It was Professor Jonathan Moyo who said in 2008 that, “If Zimbabweans were given the choice between voting for Robert Mugabe or a donkey. They would vote for the donkey!”
The allegory illustrated four key points:
- the nation was so desperate to be rid of Mugabe they did not care whom they were voting for to replace him
- of course, the nation is in this untenable position precisely because we were not as diligent and through and hence the reason we ended up stuck with this corrupt, incompetent, murderous and to crown it all, vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship.
- in the 2008 election, it was self-evident we had not learned the about be diligent and through in electing our leaders; for in our desperation we did, for all intent and purpose, vote for a donkey in the March 2008 vote, the only free vote we have ever had.
- As a nation, we really need to sit up and pay attention because we are not getting out of this man-made hell-on-earth Zanu PF has landed us into, until we stop panicking, implement the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections and elect competent leaders.
Points 1) and 2) above are self-evident and need no further explaining and so will focus on the remaining two points.
The March 2008 vote is the nearest Zimbabwe has ever got to holding free, fair and credible elections, SADC leaders had pressured Zanu PF to accept a number of democratic reforms.
However when Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow Joint Operation Command Junta released that Zanu was heading for a resounding defeat, they stopped ZEC declaring the results.
The Junta ordered a recount that lasted six weeks, counting five million votes. Morgan Tsvangirai’s 73%, by Mugabe’s Freudian slip, vote count was whittled down to 47% to justify the run-off.
The Zanu PF vote rigging machine swung back into operation for the 2008 run-off and has remained back in service ever since. For Zanu the run-off was about punishing the voters for having rejected the party in the March vote. And punish they did; Zimbabwe witnessed the worst wanton election violence.
SADC leaders refused to recognise Zanu PF as the legitimate government given the blatant cheating and wanton violence in the 2008 elections. SADC leaders forced Mugabe to agree to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free elections.
The task of implementing the reforms were left to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. They failed to implement even one reform in five years confirming why electing him and his party had been such a total disaster for the nation.
It was USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who described Morgan Tsvangirai as “a flawed and indecisive character who will become an albatross round the nation’s neck if he ever got into power!”
If USA Ambassador Chris Dell was able to see Morgan Tsvangirai for what he is, a flawed and indecisive character who would be a burden to the nation; the people of Zimbabwe should have come to the same conclusion too by 2008, if they had been diligent.
Worse still, why are the people of Zimbabwe still following MDC leaders even now in 2021 given the evidence of MDC leaders’ corruption and breathtaking incompetence especially during the 2008 to 2013 GNU?
The EU, the Commonwealth, the Americans and even SADC leaders have all advised that Zimbabwe should first implement the democratic reforms before going ahead with the elections. MDC leaders have insisting in participating in the elections with no reforms, first the 2013 then 2018 and now 2023 elections.
Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the 2013, 2018 and is set to rig the 2023 elections too. All MDC leaders have done by participating in these flawed elections was to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. The MDC have become the milestone dragging the nation into the crashing abyss and this must be stopped.
Unemployment has soared to 80% plus in 2006/7 during the hyperinflation years and dragging the economy down with it and has never recovered. Basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed. A 2020 WB report showed that 49% of our people were living in extreme poverty.
It is tempting to go for the usual knee-jerk reaction of “voting for the donkey just to be rid of Emmerson Mnangagwa.” This failed to get rid of Mugabe in 2008 and will similarly fail to get rid of Mnangagwa in the 2023 elections.
Indeed, participating will give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy instead. After 41 years of rigged elections, this is insane and must stop.
The 2023 elections will go ahead with no reform in place; there is very little the ordinary Zimbabwean can do to stop Zanu PF going ahead and MDC and the rest of Zimbabwe’s sell-out opposition participating.
What the people can and should do is demand that there should be no elections without implementing the reforms and refuse to have anything to do with these flawed and illegal elections. Zimbabweans must demand that these flawed elections must be declared null and void in advance because the process in being rigged in advance.
14 comments:
@ Gideon Gono
“It is with great sadness that my family and I mourn the untimely death of a fine, seasoned banker and patriotic son of the soil, Douglas Munatsi in tragic circumstances not yet explained to the nation.
I knew Doug from the late 1980s when he was part of merchant bankers at the then Syfrets Merchant Bank, a part of Zimbank Group then, now ZB Bank and what a bright mind he was in the community of bankers!”
Gideon Gono will always be remember as the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe whose voodoo-economic of printing money fuelled the record 500 billion percent hyperinflation and totally destroyed the Zimbabwe economy. He presided over the wholesale looting at the Reserve Bank where account holders were force to sell their foreign currency at the official exchange rate and given worthless Z$. The rich and powerful were given foreign currency loans and allowed to repay them in worthless Z$, etc., etc.
Millions of Zimbabweans had their whole life’s work and lives destroyed by Gono’s voodoo-economics and the nation has yet to recover, if it will ever do that given the country is still pariah state.
To be praised by someone potently corrupt, incompetent and evil like Gideon Gono is more a curse than a blessing! A man is judged by the company he keeps!
@ Dr Masimba Mavaza
“In the most bizarre development in 2021, the British government with the support of MDCA has endorsed the peddling of Covid 19 falsehoods and manipulation as a weapon for regime change.
Since the COVID 19 pandemic started the MDC A under Nelson Chamisa have taken turns to blame the COVID on ZANU PF Rule. They have actually raised wrong flags just to put pressure on Zimbabwe.”
If you have nothing to say Dr Mavaza, just shut up!
Zanu PF will never admit to doing wrong and will always find someone else to blame for it being it be it the West or MDC; regardless how far fetched the accusation. It is in the nature of the beast!
The tragedy is the country is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss; to get out of the mess, we need solutions, not excuses!
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa Wednesday told the United Kingdom (UK) to stop interfering in Zimbabwe's domestic affairs.
In an address ahead of a Zanu-PF Politburo meeting, Mnangagwa said that he has the most democratic Constitution in the SADC region.
"As I stated in my address to the nation last night, my government is gravely concerned about the undesired focus and debate in the British House of Lords on Zimbabwe."
He added: "This extra territorial concern by a foreign legislature on a sovereign African state which is a full and equal member of the United Nations is grossly unwarranted.
"The brazen disclosure that the British government has been meeting with various trade unions including those for teachers most recently in September 2021 in Harare is yet another confirmation of very gross and unwarranted and blatant interference in the domestic affairs of our country by the British government.
"This is unwelcome and unacceptable. Professional ethics across public service ecosystem must never be undermined by those who seek to promote an alien agenda.
Here we go again! Instead of addressing the serious issues of human rights violations all Mnangagwa can talk about is that Zanu PF has the divine right to do as it pleases in the name of national sovereignty!
Lupane State University and Inyathi High School in Matabeleland North province have recorded six and 13 COVID-19 cases, respectively, prompting authorities to be on high alert as the country braces for a fourth wave of the killer disease after a more fatal variant, Omicron, was recently detected in neighbouring Botswana and South Africa.
LSU spokesperson Zwelithini Dlamini confirmed the development yesterday, saying: "I am advised by the acting dean of students that one case was confirmed positive last night.
"Contact-tracing was done as of this morning and, so far, six cases have been confirmed.
"Those six have been isolated on campus. Meanwhile, all students are being tested.
VP Chiwenga, who is also the Minister of Health, assured the nation that people should not panic because he has measures in place to stop the omicron virus entering the country. Now we learn it was in the country already. The only reason Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 cases and deaths have remained low is because the country’s testing, tracing, tracking and isolation regimes have been one of the poorest in the world. This has only helped to spread the virus far and wide and with this died variant that is the one thing you can ill afford.
Chiwenga is just a buffoon with an inflated ego in a position of power and authority. It is a curse to have a buffoon for a leader because he will be dragging you from one disaster into another and during a crisis such as now the curse becomes a catastrophe.
We have all know that the Police, just like many other state institutions like ZEC, judiciary, army, etc., is but a Zanu PF department in all but name. Zanu PF and all its surrogate bodies' number one priority is to keep the party in power at all cost. The harassment, beatings, rape and even murder of the party's critics and political opponents is all considered fair game and it is therefore naive to expect the Police to arrest the three individuals who murdered Nyasha.
What most people would find infuriating in that Tendai Biti and his MDC colleagues had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended Zanu PF's strangle hold on the Police, ZEC, etc. They had 5 years to implement the reforms and yet failed to get even one token reform implemented.
So all this WHO-HAA by the like of Biti over Nyasha's death is hypocrisy and a down right an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean. MDC leaders do not care about free election, care about the rights and freedoms of ordinary Zimbabwe, etc. All they care about is that they secure a seat on the gravy train and share with Zanu PF the spoils of power!
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party will bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. After 22 years, 5 in the GNU, MDC have failed to deliver even one reform because they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent!
We are now to believe that Chamisa is now ready to deliver "total change"! What has changed? What has transformed the corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent to become the exact opposite?
MDC has done nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging these elections and by participating in the flawed elections, MDC is giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Only someone as corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless like Chamisa and company would view perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship as "total change"!
The samples collected are eye fluid, stomach contents, urine and blood, as well as small pieces of other organs of the body. They were given to the police.
“The police are now expected to take the samples for a toxicology examination. The tests used to be done by the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory, which the police has not been using and where some results from as far as 15 years ago have not yet been received. The state also used to send samples to South Africa where results would take between two weeks to a month to be received,” the source said.
Last month, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe revealed that the courts have been failing to finalise several criminal cases due to lack of forensic evidence.
However, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Forensic Science laboratory last month got DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) equipment which is used in investigating murder and other violent crimes.
Kazembe said: “The use of forensics to solve the malady of crime in societies has become commonplace. The world over, the use of DNA analysis to solve crimes such as murder and rape, among others, is one area that has registered immense success. Regrettably, the ZRP had been seriously lagging behind in this regard”.
How the mighty have fallen! We used to have some of the best hospitals and technical facilities in the world but not anymore. The nation has poured billions of dollars into building sprawling mansions for the ruling elite whilst the nation’s hospitals and other key institutions were starved of funds. No doubt the ruling elite would expect the naïve and gullible to believe this sorry state of affairs was caused by sanctions – what an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean.
If the ruling elite are doing this to one of their own, what more to those they consider their critics and political opponents. Until the country implements the democratic reforms and end the carte blanche power of the Zanu PF ruling elite to loot, rig elections and commit heinous crimes; Zimbabwe is going nowhere!
FORMER Mozambican and South African First Lady Graca Machel — who was married to two illustrious African liberation struggle giants, Samora Machel and Nelson Mandela — raised one of the most troubling questions, ironies and betrayals of our times as she urged people to rise and fight authoritarian regimes oppressing them in the region, most of which are products of former liberation movements.
Machel, whose country, family and husband looked after Zimbabwean liberation struggle movement Zanu PF and its leaders at huge political, economic and personal sacrifice, said some liberators have now abandoned people in poverty in pursuit of personal aggrandisement and wealth.
It is very sad indeed that many African country have now to admit the majority of their people were better off economically and politically under white colonial rule than they are under black majority rule.
In Zimbabwe, the people have yet to have a free, fair and credible elections. The country had its golden opportunity to implement the reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues who were entrusted to implement the reforms sold out; they failed to implement even one reform.
Part 1 of 3
@ Siphosami Malunga
"He was the head of the Zanu PF system, and as such, his exit was seen by many as providing an opportunity for change.
For that reason, rallied by the army generals who were seeking but struggling to “constitutionally” remove Mugabe, thousands of Zimbabweans came out to the streets to send a message to Mugabe “to leave and leave now”. Thus, they “sanitised” the coup.
After his removal, the generals summoned Mugabe’s former deputy,
To start with, post-Mugabe Zimbabwe was a proverbial house built on sand.
Driven by Mugabe’s henchmen, who had been the architects and implementers of his disastrous policies in the previous four decades, it was not really the change that Zimbabweans and the world thought it would be. It was triggered by and aimed to settle an internal Zanu PF factional fight between the Generation 40 (G40) faction, led by Grace Mugabe, and Lacoste, led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, inside Zanu PF. It was and had never been a people’s project and certainly never ideologically founded or spurred on by a genuine desire for real political and social change
To that extent, little should have been expected from the coup. This alone easily explains why it delivered nothing in resolving Zimbabwe’s long-term crises and instead dug the country into a deeper hole. The so-called new dispensation has been a catalogue of failure since November 2017, failing the several tests it faced.
In 2018, Mnangagwa was therefore aware that if anything was needed to gain internal and external legitimacy as part of his open for business mantra, delivering free, fair and peaceful elections was the silver bullet.
Despite their promises, Mnangagwa and Zanu PF resorted to tried and tested tactics. They retained the tainted and discredited Zimbabwe Election Commission and secretariat, considered by many as lacking independence and made up of security and intelligence personnel.
Again, as in previous elections, the commission failed to release the voters roll on time and in a searchable format, and even then it was plagued with irregularities. As in previous elections, Zanu PF leaned on the army — whose mere presence, especially in rural areas, intimidated voters. It also manipulated the government’s agricultural subsidy scheme to “buy” the rural vote.
As in previous years, Zanu PF and Mnangagwa monopolised the state media in their electoral campaign, denying equal and fair play to the opposition. With the Mugabe era draconian laws on access to information and protection of privacy, and on public order and security, still frmly intact, the pre-election environment and playing feld was far from being level.
The operational conduct of the election, including the tabulation, transmission and announcement of elections results, pointed to a rigged process. With the closeness of the results between Mnangagwa and his opposition challenger, Nelson Chamisa — with Mnangagwa receiving just over the 50% required — no wonder the outcome was disputed and challenged in court. The Constitutional Court ruled in favour of Mnangagwa but failed to give its reasons for almost 18 months, further entrenching partisan perspectives.
These killings, conducted in full view of election observers and international media, cemented the scepticism about any post-Mugabe change by Mnangagwa and Zanu PF. As damage control, Mnangagwa commissioned an international commission of enquiry led by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, but it was made up of regime-sympathising local commissioners whose work was carefully choreographed.
In a further clear sign that little had changed, despite recommendations by the Motlanthe commission to hold military offcers to account responsible for the killings, Mnangagwa instead promoted the commander of the unit responsible, while other perpetrators remained untouched.
Part 2 of 3
@ Siphosami Malunga
"The final test
Mnangagwa’s last test will be whether and how long he can hold on to power in the context of the continuously deteriorating conditions in the country.
There is an overwhelming consensus that the situation seems to have reached breaking point. Whatever the plan for removing Mugabe may have been for the coup comrades, it is hard to imagine that this is what was agreed or expected. It is possible that the plotters collectively underestimated what was required to fix Zimbabwe. They assumed that they could continue to fudge their way forward by crushing dissent, stealing elections, printing money, recklessly spending state funds and plundering the economy without consequence. If that is the case, they were wrong. In removing Mugabe, they promised and offered people change.
They managed to temporarily persuade and gain the support of erstwhile detractors, such as the United Kingdom, and the sceptical support of many Zimbabweans. In two short years, they have squandered it all: the hope, the goodwill, the promise, the trust. They have also lost the trust of their own supporters and each other. They have run out of excuses.
The sanctions excuse, used effectively by Mugabe, has lost its shine: it no longer cuts it as Zimbabweans realise that ruling elites continue to plunder and live large while they suffer. But can Mnangagwa still salvage the situation or will it roll on towards a cliff edge?
The former looks unlikely, in the light of honest refection on the past two years, a realisation that there are simply no more cards for him or Zanu PF to play, when it comes to fudging the economy and politics, and also that relying on coercion will soon stop working. The hardline ruling party in Ethiopia, EPRDF, came to a similar conclusion after many years of relying on repression: it realised that there was a real chance of losing everything.
If Mnangagwa and his comrades reach this epiphany, they may yet survive and play a part in creating a different future. At almost 80 years old, having served for almost 60 years in government and having orchestrated and watched Mugabe being humiliated, it can be assumed that Mnangagwa would want a different fate.
This would ideally involve an inclusive negotiated process to address the country’s political, economic and social problems, preferably moderated by an external actor. Recently, South Africa has hinted that it is losing patience with the crisis, which may signal its willingness to mediate. If Mnangagwa and Zanu PF have no answers, neither it seems does the MDC, which has shown hesitation and ambiguity in its intentions.
While the deteriorating economic conditions provide the typical context for popular uprisings of the kind seen in which ruling parties were ousted in Egypt, Tunisia and more recently Bolivia, Algeria and Sudan, this is unlikely to happen on its own. Besides, it is hardly a viable strategy.
The MDC will have to be more deliberate and intentional. Doing nothing is as bad as Mnangagwa waiting and hoping nothing will come of the decline. If a negotiated solution is preferred, the MDC will have to push for one.
If a popular uprising is desired, it will have to lead and direct it. A spontaneous, leaderless, uprising by frustrated and angry citizens is also likely. This was the case in Egypt and to a great extent Algeria and Sudan. This option is what both Mnangagwa and the MDC should be worried about, as it places both outside the game.
Revolving coup door?
In the meantime, it is an open secret that there are disagreements at the highest levels inside government and Zanu PF. It is conceivable that the prevailing situation is not the one envisaged by those soldiers drafted into the coup who are now worse off than during the Mugabe era.
There are reports that junior officers are suffering squalid and dehumanising living and working conditions. If the state of ordinary Zimbabweans is a measure, this is unsurprising. There is talk of another coup.
Part 3 of 3
An excellent article Siphosami Malunga, thank you.
My contribution will be restate, for the record, the role the MDC has played in Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess. We can deny that the 2008 to 2013 GNU was a wasted golden opportunity to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship if only Morgan Tsvangirai and company had not sold out and failed to implement even one reform. Like it or not MDC are just as guilty for Zimbabwe’s mess as Zanu PF and, per se, neither party leaders can ever be the solution when they are the problem too.
Zimbabweans must bite the bullet and accept Zanu PF and MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent and look for competent leaders. We are having another chance to build a free, just and democratic Zimbabwe; we must not waste that chance!
Zanu PF Likely To Lose To President Chamisa’s MDC Alliance – Zivhu
This is just nonsense! Zanu PF has remaining in power all these years not because the party was united but because the party rigged elections. MDC leaders, supporters and many Zanu PF agents would like the world to believe Zimbabwe elections are free, fair and credible and that MDC are the clear favourites.
As much as Zanu PF members will fight like baboons amongst themselves, they all know that losing to another Zanu PF faction is one thing and losing power to the opposition is akin to losing to a leopard - all the baboons lose! The Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut will see to it that Zanu PF win, it really is irrelevant to the those who are looting which faction is in power as long as them know they will continue looting.
Here in Chirumanzu South as we are talking, there is a rumour that Chamisa will visit Chirumanzu from today (Sunday) onwards. As people of Chirumanzu, we cannot allow our territory to be disturbed like that.
“We sat down as a leadership from the (Zanu PF) central committee to chairpersons of the district to discuss how we should defend our territory,” the Zanu PF official is heard saying on the audio.
“We must block all areas which we think Chamisa will come through from today. Right now police will be mounting roadblocks along the roads, and we will be inside the district and every group will be protecting their wards.”
The Zanu PF official is further heard saying the roads to be used by Chamisa must be blocked with stones and logs to ensure that he does not enter Chirumanzu.
“Last time we allowed him and he got almost 6 000 votes here. So as leaders we saw it fit that we should not allow him here.”
Contacted for comment, Zanu PF Midlands chairperson Daniel Mackenzie Ncube said: “I have listened to the audio. You can’t really make out the voice of the lady.
“The Churumanzu leadership is vehemently dissociating itself from the contents of the audio.
“I am not even aware that Chamisa would be visiting Chirumanzu. Maybe it is because most of the time I am in Mberengwa, and that is why I did not hear this.”
MDC Alliance deputy spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba said Chamisa and other leaders of the party were in Masvingo yesterday for the unveiling of his late mother’s tombstone.
Siziba said no matter the plots by Zanu PF to stop his “meet-the-people tours”, they would not succeed.
“The president is here in Gutu for his mother’s tombstone unveiling. Zanu PF will not stop us from moving anywhere in the country no matter how they try,” he said.
He, however, declined to reveal the exact dates when Chamisa would be visiting Chirumanzu and Mberengwa. “We listened to the audio and the party is not moved by the threats,” Siziba said. Newsday
Of course, wanton violence by these Zanu PF thugs is having a real effect on the people, this is a flash back of the wanton violence of 2008. We have all known that without implementing the democratic reforms, Zanu PF will always resort to violence if the party should ever feel its iron grip on power threatened.
What we are seeing here is MDC putting a brave face, pretending the wanton violence is having no effect.
Zanu PF is once again blatantly rigging these elections and by participating MDC is giving Zanu PF legitimacy. Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged elections and five more years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. This madness must be denounced and condemned!
Zimbabwe's covid-19 cases are 4 031 and 5 deaths as of 7 December 2012 up from 2 555 on 6 th.
Zanu PF said the country will have the 10 million double jabbed, hitting the herd immunity, by the end of the year, this year 2021. Only 2.8 million have received the two jabs and the nation will be luck to hit the 3 million by the end of the year!
For a country whose economy is in ruins and health care services has all but collapse, other basic measures such as testing and tracking have been poor, etc. our only hope of containing the corona virus is by vaccinating as many people as quickly as possible. No stone should have been left unturned to achieve that goal! We have only managed to vaccinate 30% and the new and fast spreading omicron variant is upon us. We are in serious, serious trouble!
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess, now add the corona virus pandemic, because of 41 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that have earned the country the pariah state status. We have all known the cause of the mess was the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. We have done very little to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and now we are all paying dearly for it.
Good governance is not like a wild fruit which will grow with very little effort on our part. We have done precious little to stop Zimbabwe becoming a failed state. And if the country is to rise from the ruins like the phoenix; we, the people, must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections. There is no other way out!
Chamisa and his MDC A's promise of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship with "winning in rigged elections strategies" is just nonsense. By participating in the flawed elections MDC has given Zanu PF legitimacy. We must wake up and stop this madness
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