"Delighted with great energy put to rejoin Commonwealth". Nonsense! Name one reform Zanu PF has implemented, just one! N Garikai

 

"On the question of re-admission of Zimbabwe into the Commonwealth, Zimbabwe has made an application to come home (get back into the Commonwealth fold) and re-joining or joining is a three-stage process,'' said Mrs Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary General. She was the guest of honour at the official opening ceremony of Pan-African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand, SA.

"The stage where we are now with regards to Zimbabwe is that the Commonwealth Secretariat will visit the country in November this year and this team will assess the situation on the ground and then report back so that all members of the Commonwealth can come up with a position on Zimbabwe's application to re-join.''

Mrs Scotland said she was "delighted that Zimbabwe is putting a great deal of energy and commitment  to be re-admitted back into the Commonwealth".

Delighted! Yes, the Zanu PF government has “put a great deal of energy” in lobbying everyone who can help swing the decision in its favour but has done nothing to address the human rights violation and failure to hold free and fair elections – the root causes it was booted out of the club in the first place!

Zimbabwe first applied to be readmitted into the Commonwealth in 2018. The application was turned down because the country failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country has not implemented even one token reforms to ensure the next elections due next year in 2023 are free and fair.

Zimbabwe has failed to produce something as basic to free and fair elections as a verified voters’ roll. The party has just publicly admitted the 2023 voters’ roll in in a mess. The elections are due end of July 2023 at the latest, but many believe they will happen as early as March. Either way, there is no time to clean up and produce a verified voters roll.

There is no doubt that Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections just as it has rigged all the other elections in the past.

Of course, it is worrying that anyone should be praising Zanu PF for its commitment to re-join the Commonwealth when it is done nothing to meet the set target to join. It is real disconcerting when the misplace praise is coming just a few months before the elections Zanu PF is rigging way in advance already.

Zanu PF has mastered the art of lobbying, harassing and even threaten other nations to get what it wants. The party has lobbied other African nations to rally behind its anti-sanction campaign. Every one knows that mismanagement and corruption are the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. The regime’s nagged endlessly about sanction SADC has even put aside 25 October as the Anti-Sanctions Day and to demand the lifting of the sanction imposed on Zimbabwe by the West.

No doubt Zanu PF will be lobbying all the Commonwealth members, especially the African members, to support Zimbabwe’s readmission regardless of the country’s failure to restore human rights and the rule of law.

Of course, every thinking Zimbabwean will be disappointed if the Commonwealth was to appease a corrupt and tyrannical regime at the expense of the millions of ordinary Zimbabwean fighting for their rights and human dignity. This would be particularly shameful to the Commonwealth if SADC, which has endorsed Zanu PF rigged elections in the past, was to stand-up to Zanu PF condemned the 2023 elections as a farce!