It is too late to implement any democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging these elections and Zanu PF is rigging these elections. Sadly, that is true.
CCC is participating in these elections. Yes, Chamisa and company are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections out of greed. They know Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate and Mnangagwa’s bonus US$40 000 housing loan to MPs, which even Chamisa admitted was a bribe, has whetted their appetite.
There has been talk of CCC boycotting the elections to press for reforms before elections. There was no chance of that happening, even if one forgot about their problem of greed, they would not do it because they have lost political credibility.
SADC leaders, who were also the guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement, wanted Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postpone until meaningful reforms were implemented. “If you go into the elections next month, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends in June 2013.
Mugabe refused to postpone the elections arguing there were no outstanding reforms for the GNU to implement. Patrick Chinamasa, who was Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs throughout the GNU revealed that MDC leaders had not submitted even one reform proposal in the five years of the GNU. Not even one reform proposal!
Of course, it would have been nonsensical for MDC to boycott the 2013 elections to press for reforms to be implemented when they had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and yet had not even submitted one reform proposal for five years! SADC leaders dropped the call for the elections to be postponed when they learned about MDC’s pathetic performance.
“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” one irate SADC diplomat told The Independent, commenting of MDC’s failure to implement even one reform in five years.
The regional body went on to grant Zanu PF legitimacy knowing fully well that the party had rigged the elections, they are the ones who had said the election “was done!” for Pete’s sake! SADC leaders’ volte-face to give Zanu PF legitimacy knowing fully well the party had rigged the 2013 elections must have been in despair at MDC’s betrayal in failing to implement reforms.
MDC leaders admitted their folly in participating in the 2013 elections without reforms soon after the voting was done and the scale of the Zanu PF rigging was know. “No reform, no elections!” they resolved in 2014. But by the end of 2015 MDC leaders had revert to their default position of participating in the elections with not even token reforms implemented.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections and SADC leaders, for their part turned a blind eye to the rigging and, once again, granted Zanu PF legitimacy.
Not even one token reform was implemented since the 2018 rigged elections and it is too late to implement any meaningful reforms now with the 2023 elections set for August, six months away.
There is no stopping Zanu PF holding 2023 elections and, more significantly, there is no stopping the regime rigging these elections.
There is no chance of CCC, the country’s major opposition party, boycotting these flawed 2023 elections and by, participating in these flawed elections, they will once again give SADC leaders the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy.
So, are we therefore snookered; stuck with a flawed electoral system, so flawed Tsvangirai failed to get into State House even thou he had garnered 73% of the votes in the March 2008 plebiscite, designed to keep Zanu PF dictatorship in power in perpetuate?
Well, no! We are NOT stuck.
Whilst we cannot stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections nor stop CCC participating to give the election process some modicum of credibility. We can, however, stop Zanu PF getting political legitimacy.
We must document and expose Zanu PF’s blatant rigging and wanton violence and make it impossible for SADC leaders pretend such a flawed and illegal election process can ever be judged free, fair and credible. We must also stop SADC leaders hiding behind CCC as a credible opposition acting in the public interest when they know very well that MDC/CCC leaders lost their political credibility during the 2008 to 2013 GNU!
By denying Zanu PF political legitimacy, this create the need for a new GNU and this time we will implement the democratic reforms and finally end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
A wiseman acts within what constrains him.
The ideal solution for Zimbabwe would be for 2023 elections to be free, fair and credible. We would all scream “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
The Zanu PF dictatorship and the CCC betrayal, by failing to implement reforms and participating in flawed elections to give SADC leaders the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy, are the constrains stopping us having free elections. What we can do within the constrains is deny Zanu PF legitimacy and thus force a new GNU and another chance to implement the reform.
If you cannot get the ideal best solution - free election in 2023, get the next best solution there is - make 2023 the last rigged elections in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF is rigging 2023 elections but what the regime cannot rig is political legitimacy! It is incumbent on every Zimbabwean to make sure that this time SADC leaders do not grant the regime political legitimacy.
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UN experts urge President of Zimbabwe to reject bill restricting civic space.
Refusal to reject the bill will only making it that much easier for the UN and SADC in particular to deny the regime political legitimacy!
Some of the concerns raised by the UN experts include the power by the government to cancel operational licenses of PVOs already operating.
According to the bill, some of the statutes will include the Registrar's Office powers to consider, grant or reject the registration of PVOs, with little to no judicial recourse against such decisions.
"The bill's requirements would also immediately render existing organisations, operating lawfully as trusts and associations, illegal.
"The Office of the Registrar will also have extensive powers to intervene in and monitor the activities of PVOs."
UN experts raised additional concerns about the prohibition of any "political affiliation" and unjustified restrictions on PVOs' ability to obtain funding, including foreign funds.
According to UN experts, the vagueness or non-definition of many provisions in the bill also raises concerns that the proposed law will be misapplied.
They warned that actions considered to be in breach of certain provisions in the Bill could lead to criminal prosecution, with penalties ranging from heavy fines to imprisonment.
AT least 18 schools in Binga, Matabeleland North province, recorded a zero percent pass rate at Ordinary Level 2022 examinations, with teachers unions yesterday saying such results showed education inequality in the country and accused government of failing to provide marginalised communities with free education.
A document seen by NewsDay shows that Chisizya, Gwatagwata, Manyanda, Katete, Lubanda, Saba, Zambezi and Zumanana secondary schools, among others in the region, had a zero percent pass rate among other schools.
Simbala, Msenampongo, Sinampande, Siabindi, Nakaluba, Chasamba, Muchesu, Sinakomba, Masibitha and Ntivule secondary schools also failed to record any passes in the 2022 O Level examinations.
Teachers said the failure was not surprising as the current curriculum was hinged on Information Communication Technology (ICTs), which was lacking in most rural schools.
"At a time when government has made computers compulsory in the updated curriculum, 75% of primary schools and 65% of secondary schools in rural areas have no electricity or alternative power. This is not to talk of computers that are hardly in any school. Fundamentally, it is a warped approach to make ICT compulsory in schools when the schools have no plans of implementing this or making this a reality," Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou said
The quality of education in Zimbabwe, especially in the rural areas has been pathetic and this has been the case for decades now. What hope is there of the nation developing when so many of our people have been denied education? What kind of citizen will they be?
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful development and more and more of our people will be denied the basic tools to live in dignity! We desperately need to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance!
Zanu PF are rigging the elections because they want power and they can rig the elections and get away with it.
Chamisa and his fellow CCC leaders know the elections are flawed but are participating regardless because they are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait. The bonus US$40 000 housing loan for MPs (even Chamisa admitted it is a bribe) has whetted their appetites and sharped their resolve to participate.
Chamisa wants to be the leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party and claim the lion’s share of the annal Political Party Finance Act cheque paid out to CCC.
Mwonzora, Madhuku and the others in the opposition camp know Zanu PF is rigging the elections they are participating because they are after the POLAD freebies!
The losers in this political drama are the ordinary Zimbabweans who are coerced by Zanu PF thugs or conned by CCC into participating in the meaningless elections. How anyone would believe CCC’s oxymoronic nonsense of winning in rigged elections strategies beggars belief, especially after 43 years of rigged elections! Zimbabweans are naive and deserve to suffer and they are suffering!
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