Common sense is the ability to change one’s position on a subject matter when the overwhelming evidence before you support change.
My grandparents believed the world was flat, for example; their known world did not go much beyond the distant horizon and behind and beyond that was the precipitous abyss. I do know that behind the horizon is another horizon and another and if one travelled long enough they will return where they started - proof the world is a very large spherical ball!
Those who lack common sense will even acknowledge the overwhelming evidence before them and still maintain their erroneous position; hoping against hope the overwhelming evidence is wrong.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections for the last 41 years, Zanu PF has rigged the elections, leaving the nation stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime. And as long as Zanu PF remains in power the country will remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs with no hope of any meaningful political change and economic recovery.
After 41 years of rigged elections the nation is has two choices:
- either participate in the 2023 elections under the same conditions as in the past knowing fully well that Zanu PF was blatantly rigging the elections and that participating will give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Hoping against hope that the opposition’s winning in rigged elections (wire) strategies finally deliver long awaited change. The opposition, for their part, are banking on the economic hardships forcing the populous to “defend their vote” by staging street protests and force regime change.
- or admit the present political system, the Zanu PF dictatorship, has amassed so much dictatorial powers it will never ever deliver free, fair and credible elections. There is overwhelming evidence Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections and Chamisa and company’s wire strategies are just a farce. The common sense position is to implement the democratic reforms and thus guarantee free, fair and credible elections.
What is disappointing is that a number of political analysts have acknowledged the futility of participating in flawed and illegal elections and yet still want the nation to participate in elections with no reform. This is like someone circumventing the globe and still maintain the world is flat!
“Ballot fraud remains a major weapon of rigging. Dictators believe it is not the voting that really counts, but who counts the vote. This has particularly been true in Zimbabwe where elections are stolen through ballot fraud, over and above the skewing of the whole electoral process and playing field, tipping it in favour of the ruling party and use of coercive tactics and terror.” Argued Dumisani Muleya in The News Hawks in favour of option b) above, only to contradict himself in the next breath.
“The outcome of elections is as dependent on the pre-voting processes as it is on the act of voting. An election is a process, not an event,” he claimed.
“Youths have now become the largest voting bloc in many African countries, including Zimbabwe. Zambia demonstrated that. During the 2018 elections, youths were about 44% of registered voters in Zimbabwe, but in 2023 they will surge above 50%, making them an electoral trump card.
“Civil society should encourage citizens, particularly the youth, to register and to vote. They should also design public information campaigns aimed at youth to explain the registration process and how citizens can check their entries onto the voters’ roll and monitor the voter registration process to assess its accuracy and inclusiveness.”
The 2008 elections remain the watershed elections in Zimbabwe’s history in that both Mr Muleya’s thesis were tested to the full.
The March 2008 election took place at the time when Zimbabwe’s economy had all but totally collapsed; hyperinflation was to so to the nauseating peak of 500 billion percent, earnings and savings lost their value, children had 23 school-days that year, etc. It was not only the youths who were motivated to vote that year, everyone was desperate for change. It is no exaggeration that if the electorate had the choice of Mugabe or donkey that year, they would have voted for the donkey.
Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 73% of the popular vote according to Robert Mugabe’s own Freudian slip. The Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut was activated to give a graphic illustration of “it is not the voting that really counts, but who counts the vote” and worse.
Mnangagwa, by his own admission, ordered ZEC not to announce the March 2008 election results. The results were finally announce after six weeks of recounting 5 million vote and Tsvangirai’s vote count was whittling down to 47%, enough to force a run off.
The run-off was all about punishing the people of Zimbabwe for having rejected Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe in the March vote. The party deployed the war veterans and the party’s youth militia, the green bombers, to destroy property, harass, beat and rape. The heavy-duty stuff of abducting and killing was left to the deployed Army, Police, CIO and Prison Service personal.
“What was achieved by the bullet will not be undone by the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe!
Mugabe garnered 84% of the votes in the run-off; his landslide victory was never ever in doubt! Never!
Both SADC and AU leaders, for the first time ever, refused to endorse Zanu PF’s electoral victory because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence. SADC leaders forced Robert Mugabe to agree to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers and end the curse of rigged elections. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were the GNU partners tasked to implement the reforms.
Of course, Mr Dumisani Muleya, one of the country’s well known and respected journalists knows what the GNU was about, that not even one meaningful reform was implemented in five years of the GNU because Tsvangirai and company sold-out big time.
“International actors should provide assistance to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Whoever wins under such conditions has got the people’s genuine mandate and their express will to govern until the next elections,” concluded Mr Muleya.
Of course, SADC, EU and any international actors of substance will ignore the plea because they have provided all the assistance and advice Zimbabwe need for free, fair and credible elections - they have all advised we implement the democratic reforms and we have repeatedly ignored the advice!
Zimbabwe’s main opposition, MDC, are driving the narrative that Zimbabwe does not need to implement any democratic reforms and pushing option a) above because to do otherwise they will be forced to admit they wasted the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU.
The opposition’s WIRE strategies feeble excuses to justify the folly of participating in flawed and illegal election. Implement the reforms and make sure elections are free, fair and credible and you do not need these WIRE strategies.
Zanu PF benefited from MDC’s failure to implement the reforms during the GNU and in that the party emerged out of the GNU will all its dictatorial powers intact. By participating in flawed and illegal elections the nation is giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
“Next elections may be won or lost on voter registration!” If getting 73% of the votes was not good enough to win in 2008, what is there to suggest it will be good enough in 2023? Without implementing the reforms Zanu PF is set to rig the 2023 elections and by participating we will give the regime legitimacy.
What Zimbabwe needs to get out of the political and economic mess the nation is stuck in is people with the common sense to admit the need to implement democratic reforms and end Zanu PF carte blanche powers to rig elections instead of the foolishness of trying to win rigged elections!
9 comments:
@ Koni
"Most Zimbabweans in the diaspora are sick and tired of living outside the country and are yearning for change. A number of them are living under squalid conditions. Life in the diaspora is not all that smoothy and rosy.
People want to come back home and contribute in developing their nation but are being hindered by the ever rising cost of living, unstable economic environment, erratic power supply. The financial muscle within the diaspora can make a difference in the Zimbabwean political discourse only if they are allowed to have a say in the day to day of running the government"
You are right, most Zimbabweans in the diaspora would probably vote for the opposition and not Zanu pf and hence the reason the later is denying them the vote. The real shock is the Zimbabweans in the diaspora know this is why they are being denied the vote and are not lifting a finger to fight for their right!
Addressing a Zanu-PF politburo meeting in Harare on Saturday, Mnangagwa swore that his party would not be removed from power, stating he was confident of a resounding victory in the 2023 elections.
Chamisa is likely to face Mnangagwa for the second time in polls in 2023, after the opposition leader narrowly lost to the Zanu-PF leader in the disputed 2018 elections.
"Change is unstoppable," Chamisa tweeted.
"Nothing and nobody is permanent. Don't ever mistakenly think that you own the country. Parties don't own people. People are not objects. Nobody and no party ever ruled or rules forever except God. Zimbabwe needs leaders not rulers."
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party would bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. In 21years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC has failed to bring about even one reform.
The truth is MDC leaders have no clue what the democratic changes are much less how they are to be brought about. All Chamisa and company care about is securing a seat on the gravy train at any cost be it failing to implement reforms during the GNU and ever since by participating in flawed and illegal elections.
The people of Zimbabwe must wake-up to the reality that MDC leaders will not bring about change in Zimbabwe, indeed they are the ones now keeping Zanu PF in power.
VETERANS of the liberation war have launched a fresh attack on President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration, accusing it of failing to expedite the exhumation and reburial of victims who are still interred in mass graves across the country.
This comes barely a week after a group of ex-combatants berated Mnangagwa for failing to take their welfare seriously.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Saturday, the highly petulant former freedom fighters accused Mnangagwa of riding a tiger and failing to honour them.
One of the tragic things Mugabe has done was to brainwash the country’s liberation war heroes and heroines into believing they are special with freedoms and rights way above all others; they have the right to deny everyone else they freedoms and rights in pursuit of their special freedoms and rights!
The war veterans have played a major role in the establishment and retention of the Zanu PF dictatorship because they saw it as the vehicle to deliver their special freedoms and rights. All the dictatorship has done is create a corrupt and incompetent and oppressive ruling elite who have looted the nation’s wealth and bring economic ruin to the majority of the people including many of the war veterans.
The tragedy is many of the war veterans who are languishing in abject poverty still believe in the dictatorship and support it. How many times has Zanu PF pulled a rabbit out of the hat for the war veterans to feast on for a day or two, especially towards elections, and the war veterans have gone back to their assigned post to torment the ordinary people. As soon as the Zanu PF has secured electoral victory, the party will once again forget the war veterans.
Of course, the war veterans have sold-out on the liberation war values of freedoms and human rights for all Zimbabweans. The war veterans are now the enemy of the masses as long as they continue to fight for the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Instead, he will participate virtually via video conferencing. This mode includes his pre-recorded address which is slotted for Thursday 23 September 2021 and any other high-level meetings occurring on the side-lines of the main debate," said Mr Charamba.
He said organisers of the UN General Assembly have said the event is a hybrid one where some delegates can attend it physically while others virtually.
"Key issues and decisions are set to be discussed and decided on in the course of the General Assembly. Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, organisers have recommended a hybrid Assembly where member States have an option to either attend physically through country delegates or virtually through online platforms," he said.
In 2018, whilst attending the UN annual jamboree, Mnangagwa promised Zimbabweans in the diaspora would be given the vote in 2023. He has since reneged of that promise!
According to the Zanu PF government’s own “Zimbabwe Diaspora Policy Document” produced by Dr Obert Mpofu; there are 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora. The 24 page long document is about how government is hoping to maximise on the financial and skills from those in the diaspora. It is silent about securing the diaspora vote.
The regime wants the diaspora remittance and skills but does not want them to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. It is worth noting that Mnangagwa had 2.4 million votes, winning by 50.8% in 2018 whilst denying 3 million the vote.
How can an election in which 3 million out of a potential 8 million voters be a legal, free, fair and credible election?
But pressure would be piled on CBZ to work out packages that cushion staff from the economic meltdown after Stanbic Bank said it paid out $430 million early this year, in another carnage on jobs.
CBZ's job cuts, which saw affected workers being asked to go on unpaid leave on September 1, follows a massive shift in the way companies operate since the Covid – 19 outbreak last year, which gave traction to a revolution being underpinned by tech based operations.
This is a nightmare, many of those laid off will never hold a formal job ever again, not in Zimbabwe anywhere!
SPECIAL forces soldiers appeared on Sunday to have ousted Guinea’s long-serving president, telling the nation they had dissolved its government and constitution and closed its land and air borders.
As the United Nations condemned any takeover by force and the West African region’s economic bloc threatened reprisals, the elite army unit’s head, Mamady Doumbouya, said “poverty and endemic corruption” had driven his forces to remove President Alpha Conde from office. “We have dissolved government and institutions,” Doumbouya – a former French foreign legionnaire – said on state television, draped in Guinea’s national flag and surrounded by eight other armed soldiers. “We are going to rewrite a constitution together.”
Alexis Arieff, at the United States Congressional Research Service, said that, while mutinies and coups were nothing new in West Africa, the region had seen “major democratic backsliding” in recent years.
Both Conde and Ivory Coast’s leader have moved the legislative goalposts to extend the clock on their presidencies in the past year, while Mali has experienced two military coups and Chad one.
Guinea has seen sustained economic growth during Conde’s decade in power thanks to its bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamond wealth.
But few of its citizens have seen the benefits, and critics say his government has used restrictive criminal laws to discourage dissent, while ethnic divisions and endemic graft have sharpened political rivalries.
African leaders have turned a blind eye to flawed and illegal elections by thus allowed the politicians to deny the ordinary people a meaningful say in the governance of the country and, per se, blocked the option for peaceful change. Those who fail to hold peaceful free, fair and credible elections must know they have opted for violent change.
The opposition MDC-Alliance and the recently elected UPND of Zambia, have reportedly developed a plan to annihilate all long-standing ruling parties, especially former Liberation Movements in Africa by 2030 a senior MDC Alliance official from Harare who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity said.
According to the official, the MDC-Alliance and its Zambian counterpart will initially roll out the project in East and Southern Africa.
The two parties are said to have already established links with opposition groups in Uganda, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Burundi.
The official revealed that elections in 11 countries have so far been identified as providing opportunities for the project to be implemented.
"The removal of old parties would usher in a unified, liberal and pro-Western Africa. The project has the solid support of developed democracies that want to reverse Chinese and Russian influence in Africa.”
This is just a wish list and we all know that if wishes were horses beggars would ride!
Zanu PF would have lost power in 2013 at the latest if MDC had implemented the democratic reforms to end Zanu PF’s carte blanche dictatorial powers. In 5 years of the GNU, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one reform because they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent.
Ever since the GNU debacle, it is MDC that has helped Zanu PF stay in power by participating in flawed and illegal elections giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Zanu PF has never ever produced something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake and even then Chamisa and company have participated in the elections regardless.
Zambia’s President Hataenda Hichilema (HH) must be regretting he ever met Nelson Chamisa right now, if not now he will do so soon enough, because he has his work cut off sorting Zambia’s problems without having to deal with the diplomatic fallout stories such as this generate. It would have been more prudent to focus on the need for the continent to hold free, fair and credible elections without taking this confrontational approach.
HH’s choice of partners in this is questionable, why choice a party that believes free and fair elections are not important? Chamisa and company have been fighting to win rigged elections!
@ Blasher Shereni
“Why hide you head in the sand!”
MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform in the 5 years of the GNU, they know they cannot demand reforms before elections because they will have to admit to doing nothing during the GNU. They solution is to claim MDC can win rigged elections, so flawed getting 73% is not good enough! The real problem here is that there are people out there naive and gullible enough to believe in all these MDC hare-brain WIRE strategies! They prefer to hide they heads in the sand and not have to deal with the challenge of demanding democratic reforms!
Mnangagwa is not one to miss a chance to travel at the nation's expense especially when there is a half a chance to hobnob with men and women of quality and class. Of course, he was disappointed he could not travel to UN General Assembly summit!
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