come, Zimbabwe would be on fully fledged UN sanctions! 

"Register to vote if you have had enough of Zanu PF" said the deceitful to the insane! P Guramatunhu

 “Register To Vote If You Have Had Enough Of Zanu PF” was the headline of the article in Zimeye / Newsday. 

Reading a few lines was enough to evoke memories of my first visit to Ingutsheni Mental Hospital in Bulawayo. 

My mother and I were visiting my aunt and her family. My uncle was one of the a health worker at the Hospital and lived in the houses just outside the high security fence enclosing the Hospital grounds. 

The mental patients were encourage to take part in physical activities such as playing football, watering the garden, etc. I observed one patient watering the garden with a leaking bucket. He fetched the water from a concrete tank and had to carry it 50 m or so to the vegetable bed. The leak was so bad that by the time he got to the bed, there was very little water left in the bucket. 

He carried the bucket on his head and was soaked through and through in water and mud. 

The health care worker, who had been keeping an eye on the patient, casually told his charge that he has the problem with the leaking bucket. The patient looked at the bucket and from his countenance it was clear the penny had finally dropped - he had a leaking bucket! 

“I will carry the bucket on my shoulder!” announced the patient with triumph. 

It was a hot day and the soaking helped to keep the patient cool. No harm done! We all laughed at the sheer insanity of it all, he was a mental case, and yet we all felt miserably sorry that a follow human being should suffer such an infliction! 

I felt the same sickening feeling reading through the Newsday article. This was insanity at a national scale because I know the views expressed in the article are the views of many Zimbabweans out there!

“It is not fair to say Zimbabweans deserve the leaders they have. Whether through fear or otherwise, many in this land voted Zanu-PF into power,” argued the Newsday article.

So if “many in this land voted Zanu PF into power” and it really does not matter whether they did it under coercion then we deserve this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. 

 “If there was any rigging or intimidation, it was done by Zimbabweans. And so is the stealing that is rampant in government,” continued the Newsday lunatic. 

“If”! After 41 years of rigged elections, this is a settled matter. It is foolish to ignore the reality of rigged elections given the nation has not escape the ensuing tragic consequence of the rigged elections - being stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship. Just because the rigging “was done by Zimbabweans” does not make it alright or turn the tragic consequences into a pleasure!

In the March 2008 election, when the Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut was force to lay idle for the first time since independence, the people did vote freely without fear or coercion. Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 73% of the vote according to Robert Mugabe’s own Freudian slip. 

But before ZEC could announce the results the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut was switched on and swung back into action! After six weeks of cooking up the vote count; MDC’s parliamentary majority was reduced to single figure and Tsvangirai’s 73% was whittled down to 47%, enough to force a presidential run-off. 

During the run-off the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut went into overdrive. As far as Zanu PF was concerned the run-off was all about punishing the people of Zimbabwe for having rejected the party and Mugabe in the March vote. 

The party launched a military style Operation “Mavhotera papi?” (Whom did you vote for?)  A rhetorical question whose answer was the wanton violence dished out by Zanu PF operatives backed by the Police, Army, CIO and Prison Service personal. 

“What was accomplished by the bulleted cannot be undone by the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe, to remind all what the wanton violence was about. Mugabe “won” the run-off with 84% of the vote; the landslide victory was never in any doubt, the people had learned their lesson.

SADC leaders refused to recognised the 2008 elections as a free, fair and credible elections and refused to accept Mugabe and his Zanu PF as the legitimate government. The region body forced Mugabe to accept the need for the country to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections and the decommissioning of the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut. 

Sadly, not even one democratic reform was implemented in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut emerged out of the GNU years untouched and it is primed and going up through the gears as the 2023 elections approach. 

“The activists’ work will go up in smoke if the youths do not register to vote and if Parliament does not ensure that the Registrar-General and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) work according to the dictates of the Constitution,” announced the triumphant Newsday.

“Parliament ought to hold the Executive to account, but it is found wanting.” 

The rigged 2018 elections delivered a landslide Zanu PF parliament. How can the same Parliament now “ensure” ZEC or any other state institutions delivery free, fair and credible elections when  parliament itself is but a part of the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut? 

The corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent MDC leaders not only wasted the golden opportunity during the GNU to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut opposition. The lunatics are off call for mass voter registration, mass voting, etc. and none of which will slow down the Zanu PF the vote rigging juggernaut much less stop it. 

It took the people of Zimbabwe nearly 20 years for them to finally accept that Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent and, worst of all, ruthless tyrants who were riding roughshod over them, denying them the basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. The people reached the consensus on the need for democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and restore the people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

The people have risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend into power on the understanding the party would implement the reforms to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC leaders have failed to implement even one reform. Ever since the GNU debacle the MDC lunatics have been participating in flawed and illegal elections to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power. 

How long will it take for the people of Zimbabwe to finally open their eyes and mind and finally realise the MDC leaders have all but abandoned their task of implementing the reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. 

MDC leaders do not believe Zanu PF will ever lose an election in which the thugs have carte blanche powers to rig, they only pretend to deceive the gullible and naive public. It is the people of Zimbabwe themselves who are insane to believe MDC leaders have Winning In Rigged Elections strategies, especially after 41 years of rigged elections! 

"Sanctions against Zimbabwe are setback to stability" - a feeble excuse and an insult N Garikai

 "Sanctions against Zimbabwe are a setback to stability in our region. Botswana therefore calls on the international community to end sanctions against Zimbabwe," said President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana addressing 76th session of the UN General Assembly. 

This is music to President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies’ ears but it is rubbing hot chillis into eyes of every long suffering Zimbabwean out there. 

There a mountain of evidence proving beyond all reasonable doubt that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown are 41 years and counting of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and the rank lawlessness that have earned the country the pariah state status. 

A report from Zimbabwe’s own Auditor General revealed that US$890 million of donor funds to help with the corona virus has either been looted or otherwise wasted. Zimbabwe is losing a staggering US$1.2 billion per year to gold smugglers alone. 

Ever since the imposition of the sanctions the regime has repeatedly failed to put a definitive figure on the financial loses brought on by the sanctions. The truth is the financial loses are but a tiny fraction to the financial loses caused by corruption and mismanagement.

Indeed, soon after the West imposed sanctions, Mugabe came up with his “Look East” policy which supposedly meant to counter the sanctions. And ever since the regime has boasted of various measure to guarantee national economic prosperity regardless of the sanctions. 

The reality on the ground has been one of economic decline before the sanctions were imposed and the decline has continued after the sanctions were imposed. During the 2008 to 2013 GNU when Zanu PF was forced to abandon some of the party’s disastrous economic policies the economy registered a 12% recovery in 2009 up from minus 6% the previous year although the sanctions remain in place. All proving that sanctions are NOT the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess!

Indeed, Zimbabwe has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 41 years and counting because the party rigged elections. Ever since the late 1990s Zimbabweans have been calling for democratic change, changes to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. 

The people have risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends on the promise the party would deliver the democratic changes the nation has been dying for all these years. Sadly, MDC leaders have proven to be corrupt and incompetent and have failed to bring about even one democratic change.

Still, every Zimbabwean with half a brain knows that to get out of the mess we find ourselves in, the country must implement the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections. 

It is patronising, to say the least, SADC leaders to be parroting Zanu PF propaganda of blaming sanctions for Zimbabwe’s ills when they know Zanu PF corruption and mismanagement are the real causes. 

We, in Zimbabwe welcome all the help we can get in our fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and will accept and respect those nations and individuals who refuse to lift a finger to help. What we will not accept is the insults of those who decide to side with the Zanu PF thugs. We do not accept Zanu PF’s denial of our basic freedoms and rights. 

By denying the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections in advance and elections must be condemned in advance. The attempt to link the denial of the diaspora vote to sanctions is an insult because the right to vote is not a privilege or bargaining chip.

It is us, the people of Zimbabwe, the ruling party, the opposition and us the ordinary people, who must share the blame for the country finding itself stuck in this economic and political mess for 41 years. Still there are some outsiders who have helped us land in this mess and that is intolerable especially from those nations who have routines held free, fair and credible elections and therefore have no excuse for giving a thumbs-up to Zanu PF rigged elections! 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political instability is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections - the west imposed sanctions are just a feeble excuse and scapegoat. 

Ratify AU charter "to promote free elections" - focus on basics like verified voters' roll N Garikai

 Veritas, a Zimbabwe based legal think-tank, is arguing the Zanu PF government to complete the ratification of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) before the 2023 general elections in order to promote free and fair elections.

Zimbabwe signed ACDEG on March 21, 2018, but has not yet ratified it, according to the African Union (AU) status list for the charter which is on its website.

"Whatever the reason for the delay in ratification, government risks the accusation that it no longer subscribes to the ideals of democracy, free and fair elections and good governance embodied in the charter," Veritas said.

Yes ratifying the AU charter would give organisations like Veritas one more yard stick with which to measure Zimbabwe’s election process. But if the truth be told, Zimbabwe elections have routinely failed to meet even the most basic and common sense requirements. 

ZEC is required by law to produce a verified voters’ roll at least one month before the elections, for example. In the country’s 41 years of independence,  ZEC has not only failed to produce a verified voters’ roll on time but has never ever produced a verifies voters’ roll. Never ever!

Since December last year ZEC has been on a “mass voter registration exercise”. If the commission was committed to producing a verified voters’ roll, it would have the voters roll by Polling Station available for inspection and verification. No such luck!  

Zanu PF Acting National Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa, announce in June that the three million Zimbabweans in the diaspora, by government’s own report, will once again be denied the vote. During his UN General Assembly visit in September 2018, his first as President of Zimbabwe, President Mnangagwa promised diaspora vote in 2023. Now the regime has reverted to its default setting of cherry picking who can and cannot vote. 

According to ZEC’s results President Mnangagwa won the rigged 2018 elections 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast votes which is far less than the 3 million in the diaspora denied the vote. So 3 out of 8 potential voters or 37% were denied the vote.

The EU had a 240 member Election Observer Mission in Zimbabwe for the 2018 elections and they dismissed the whole election as a farce.   

“Notably, major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party,” stated EU Mission Final Report. 

“Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. 

“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

The EU Mission report gave a list of recommended reforms, most of them are obvious and common sense, to be implemented to ensure free and fair elections in future. Zanu PF has ignored the report and has not implemented even one reform.

”With Zimbabwe coming up for a United Nations Universal Periodic Review and also seeking admission to the Commonwealth and needing foreign investment, Veritas urges government to deposit the Instrument of Ratification of the charter at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa,” continued Veritas.

The Commonwealth was ready to readmit Zimbabwe if the country’s 2018 elections were free, fair and credible. Zanu PF rigged the elections and the application was thrown out!

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are illegitimate per se because the 2018 election process did not meet international standards. The regime is content with the modicum of legitimacy derived from the following:

1. Both AU and SADC have endorsed the flawed and illegal 2018 elections as “substantially free and fair”. The continental and regional bodies are renowned for measuring elections with a foot-long yard stick instead of the international recognised standard three-foot long yard stick.

1. By participating in droves the Zimbabwe opposition gave credibility to the flawed and illegal elections; if Zimbabweans themselves are happy with the one-foot long yard stick standard, it is for Zimbabweans alone to decide and outsiders must respect the decision.

Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections and is laying the ground work to get away with it. The regime’s excuse for denying the diaspora vote is that party officials cannot campaign for support because of the sanctions imposed by the West which include travel ban. A feeble excuse, one does not condescend to punishing his children because they quarrelled with the neighbour. 

Still, Zanu PF has already roped in SADC leaders to believe sanctions are the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems. The regime is working on getting both SADC and AU turning a blind-eye, at the very least, to Zanu PF’s blatant cherry picking of who can and cannot vote. 

Meanwhile Zanu PF taken full advantage of the incompetence within the opposition camp to sow even more division and confusion. Besides the few gravy train seats and the share of annual Political Party Finance Act payout Mnangagwa added generous perks to those who join POLAD; to entice the opposition to participate in the 2023 elections regardless how flawed and illegal process happened to be. 

Indeed instead of wasting time on getting Zanu PF to ratify the AU charter, Veritas would do well educating the ordinary Zimbabweans on the need for such basics as verified voters’ roll and the folly of participating in flawed elections only to give legitimacy to the vote rigging party and its surrogate opposition sell-out partners.

When it comes to Zimbabwe's 41 years and counting of rigged elections - it takes three to tango W Mukori

 When it comes to Zimbabwe’s rigged elections - it takes three to tango. The ruling party Zanu PF, the MDC opposition and the ordinary Zimbabweans have all played a part in historic fact that Zimbabwe has never ever held free, fair and credible elections. Never ever, so far!

“One man, one vote!” was the blacks’ rallying call in the fight to end white colonial oppression and exploitation.

Every black Rhodesian, as the country was called then, understood why they needed a vote; blacks were third class citizens whose economic and social needs were considered last after those of the first and second class citizens. As third class citizens, blacks had no political rights, notably no vote and thus no meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

The blacks were the native of Rhodesia, not the white colonialists; this was the blacks’ ancestral land. How can they then be denying a meaningful say in the governance of their own ancestral land! 

“One man, one vote!” was notion that was both simple and logical it is no surprise that it was universally embraced by all blacks in Zimbabwe and, indeed, all blacks in Africa.

“Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else will follow.” said one of Africa’s most illustrious Black Nationalist and philosopher, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President. 

It is now 41 years after Zimbabwe gained her independence, marking the end of white colonial rule, and yet the country is yet to hold its first free, fair and credible elections. After 41 years, “One man, one vote!” and the right to having a meaningful say in the governance of the country still remains an  aspiration. Why?

By the time Zimbabwe held her first elections where blacks were allowed to vote, Robert Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF nationalists, had already decided they wanted independent Zimbabwe to be a one-party, Zanu PF, state. Zanu PF’s campaign message in the 1980 elections was that if the party did not win the elections, the bush war would continue. 

Of course, the people voted to end the war. And, of course,  that was the very antithesis of a free, fair and credible elections and a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

Mugabe launched the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre whose primary purpose was to force the late Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu party to join Zanu PF and thus setting the stage for the imposing of the de facto one-party dictatorship. On paper, the country was a multi-party democracy and so Zanu PF was obliged to hold regular elections, which the party rigged and won. 

The 2008 elections have become a land make elections in that Zanu PF had to resort to blatant cheating and wanton violence, the worst the country had ever seen, to retain power. 

“What was won by the gun cannot be undone by the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe, as the war veterans, the party militia and the thousands of Army, Police and CIO personal behind the wanton violence ran amok. 

Robert Mugabe and now Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have always viewed Zimbabwe as their country by conquest and they and they alone have the divine right to govern the country as they see fit. They could therefore never uphold “One man, one vote!” and its sanctimonious and uncompromising demand for “meaningful say” because it conflicted with their cherished goal of one-party state and no regime change!

By the late 1990s, it was clear to most Zimbabweans that as long as Zanu PF continues to enjoy the carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections, they, the ordinary people, will never have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The national consensus was that the nation needed to implement democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. The nation needed to restore “One man, one vote!”

Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their political party in 1999 to ride on the popular demand for democratic change and it was no surprised they called the party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party will deliver democratic change.

After 22 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU), MDC has failed to implement even one token democratic change. Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company to forget the reforms during the GNU, when the country had its best chance ever to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship.  

Ever since the 2008 to 2013 GNU MDC debacle and sell-out, the party has all but abandoned all hope of implementing any democratic reforms and deliver the long awaited “One man, one vote!” Chamisa and company cannot call for the implementation of democratic reforms without having to answer why they failed to implement even one reform when they had the golden chance to do so during the GNU.

Ever since the GNU Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends have participated in flawed and illegal elections, knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections, for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away to entice the opposition to participate. By participating the opposition is giving credibility to the flawed process and, by extension, give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

The people themselves have been their own worst enemy in that they have never taken the trouble to understand what it would take to guarantee “One man, one vote!” Ever since the national consensus on the need for democratic change; the people have repeated the MDC slogans calling for change without ever what the changes are much less how they would be implemented. 

Of course, if the people knew what the democratic changes were, etc. then they would know the GNU was a golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus comprehend the full import of MDC’s betrayal. They would also understand the sheer folly of participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. 

As it is, the people have, at best, inkling the 2023 elections are not going to be free, fair and credible and still they are as keen as mustard to participate. They have bought into Nelson Chamisa and MDC A lie that the opposition has devised Winning In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies.  All attempts to show these WIRE strategies are nothing but recycled arguments that have been tried and failed, have been dismissed with impatience and even hostility!

“All you ever talk about is rigged elections and the need to implement reforms! Talk about something different!” If I have heard that said once, I have heard it said a hundred thousand times!

An illustrative example straight out of children story of the buffoon who would not clean his ears. When he was stone-deaf and still he insisted there must be another cause and not ear wax although he had by then a mushroom stock sticking out of each ear like a tortoise emerging out of its shell! 

You cannot have free, fair and credible elections, “One man, one vote!” and meaningful say in the governance of the country and still allow Zanu PF carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig the elections. The children’s story buffoon will never hear a sound as long as the tortoise wax dwell in his ears. 

Free elections go with good governance as rigged elections go with bad governance and the two concepts are mutual exclusive! 

Zimbabwe had failed to hold free, fair and credible elections because all the three key players in Zimbabwe politics; the ruling party Zanu PF, opposition MDC and the ordinary Zimbabweans themselves; have, disregarded “One man, one vote!” for selfish reason or have failed to fulfil its demands. All three have been found wanting for Zimbabwe to be a healthy and functioning democracy able to hold free, fair and credible elections.  

From 1980 to 2008, Zimbabwe is de facto one party dictatorship. From 2013 to present it is still a de facto one party dictatorship masquerading as a multi-party democracy thanks to the opposition whose participation in flawed elections is giving the dictatorship democratic legitimacy. Both Zanu PF and MDC are benefiting from this marriage of convenience. 

It is for the ordinary Zimbabweans to open their eyes, remove the tortoise wax out of their ears and learn what “One man, one vote!” means and what it will take to become a reality in Zimbabwe. Free elections, democracy and good governance demand an informed and diligent electorate not a naive and gullible one particularly when it was has to dismantle a ruthless autocracy like this Zanu PF dictatorship.