Malema is providing 500 buses "to Zimbabweans to go back home and vote. They are welcome back". Even if Zanu PF rigs and win? W Mukori

 Julius Malema, the leader of SA’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party  is a demagogue and, like all demagogues, one cannot reason with him. He does not have the intellectual incapable of comprehending simplest facts! 

Malema has failed to understand that Zanu PF not just rigs elections but that the process has become so flawed and illegal the only rational solution is to stop participating. 

In 2008 Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 73% and that was not good enough to get him the keys to State House. ZEC has failed to produce a verified voters’ roll and Team Pachedu has since uncovered so many glaring and deliberate mistakes in the voters’ roll it is immediately clear why the regime did not want the roll properly audited. The regime has plans to frogmarch rural voters; etc., etc.

There is a mountain of evidence already that Zanu PF is rigging these elections and that participating will only serve to give SADC the excuse to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy. And yet Malema still insists that Zimbabweans must participate.

"We call on all Zimbabweans who are here in South Africa to go back home and vote. If it means coming back, they can come back, they are more than welcome, but they must do the right thing and go and vote,” he said  few weeks ago.

Well the demagogues has since put his money where his mouth is. EFF help pay for 500 buses to transport Zimbabweans travelling back to Zimbabwe to vote! 

Now that Malema has gone the extra mile and offered to pay for 50 000 (assuming 100 voters in @ bus), he will probably assume that 20 times that number will make their own way and so over 1 million of the 3 million Zimbabweans in SA alone will be voting to remove Mnangagwa. 

Many of those who do travel to Zimbabwe to vote will be denied the vote because their name is not in the Polling Station voters’ roll the expected it to be or has been deleted or some such reason as many in Zimbabwe will find out on voting day. But of course, Julius Malema will take another Zanu PF landslide victory as proof Zimbabweans are not fighting to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. 

The accusation that Zimbabweans were in SA because they are cowards who would not confront the Zanu PF dictatorship was the caucus celebre to justify the xenophobia attacks of Zimbabweans.

Credit where credit is due, Julius Malema and his EFF have condemned the xenophobia attacks. His language has changed, there is a razor sharp edge to it.

"No-one is going to fight for these Zimbabweans who are loitering the streets here. They are their own liberators. For once, they must take responsibility and get into buses and go home and vote."

Julius Malema and his EFF cronies are renowned for their flip flops. Will another Zanu PF landslide victory; Malema will not care that the elections were rigged, he does not care about details especially when they are way above his head; force Juju to perform one of his notorious flip flops.  

If Zanu PF rigs and wins the 23 August elections, all signs are they will, then there will be new wave of Zimbabwean economic and/or political refugees. Those going to SA will be shocked to find increased anti-Zimbabwean vibes and the next xenophobia violence will be even worse than ever! 

Again, credit where credit is due, SA’s Minister Lindiwe Zulu did push Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. If the reforms were implemented Zimbabwe would have cured herself once and once for all this curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

Sadly, all her effort was wasted, the MDC leaders turned out to be (and still are) corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. They failed to implement even one token reform in five years. 

SADC leaders made one last minute attempt to have the 2013 Zimbabwe elections postponed until reforms were implemented. “If you take part in these elections, you will lose. The elections are done!” the regional leaders told Tsvangirai and company to their faces at the June 2013 SADC Summit in Maputo, Mozambique.

But again MDC leaders paid no heed to the warning. Zanu PF went on to rig the 2013 elections, as SADC leaders had warned and they did a volte-face of their own by granting vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy. And granted vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy yet again in 2018. 

At its party congress SA’s ruling party, ANC, resolved that they would not allow regime change in Zimbabwe. This is most alarming because this suggests that SA will use it dominance in SADC to once again grant vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy in these 2023 elections regardless of the evidence these elections a flawed and illegal. 

It is infuriate that both EFF and ANC are completely ignoring the political reality that Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections, and are conniving in granting vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship and yet have the chutzpah to blame the ordinary Zimbabwean economic and political refugee escaping the consequences the failed state they are nurturing! 

"Bull" Mliswa, promise toilet and boreholes, "which I will fund". Norton will be an oasis in failed state desert. W Mukori

Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections. It is insane to keep participating in these flawed elections only to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, especially after 43 years of the Zanu PF mafiosi rigging elections. 

The opposition are participating out of greed, there are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is giving away as bait. Pure and simple.

As for the ordinary Zimbabweans they are participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating their own suffering out of fear and ignorance. 

If you are in the rural areas, it is foolhardy to defy the dictates of the Zanu PF operatives who are frogmarching povo to party rallies in preparation to frogmarch them to vote on 23 August. The opposition has been telling them “Your vote is your secret!” They are smart enough to know that is just hot air. Zanu PF has increased the number of Polling Stations from 10 per constituency in 2008 to over 60 this year and the Zanu PF goons will marking a register of all who vote. As soon as the results of each Polling Station is announced, the goon will KNOW who did not vote for Zanu PF!

The so-called Zimbabwean intellectual and urbanites (so called because they should know better but they clearly don’t) are participating in these flawed elections even after all the warning about the sheer futility of doing so because they are seduced by the opposition leaders’ rhetoric.

“The Water and Sanitation program which I have been financing throughout my term in Norton continued this week with more boreholes and toilets unveiled for various areas in need,” post Themba Mliswa, Independent MP for Norton, “the Bull of Norton”, one of the luminaries in the opposition camp.

“The latest areas to benefit included Mutubva Secondary, Mutubva Compound and Skea Farm.

"The school has an allocation of 10 toilets and a borehole which we commissioned on Saturday.”

Mliswa is campaigning to be re-elected MP in this election. He clearly does not understand why Zimbabwe is in this mess much less understand that his blundering incompetence and greed are the root causes we are stuck in this mess! 

Zimbabwe is a failed state because we have failed to hold free, fair and credible election, the prerequisite for competent and accountable government. Since the 2008 to 2013 Zanu PF has learned that the regime can continue to rig elections and get away with it as long as it allowed the opposition to win a few seats and thus maintain the facade the country is a healthy and functioning democracy. 

People like you Mliswa and Tendai Biti have had many, many man-hours in parliament to deliver your speeches “full of sound and fury” but when push came to shove Zanu PF has always done as it damn well pleased. I salute Tendai Biti, at least he was smart enough to realise the sheer futility of this political circus and bold enough to admit it.

“Look, you can't keep on participating in flawed electoral processes that serve to give big benefits to dictators such as Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has perfected the art of winning elections. So it will be very foolish for the opposition to continue legitimizing these sham elections which don't deliver. This country will go through a serious economic crisis in 2020 caused by Zanu PF. And yet, this is the only country where a government doesn't perform, it is encouraged by a super majority in parliament,” said Tendai Biti in a 2015 interview with Isaac Mugabi.

“So you can't continue subjecting Zimbabweans to processes where their hopes just get crushed.”

What Biti has lacked is the courage of his conviction to stop participating in rigged elections. Greed got the better of him. 

As for you Themba Mliswa you clearly do not have the intellect to see that the opposition are participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuate the dictatorship, the failed state and the heartbreaking suffering that entails to millions of Zimbabweans out there.

“The Water and Sanitation program which I have been financing,” you boast. How nauseating! 

You are paying for these basic needs because the people cannot afford to pay because unemployment in Norton, like every where else in the country, is 80% plus. These people would pay for all these things for themselves and lots more besides if they have the opportunity to work and earn a living wage. They do not want charity because even you cannot meet all their needs.

The people of Norton are not going to wake up one day living in posh houses with running water, no power cuts, five star schools and hospitals, all their roads paved with gold; an oasis in the desert. All thanks to the generosity of their independent MP, the Honourable Themba Mliswa. 

The number one task for any MP in Zimbabwe today is to end the Zanu PF dictatorship that is holding the nation to ransom by implementing the democratic reforms and thus stopping the regime rigging the elections. How anyone can think that participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for selfish gain is the answer beggars belief! 

HC barring 12 CCC contesting 2023 is foolish and symptomatic of Judiciary rot. W Mukori

 I have had the opportunity to read the High Court judgement barring the 12 CCC Bulawayo candidates from contesting the 23 August 2023. I am not a lawyer but one does not have to be a lawyer to see the judgement was absurd, so absurd not even a kangaroo court would come up with such foolish judgement.

If at all possible, everyone must try to read the judgement for yourself. It really is a must read! You will know why Zimbabwe is a failed state, with this corrupt and utterly useless public institutions it is no surprise we are a failed state! 

Here are some the extracts from the 24 page judgement.

“The applicants are moving me to grant them a declarator and consequential relief, ” reads the High Court judgement, dated 27 July 2023

“The premise of this application on the provisions of the Electoral Act Chapter 2:13 (the ACT). Their bone of contention is that the commission which sat as the nomination court at the Bulawayo Magistrates Court, Tredgold Building on 21 June 2023 violated the law, in particular, s 46/ 7 & 8 of the Act when it accepted (my emphasis) the Respondents’ (12 CCC candidates) nomination papers for elections to members of the National House of Assembly of Zimbabwe in the the election which are to be held on 23 August 2023 after 16.00 hour and proceeded to sit to the early hours of 22 June 2023.”

It should be noted from the onset that the law accepts the principle that all those already in the queue at the designated closing time, will have their nomination papers processed. This is nothing new, the same principle is applies on voting day. And so we can zoom in to establish who was in the queue before the cut off hour of 16.00. 

The Magistrate or a Judge presides over the nomination court but the person  responsible for processing the nomination papers, the payment of the nomination fees, etc. and, for our purpose, the flow of the candidates submitting their nomination papers is the ZEC official, the 1st Respondent, in this case. 

“The 1 st Respondent stated that he did not receive any nomination papers other than in terms of the law i.e. between 10 am and 4pm on nomination day and did not adjourn the nomination court beyond the prescribed nomination day,” state the HC judgement.

“The nomination courtroom was very small and could accommodate between 12 and 15 people at a time. The balance could queue outside and wait for their turn. At 15.55 hours he instructed a Police Officer deployed at the Nomination court to collect nomination papers from any person with nomination papers outside and bring them to him. 

“The Police Officer complied and collected between 40 and 50 nomination papers and handed them over to him.

“ At 4 pm he declared the Court closed.

“Annex B is a register that records the times when the nomination forms were captured in the system by the Secretary and not the time when they were submitted by the candidates. 

“The affidavits of the staffers are broadly in support of the averments of the 1 st Respondent.”

Case closed, you would think. The surprise was the judge’s contemptuous disregard of the facts! 

“ I have accepted the facts as pleaded by the 1st respondent,” acknowledged the judgement before the volte-face.

“The 1 st Respondent stated in his affidavit that he only interacted with the individual Respondents when they submitted their nomination papers. Annex B shows when each Respondent submitted his or her nomination papers. Annex B is a document compiled by public officials during the course of their duty in service of the stateLong after 4 pm the majority of the Respondents filed their nomination papers. 

“The 1st Respondent and his staffers have said the times indicated in Annex B are not what they purport to be. I find this explanation to be strange and improbable to the extend of being false.”

“Annex B speaks for itself.It does not need to be explained away by anyone including the 1 st Respondent and his staffer. In all probability, the 1 st Respondent comes up with this explanation upon realising that this application has put him and ZEC on trial.”

The 1 st Respondent has said he collected all the nomination papers of all those in the courtroom and in the queue outside at 15.55 hours - this marks the time the last nomination papers were ACCEPTED. Annex B gives the time when each nomination paper was entered and captured in the system. Why the judge is insisting on the Annex B time must be the time the nomination papers were accepted does not make any sense if the principle that all those already in the queue at 16.00 hours can be processed. 

Please note Annex B was NOT included in the judgement I have seen. If it was, one could compare how many nomination papers were processed after 16.00 hours and compare that with the 40 or 50 the 1 st respondent said he collected at 15.55 hours.  

“From the evidence available which is the 1st Respondent’s affidavit where he says that he only interacted with the Respondents when they submitted their papers, Annexe B, the allegations, and denials all taken together I come to the conclusion that the Respondents except one, submitted their nomination papers in violation of the law,” continued the judgement.

“The Nomination Court closed at 4 pm. Once closed it was no longer sitting in open court and by the time the respondents sat before him they were not doing so in open court. The separation of the papers from the Respondents through the medium of the Police Officer was unlawful. 

“The statute says the candidate or his/her agent must be in court and ready to submit at 4 pm. It does not say that the candidate’s papers alone must be in the courtroom.”

What was wrong with 1st Respondent collecting all the nomination of those in the queue just before 4 pm?

The courtroom could only hold 12 or 15 candidates and so to insist that only those “in court and ready to submit at 4 pm” could be processed is just being pedantic and foolish. 

The CCC contestants have appealed the shamelessly partisan  High Court, it is hard to image any judge giving such a judgement if the candidate were Zanu PF. After all it was the same judiciary that said the 2017 military coup was “justifies, legal and constitutional!” 

Read the judgement if you can and you will know why it is hopeless to ever think Zimbabwe can ever become a healthy and functioning democratic nation without first implementing the democratic reforms and overhauling all state institutions. Why MDC leaders failed to implement even one token reform when they had the golden opportunity to do so beggars belief! 

"Boycotting 2023 is a big NO!" insist Chin'ono. Even with VR "not fit for a burial society election"? W Mukori

 "The current voters' roll is not fit for a burial society election. It is a crime scene. There must be an urgent national audit of this roll signed off by all political parties,” said Tendai Biti.

"Zimbabwe cannot be led into an occult travesty masquerading as an election. 23 August must be a real election.” 

This is not the first time that Tendai Biti has highlighted the sheer futility of participating in Zimbabwe’s flawed and illegal elections. He first said this in 2015.

“Look, you can't keep on participating in flawed electoral processes that serve to give big benefits to dictators such as Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has perfected the art of winning elections. So it will be very foolish for the opposition to continue legitimizing these sham elections which don't deliver. This country will go through a serious economic crisis in 2020 caused by Zanu PF. And yet, this is the only country where a government doesn't perform, it is encouraged by a super majority in parliament,” said Tendai Biti in a 2015 interview with Isaac Mugabi.

“So you can't continue subjecting Zimbabweans to processes where their hopes just get crushed.”

His words fell on deaf ears then as all the opposition parties ignored his advice and participated in flawed 2018 elections out of greed. It must be said, that he it is either he did not hear his own voice nor thought process because he too participated in the 2018 election. Or, which the most likely scenario, greed do the better of him too. 

Still, one only hopes that his colleagues in the opposition camp will finally sit up and pay attention; it really is insane to keep participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the failed state and the human suffering it has brought. 

Let us hope Tendai Biti himself will have the common sense and moral conviction to stand up and be counted and withdraw from this rat race even if everyone else does not.  

One can only imagine the nauseating disgust and trepidation I felt when I came across Hopewell Chin’ono’s twitter. Here is the man who not just a journalist but an “Award winning International Journalist | Film Maker | 2 Time African Journalist of The Year | Africa Leadership Fellow I Nieman Fellow | hopewell2@post.harvard.edu". A mouthful! And yet cannot not trust to perform the simple task of informing, entertaining and educate the public.

“Some have suggested boycotting the (2023) election, that is a big NO, and I will explain why,” posted Chin’ono on his twitter paper.

“1. When you are in an authoritarian State like Zimbabwe, you have to fight for every space available for contest.

If you don’t, the regime will use political opportunists like Mwonzora, and Zanu PF and Mnangagwa won’t be bothered about the world view or reaction.

2. If Nelson Chamisa decided to boycott elections today, many of his parliamentary candidates will rebel against such a decision because for many of them being an MP is a job.

Many will argue that they have already spent money campaigning.

And for some, they have dreamt of being an MP for years such that they have even sacrificed their values and moral compass simply to get into parliament.

So it won’t work. A rebel from your candidates terribly weakens you.

Lastly, having MPs in parliament is a meal ticket for the political parties and their leaders.

So there won’t even be any talk of a boycott from any opposition party which has the prospect of winning seats.”

Of course, this is just nonsense!

Elections must be free, fair and credible and if they are not then one has to grade the process carefully and act accordingly. There are rules to guide the grading just as there are road rules, for example. You should not stop the car where there is a continuous yellow line, the danger and seriousness of the offence goes up a notch if there are two continuous yellow lines, a continuous red line and peaks at double continuous red lines.

The penalty for ignoring the a continuous double red line warning in UK can be as much as £130 even if stopping so did not result in any accident. If it did, then the sky is the limit! 

The idea that one must participating in election no matter how unfree, unfair and discreditable the process happened to be is absurd and irrational. If Zanu PF knows that the opposition will participate in an election no matter how flawed the process got and its political legitimacy is guaranteed. Why would the party risk its iron grip on power by holding free, fair and credible elections!

In 2008 elections Zanu PF crossed the double red lines. Mugabe and his cronies were shocked when SADC and AU refused to endorse the party’s victory and grant it political legitimacy, as they had always done in the past. The party was forced to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement and to go into 2008 to 2013 GNU. 

The GNU was both punitive measure (punishment for cheating and use of wanton violence) and a corrective one. The primary task of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to ensure the rigging and violence of 2008  will never be repeated ever again.

Alas! Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who should have implemented the reforms turned out to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, generous allowances and salaries, a US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai himself, etc., etc. And to show their gratitude to the dictator, the MDC leaders throw the reform out of the window. 

Not even one token reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. Zanu PF emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial powers, including the carte blanche powers to rig elections and to use violence, untouched. 

However, Zanu PF knew from the GNU that the days of the de facto one-party state were over; post 2013 Zimbabwe had to be a multi-party state. Whilst the party continued to rig elections to retain its iron grip on power it, nonetheless, had to allow the opposition to win some seats to maintain the multi-party facade. In 2018 Mnangagwa created POLAD to reward losing presidential candidates who publicly swore the elections were free, fair and credible. A small price to pay for political credibility and legitimacy.

It is therefore nonsensical to suggest “Zanu PF and Mnangagwa won’t be bothered about the world view or reaction.”  

The overriding reason why the opposition has continued to participate in these flawed elections is greed as David Coltart confirmed in his book.

“The (2013) electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility,” confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

Indeed what Hopewell Chin’ono is giving as his second reason why the opposition cannot boycott elections is merely an acknowledgement that greed rules the roost in the opposition camp. 

The ordinary Zimbabwean has risked life and limb to elect the MDC/CCC leaders on the understanding the party would implement the democratic reforms to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. After 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU, Chamisa and company have failed to implement even one token reform. Worse still, since the GNU debacle they have been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship and the masses’ suffering. 

Whilst it is as clear as day that the elections are “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw,” and that participating will only perpetuate the ordinary Zimbabwean’s suffering. 

Along comes the “Award winning International Journalist, Film Maker, etc., etc.” to warn us against boycotting the elections even when it is “the only logical step”. “If Nelson Chamisa decided to boycott elections today, many of his parliamentary candidates will rebel” and participate regardless out of greed, as we already know.   

Let us all be clear, Zimbabwe would have ended the curse of rigged elections and bad governance by 2013, at the latest if MDC/CCC lasted had not sold out by failing to implement reforms and by participating in flawed elections out of greed. And Hopewell Chin’ono in his infantile wisdom is arguing that we must perpetuate our own suffering by participating in these flawed elections because boycott will risk CCC breaking up.

MDC/CCC has failed to deliver even one reform in 23 years and has all but given up on reforms and free and fair elections and is participating in these flawed elections out of greed. It really beggars belief how anyone would argue ordinary Zimbabweans to participate in flawed election to perpetuate their own suffering for no other purpose than to feed the insatiable greed of the opposition leaders! 

Chin’ono the number one priority of every thinking Zimbabwean out there must be how to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and with it the fail state. It is really insane to keep participate in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy especially after 43 years of Zanu PF mafiosi rigging elections. It is stupid enough to participate hoping against hope that the opposition will win. But to justify the insanity and the continued heartbreaking suffering of povo on grounds of pandering to the greed of the incompetent and utterly useless opposition takes the biscuit! 

No wonder the country is in a mess. With journalists/advisers like Chin’ono the country will continue to hold elections even with voters’ roll “not fit for a burial society election”! We will never ever get out of this mess. Never!