When I heard Nelson
Chamisa tell the 40 000 of his supporters in Gweru on Sunday that he will stop
Zanu PF rigging the elections, I felt sick! I have heard the same promised
before and knew then as I know now that it is all lies!
"This time I assure you, there will be no rigging, I now have eyes in ZEC,
I am being briefed about their every move and even if they want to rig, we will
know in advance and act to avert it," said Nelson Chamisa in Gweru.
Zimbabwe’s failure
to hold free, fair and credible elections is at the very heart of Zimbabwe’s
economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with the vote
rigging, corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime for 42 years and
counting. And as long as Zanu PF retains its carte blanche power to rig
elections, as graphically exercised in the watershed 2008 elections, there will
be no meaningful political change in Zimbabwe.
SADC leaders
refused to recognise Zanu PF’s election victory after the blatant cheating and
wanton violence in the 2008 elections. The regional leaders forced Robert
Mugabe to accept the need for implementing a raft of democratic reforms
designed to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers, a prerequisite for free, fair and
credible elections.
The task of
implementing the reforms were entrusted to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC
friends, including Nelson Chamisa and most of his CCC leaders. Sadly, MDC
leaders not only failed to implement even one token democratic reform during
the five years of the GNU but worse still have insisted on participating in the
flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy.
In 2018 Nelson
Chamisa insisted in participating in the elections against all advice not to
until the democratic reforms are implemented. “MDC A has stringent measures to
stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” he claimed. Everyone knew he was lying and,
as expected, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections.
What is so, so
frustrating is that not only is Zimbabwe still stuck with the corrupt, incompetent
and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship but to add insult to injury, it is MDC/CCC
leaders who not only sold out on reforms but are now giving Zanu PF legitimacy
by insisting on participating in flawed elections. The people of Zimbabwe have
risked life and limb to elect MDC/CCC into power to implement reforms and end
the Zanu PF dictatorship not to foil reforms and perpetuate the dictatorship!
The very idea of “winning
rigged elections”, especially Zanu PF rigged elections given the party’s carte
blanche powers, is an oxymoron. After 42 years of rigged elections, the nation
should just bite the bullet and implement the democratic reforms.
Just because MDC/CCC
have turned out corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent and hence failed to get
even one reform implemented does not meaning no one else can do it! Until we
implement the reforms to ensure free and fair elections; Zimbabwe is not going
to get out of the political and economic mess Zanu PF landed us in.
14 comments:
His recent speech at a CCC rally in Gweru has been perceived by political analysts as a big endorsement for Kasukuwere. Much to the delight of his supporters, Chamisa said, "Kasukuwere must come back to Zimbabwe. He doesn't deserve to be in exile."
Political think tanks who are in the loop with political events in Zimbabwe concur that the mentioning of Kasukuwere by Nelson Chamisa at a CCC grand stage is not a coincidence but an acknowledgement of Saviour Kasukuwere as a political powerhouse.
A Tyson Wabantu official who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity said, "Saviour Kasukuwere is still very influential and in control of the rank and file of Zanu pf. In addition, the former state security official is said to be the army's favourite replacement for Mnangagwa. Kasukuwere has the backing of the security sector constituency that Nelson Chamisa doesn't have, and everyone knows that securocrats are key to winning power in Zimbabwe.
"Zanu pf supporters and the army generals have of late been speaking out loudly in the corridors about the need for change within Zanupf and having Kasukuwere lead the party in time for the upcoming general elections.
Zimbabwe had the chance to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and MDC/CCC leaders sold out by failing to implement reforms. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that CCC will give up on all reforms in pursuit of power.
Chamisa also spoke directly to securocrats, who he said should not fear for their jobs, but "corrupt" Zanu-PF officials had to go so that the country could enjoy economic growth.
"I know that the security forces are scared to lose their jobs in the event that CCC becomes government. But they should not be scared. It is corrupt Zanu-PF leaders who we want to remove and arrest in the new government."
He promised his supporters that he will form a very lean Cabinet.
"Those in government who fear that they will lose their jobs, don't worry, fear not because we are not after removing the head, but we want to change the haircut, we are after the politicians and not government workers.
"Government is not an industry, it is not supposed to be a space where you come for cars, money and jobs for the boys - no. Our government will be lean, 12 to 13 ministers only and no deputies," he said amid applause.
Before the 2018 elections Chamisa said “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” That turned out to be a blast of hot air and the consequence of it was that Zanu PF got political legitimacy and ruled these last five years. This is just history repeating itself, Chamisa is powerless to stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections. And the country cannot afford another five more years of this corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship.
Zimbabweans must denounce this flawed and illegal elections process now and not have to wait for the rigged result. These elections should not be going ahead without first implementing the reforms!
Politician call for reforms, free and fair elections, end to corruptions, etc. if doing so will help them win the votes and will call the loudest if they are the victim of such malpractices and injustice. Once in a position of power and authority their primary concern is how they can benefit from rigged elections, corruption, etc.
"One man, one vote!" was the rallying call before independence but when Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies faced the prospect of being rejected by the voters, they ditched one man one vote and to this day they have worked tireless to deny the ordinary Zimbabwean the right to a meaningful vote!
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were elected into power on the ticket of bringing democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. When they were sworn into the 2008 to 2013 GNU, Mugabe saw to it that they were made to feel they were now members of the country's privileged ruling elite and enjoyed the good-life the gravy train offered.
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gray train good-life; they will never rock the boat) boasted one Zanu PF crony when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing even one reform during the GNU. Of course, the crony was right, it was obvious .
Chamisa has complained of rigged 2018 elections but only because his "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections" did not work. He has not given up, he now claims to have informers in the Zanu PF vote rigging machinery who warns him what the regime is up to. He is beefing up his own team with seasoned Zanu PF thugs like Saviour Kasukuwere to help get the captured ZEC, Police, Judiciary, etc. switch and work for CCC.
Chamisa is not interested in reforming Zimbabwe's corrupted and tyrannical political system to restore democracy and good governance. He is only interested in adapting the system to work for him! With no reforms implemented we can be certain the curse of rigged election and wanton violence will remain an integral party of our political system!
@ Peter Hitchens
"I was amazed to find that I had done something wicked and subversive. The article was attacked as a 'dismaying lapse' by my old friend Edward Lucas, a fine journalist with whom I had spent happy times reporting the collapse of the Soviet Empire, way back in the 1980s.
I especially recall a joyous celebratory dinner with him and others in the decayed 1950s splendours of the Jalta Hotel on Wenceslas Square in Prague, on the freezing night when the Communist regime finally died there.
I replied to his rebuke by warning that 'the conventional wisdom is mistaken, that the open-mouthed sycophantic coverage of such events as the 'Orange Revolution' has done us no favours, and that the future in this part of the world is far from settled and we should perhaps prepare for further turmoil rather than imagine that we have opened a Golden Road of peace and prosperity for ever'.
I have heard a respected MP calling for the deportation of all Russians from this country – all of them. I have heard crazy people calling for a 'no-fly zone' in Ukraine.
If they got their way it would mean a terrible and immediate European war. I suspect they do not even know what they are calling for. Can you all please call off this carnival of hypocrisy?
I know that Ukraine's army has used severe force against Russian civilians in the Don Basin since 2014. The Russians have done dreadful things there, too, but there are plenty of people who will tell you that. The point is that this is not a contest of saints versus sinners, or of Mordor versus the Shire.
I also find it awkward that, when Britain and the USA rightly denounced Putin's illegal invasion of a sovereign country, they seemed to have forgotten that we gave him the idea, by doing this in Iraq in 2003. Unlike them I can truly claim to have opposed both these actions.
I tire of being told that Nato is purely defensive alliance when we know it bombed Serbia in 1999, incidentally killing civilians, when Serbia had not attacked a Nato member.
I would like to end with two quotations. The first is from the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman who said: 'I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.'
The other is from the 'Benedictus' in the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which asks God 'to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace', which I fervently pray, for I am not sure that anything else will now do any good."
War is a dirty business that one should do everything in one’s power to avoid and sometimes the only way to avoid a war is to fight one in the hope this will prevent a big war tomorrow! Cursed are the war mongers!
Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends named their party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), riding on the popular public cry for democratic change as the only way to stop Zanu PF rigging elections to perpetuate its corrupt and tyrannical rule. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC has failed to bring about even one token democratic change - proof Tsvangirai had no clue what changes were required and/or had no clue how the changes were to come about.
Nelson Chamisa has since changed the party's name to Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC). If there was confusion as to what the democratic changes were during the MDC days now the sky is the limit to the confusion; it is democratic change, economic change, social change, pick you pick. In the past MDC have call on reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections today Chamisa is taking of infiltration of the Zanu PF regime to stop rigging and/or to rig in CCC's favor.
Chamisa and company have given up on reforms and making sure Zimbabwe has free, fair and credible elections, they are focused on adopting the corrupt and tyrannical system in CCC's favor. This nation must now decide to either give up the fight for free, fair and credible elections and good governance or to reject CCC defeatist approach and resign ourselves to having mediocre government, at best.
Posting on Twitter Chin’ono said, “The High Court has removed my bail reporting conditions, but it refused to release my title deeds for my home. I am on remand for exposing corruption involving the President’s niece Henrietta Rushwaya who was caught trying to smuggle 6kgs of gold to Dubai. The idea is to FIX me!
“The Gold was worth US$370,000. 2500 Zimbabwean women are dying every year giving birth. Zimbabwe’s biggest hospital only has one working maternity theatre built in 1977. A theatre costs US$37,000. Henrietta’s Gold could have built 10 maternity theatres at Gomo.”
This is the tragedy of Zimbabwe. There will be no regime change in Zimbabwe as long as Zanu PF continues to enjoy carte blanche powers to rig elections and MDC/CCC continue to participate giving the regime legitimacy.
Chamisa and company are participating in these flawed elections for the same reason they failed to implement even one reform during the GNU – greed. Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate and they have found the bait irresistible. Chamisa keeps wittering about having “winning in rigged elections strategies”, this is just hot air to cover for the greed.
“This time I assure you, there will be no rigging!” This really is infuriating coming from the party that had the golden opportunity implement the democratic reforms and put to bed this nagging problem of rigged elections once and once for all. Like it or not Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because we are stuck with the vote rigging corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Worse still, we are not getting out of the mess until we implement reforms and cure ourselves of this curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
The economic situation in the country is pretty desperate and desperate people do desperate things. Chamisa and company are counting on the people to stage violent street protests to demand political change. Indeed, the large crowds attending CCC rallies are more out of desperation than out of political conviction – Chamisa has done nothing to inspire the nation other than that he is not Zanu PF.
Chamisa is hoping to stop Zanu PF rigged the 2023 elections by infiltrating the regime’s vote rigging machinery and recruiting and/or bribing former Zanu PF operative. In other words Chamisa is not dismantling the dictatorship but adopting it to work for him. We will have rigged elections in 2023 and in future too because the rigging machinery will change hands, at best.
As long as we continue to have rigged elections there will be no chance of producing a competent government. We will have one corrupt and incompetent government after another just as happened in many other African countries to have too failed to implement reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.
After 42 years of independence, in this day and age, 2 500 after the Greeks gave mankind democracy as the working model of self-government, we are still failing to define what constitute free, fair and credible elections! How sad and tragic!
@ Bionic Vusa
“Chamisa doesn’t want electoral reforms, because they will make him easy to remove in case he becomes president. His big plan is to win elections miraculously and then continue from where Zanu pf left off. And judging by the corruption and ineptitude in the opposition run city councils right now, all the Chamisa Chete Chete euphoria would have washed off after only 5 years of his presidency, and only our skewed electoral law would keep him in power beyond that point.”
I totally agree with your analysis. If, and it is a big IF because Zanu PF controls every facet of the electoral process and the regime will not give up power without a fight, Chamisa was to won the 2023 elections it will be because he would have filled CCC with former Zanu PF operatives abandoning the sinking Zanu PF ship like rats. Chamisa has already shown that he is welcoming even the sewage rats if they will help him get into power.
The trouble is get Professor Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere into CCC and Chamisa will be as helpless as a puppet and they will be the ones pulling the strings.
We set out to bring democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and after 222 years of MDC nothing has changed and all CCC wants to do now is bring back Zanu PF in the disguise of CCC with a puppet president to boot!
Politically motivated violence has once again reared its ugly head in the run up to the 26 March by-elections. Zimbabwe has a history of bloody elections, with 2008 being a dark period when dozens were killed, while thousands were maimed and displaced at the height of violence.
A repeat of that sad chapter would not just be a disgrace to a country which pledged to protect human rights — especially the right to associate with any political outfit — but also a slap in the face to men and women who fought the liberation struggle.
A leaked police memo showed that the majority were Zanu PF card-carrying members, which could mean they had been deployed to inflict harm indiscriminately and mercilessly. The admission that Zanu PF is the mastermind of violence shows that the leopard has not changed its spots.
Kudos to the police for moving in swiftly to arrest the suspects, although one suspect remains at large.
Mnangagwa was the brutal enforcer of Mugabe’s regime, having been involved in major plebiscites since 1980. The “New Dispensation” façade has come off in dramatic fashion with recent utterances by his deputy Constantino Chiwenga, exposing deep-seated violence in Zanu PF.
“I have heard others here. saying down with triple C, let me assure you that there is nothing that it can achieve, you see how we crush lice with a stone,” Chiwenga said.
“You put it on a flat stone and then flatten it to the extent that even flies will not make a meal out of it.”
Can Zimbabwe’s culture of political violence be stopped without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to restore the independence of key institutions like the Police, Judiciary, ZEC, etc. which have been corrupted to making them Zanu PF departments in all but name? The answer must be, no.
Zanu PF has no incentive to curb the political violence and risk losing the elections because the party knows the MDC will participate in the plebiscite no matter how flawed the process got for the same reason MDC did not implement any reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU – greed.
Many Zimbabweans have pretended the GNU did not happen and MDC never sold out; only Zanu PF has benefited from this self-imposed delusion! We need to implement the democratic reforms if we are ever to get out of the hellhole we find ourselves stuck in!
@ The News Hawk
Russia is the world’s number one wheat exporter, while Ukraine is among the top five wheat exporters worldwide and their conflict, observers say, will harm vulnerable countries, including Zimbabwe, which relies on Russia for at least 50% of its imported wheat. Wheat from Russia and Ukraine constitutes 40% of world’s wheat production.
The Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) confirmed the looming crisis this week, saying the country was reliant on the eastern European country that is now fully focused on its attack of Ukraine that began last week and is spreading across cities.
Once upon a time Zimbabwe used to produce enough food to feed the nation and have plenty left over to be the breadbasket of the region. How those days have gone! Will they ever return, certainly not as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have to rig elections to stay in power.
"During the week under review, the number of people in need of hospitalisation for COVID-19 increased and the bed occupancy rate increased from 2% last week to 3,2% this week," Mutsvangwa said.
"A total of 81 new admissions were recorded during the week compared to 51 which occurred last week. No patient was admitted to the intensive care unit," she said.
Mutsvangwa said the increase in admissions was due to the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in the country.
One only hopes that this surge in covid-19 cases is not a start of a new wave of corona virus cases and deaths. There is no doubt that the increased by-election political activities will have contributed to the spread of the virus. Everyone knows thar Zanu PF has been rigging elections for decades and with no meaningful reforms to stop the rigging the whole process has now become a farce. It is bad enough to waste time and resources staging these meaningless theatrical farces but it really is unforgivable to put the expose the nation to serious health suffering and even death for theatrical farce.
MDC/CCC are participating in these flawed and illegal elections for the same reason they failed to implement even one reform in 22 years on the political stage – greed. Chamisa and company know participating in these flawed elections will give Zanu PF legitimacy, but they also know that Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate. They have found the bribe irresistible!
Zimbabwe must implement the democratic reforms first before holding elections; it is really insane to do otherwise especially with the added threat of spreading corona virus!
A vast majority of the United Nations 193 members, namely 141 countries, voted in favor of resolution, a strong signal of the international community's condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The vote, however, made clear Africa's division on the issue.
While 28 out of 54 African countries sided with Ukraine, the rest, bar Eritrea which voted against the resolution, either abstained or chose not to turn up to vote.
Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Togo, Eswatini and Morocco were absent.
Algeria, Uganda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Mali, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville, Sudan, South Sudan, Madagascar, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa abstained.
On the wrong side of history?
This has generated fierce criticism, especially from intellectuals, diplomats and opposition politicians in South Africa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has since defended his government's decision to abstain from voting on the UN resolution.
In a statement released on Monday, Ramaphosa said that the resolution failed to emphasize the role of peaceful dialogue in stopping the war, which is why his country couldn't support it.
It is no surprise that so many African countries refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they have no respect of the rule of law and common justice and so how could they condemn Russia’s lawless behaviour. Birds of a feather flock together!
The British Parliament says the government of Zimbabwe is expect to reprimand Chiwenga over “reckless” remarks he made at a Zanu PF rally two weeks ago.
Citizens’ Coalition For Change vice chairperson Hon Job Sikhala described Chiwenga’s remarks as unacceptable.
Even if Zanu PF government was to reprimand VP Chiwenga, the regime will continue crashing the opposition like lice and the opposition, out of greed, will continue participating giving Zanu PF legitimacy. There only sure way to end Zimbabwe’s culture of political violence is by implementing the democratic reforms – something MDC/CCC will not do out of greed.
An American research firm Fitch Solutions has said Zimbabwe poses political and economic risks in southern Africa ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The report, produced in December 2021, stated that the main security risks for investors in Zimbabwe stemmed from illicit financial flows and political violence, which tended to flare up around election periods and during times of macroeconomic downturns.
"Disruptive protests underpinned by high levels of political polarisation, threaten productivity and supply chains, particularly in urban areas," the Fitch report read.
The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd), in a statement yesterday, said the Fitch Solutions study captured the reality on the ground as the pre-by-election environment had become increasingly violent.
Zanu PF ruling elite and their parasitic oligarchs have been in power for the last 42 years and have grown incredibly rich and power and the prospect of giving it all up is simply unthinkable. Anyone talking of meaningful political change without first implementing far reaching democratic reforms is daydreaming!
What is really frustrating in Zimbabwe is that it is now the opposition MDC/CCC who are as much the obstacle to meaningful democratic change as the ruling party, Zanu PF. The 2008 to 2013 GNU offered the best opportunity to implement the democratic changes and end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Mugabe and his Zanu PF party bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and they, in return, throw reforms out of the window and have ever since participated in the flawed elections for the sake of a few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as a bribe.
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