“A United States think-tank, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), says the failure by regional leaders to intervene and address the Zimbabwe crisis was perpetuating impunity, especially on human rights violations, by State actors” reported Bulawayo 24.
“CFR said Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders missed an opportunity to intervene after election observer missions flagged the August elections as not credible.
“The think-tank said this has prolonged the crisis in Zimbabwe.”
CFR is spot on in denouncing Zanu PF for denying the people of Zimbabwe their fundamental freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. This is not just a right but the very essence of good governance.
Zimbabwe is a failed state precisely because we have failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. And 43 years being stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship has left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis. The stifling political system Zanu PF has imposed on the nation has failed to produce quality leaders on both sides of the political divide to get the nation out of the hell-hole we find ourselves.
The USA think-tank is also right in denouncing SADC leaders for failing to deny Zanu PF political legitimacy after the regional body’s own election observers condemned the 23 August Zimbabwe elections for failing to meet SADC’s own principles and guidelines on democratic elections.
However I have to express my disappointment and frustration with CFR for the deafening silence over the role Zimbabwe’s opposition parties, notably MDC/CCC, have played in Zimbabwe’s seemingly never ending economic, political and social crisis.
It is very frustrating to see Nelson Chamisa et al coming out now after the August 2023 elections with guns blazing to denounce the election process as a “gigantic fraud” and until voting day they were the ones hell-bent on participating in these flawed and illegal elections. In particular, they dismissed all calls for implementing democratic reforms before elections.
Just a few months before the elections Advocate Fadzai Mahere, then CCC spokesperson, brushed aside Zanu PF’s failure to implement any democratic reforms, political shenanigans and contemptuous violation of human rights. “It is proof, that Zanu PF is panicking because they know CCC will going to win this elections!” she a UN forum.
Back home the CCC party leader and its presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa, was boasting that the party was going to win big because he had “plugged all the Zanu PF vote rigging loop-holes. Shunga! Shunga! Shunga imwe, shunga dazeni!” And crown it all, “God is in it!” he proclaimed!
For anyone with any political common sense, they knew straight away this was Chamisa and company posturing and grandstanding. Chamisa and company were hell bent on participating in these flawed elections out of greed and the hot air was to hide the real reasons for participating - greed and breathtaking incompetence.
What matters here is that the ignorant and gullible Zimbabwe public believed the lies and participated in the flawed elections. Both Zanu PF and the opposition are taking advantage of the people, it is true.
“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 legitimising these sham elections which don't deliver,” 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.”
David Coltart went one step further to shed light on why MDC/CCC leaders have continued to participate in the flawed elections.
“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 Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
There it is, in black and white; the MDC/CCC leaders are participating in these flawed and illegal election out of greed. Pure and and simple! It is inconceivable that CFR, a think-tank for that matter, did not know this!
For the record, Tendai Biti and David Coltart were MDC ministers in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They were senior leaders in the MDC team that failed to implement even one token reform in five year GNU. And credit were credit is due; SADC leaders, notably SA’s Minister Lindiwe Zulu, did their best to get MDC to implement the reforms during the GNU. SADC leaders’ nagging on implementing reforms fell on MDC deaf ears, they could not hear with their snout in the feeding trough!
Today Biti and Coltart hold the positions of one of the three VP and the Treasurer General respectively in CCC. They were both as keen as mustard to participate in the August 2023 elections, hoping to win one of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offers as bait to entice the opposition to participate no matter how flawed and illegal the process get. The party’s name has changed from MDC to CCC none of the leaders have changed. They are as corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent as ever!
"At a time when African citizens are clearly signalling their frustration with manipulated elections and democratic window-dressing serving as cover for corrupt and authoritarian leadership, SADC leaders bury their heads in the sand," said CFR.
Yes but that is only half the picture, half the problem! The Zanu PF dictatorship would have ended in 2013, at the latest, if MDC/CCC leaders had not sold out by failing to implement even one token reform and thereafter by participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the dictatorship.
The Zimbabwe crisis will never be solved by denouncing Zanu PF dictatorship and SADC’s inaptitude, important as these are, if we ignore CCC who are playing a pivotal role in perpetuating the dictatorship!
14 comments:
Factional power games and wars in ZANU PF have reached fever pitch if not boiling point. Those who know and understand ZANU PF factional fights will tell you the army is "very close to stepping in".
Addressing a ZANU PF gathering President Emmerson Mnangagwa out of the blue just lashed out:
" I've been Minister of State Security for a very long time . Most of the systems in Zimbabwe I created them. They will always remember who their Godfather is. So if you plan against me I will know ", the ZANU PF Leader says.
Our Sources within ZANU PF say these words were aimed at Vice President Rtd Gen Constantino G. Chiwenga who he is no longer having tea with as they used to.
What Mnangagwa is forgetting is that after the 2017 military coup Judge George Chiweshe said the coup “was legal, justified and constitutional”. He should know that if the coup was justified, legal and constitutional once, it can be justified, legal and constitutionalised again and again!
When it comes to knowing what is going on, Mugabe had spies everywhere. Multi-layer spies networks to double check and cross check the information. Spies to spy on spies, etc. And yet even he did not see the 15 November 2017 coup coming or, at least, was helpless to stop it!
One of the reason the whole world did not lift a finger to protest the 15 November 2017 coup is because the world was keen to see the back of Mugabe after all he had been rigging elections to stay in power. Mnangagwa must know that even SADC’s own election observers said he rigged the Augusta elections! At least SADC rubber stamped the rigged 2013 elections for Mugabe.
@ Bishop C
“Zimbabwean people are not what you say they are. They work with what they have at their disposal. The MDC/CCC as you put it is what is at their disposal, is what's on the ground trying their best to take them out of the bondage. You see sellouts, Zimbabweans on the ground and like-minded in the diaspora see brave companions standing up to the regime. Stop insults and contribute to the struggle.”
Zimbabweans are an ignorant, naive and gullible people this is precisely why we are a failed state. Many participated in the August elections because they believed Chamisa’s lies. CCC would win big because “I have plugged all Zanu PF vote rigging loop-holes. Shunga! Shunga! Shunga one shunga dozen!” he boasted.
It was all hot air to hide the real reasons he was participating were greed and incompetence. Day after the elections he was the one complaining of “gigantic election fraud”.
Zimbabweans need to wake up to the political reality that CCC will never ever implement any reforms to ensure free elections. CCC “brave champions standing up to the regime!” Yeah right! Standing up to the regime and yet failed to implement even one reform in 23 years and has been participating in flawed elections to give the regime legitimacy. The fraudulent lying must stop!
Those who take pride in their right to have a meaningful say in determining their destiny and to always think for themselves elect leaders and will always hold them to democratic account. These men and women will never ever surrender to the dictates of rulers much less dictators!
Zimbabwe is a failed state ruled by a vote rigging dictator and his supporting cast of cronies, corrupt officials including opposition politicians who have been participating in flawed elections for their share of the spoils of power.
https://www.zimeye.net/2023/11/15/zimbabweans-like-to-be-ruled-and-not-led-cold-comfort-and-have-paid-dearly-for-it/
@ Nectar
“Haha zvkapotseka zvemareforms nyaya yenyu ndeekutiiko reforms everyday haha boring.”
The consequences of failing to implement reforms is Zanu PF will continue to rig elections and thus perpetuating the dictatorship and the tragic human suffering it brought. If it is going to take repeating reforms 1000 times everyday to get them implemented and ending the fail state then I will repeat 1 000 000 times every day. It is more important and urgent to me to end the curse of rigged elections and frankly don’t give a monkey about your idiotic ego and boredom!
@ Cathy Buckle
“Hand to mouth, that’s what people’s lives have become, and there is no comfort at all in words like ‘disengage,’ ‘tomfoolery,’ ‘fake imposters’ and ‘Muppet Shows.’
Hope
Every day we look for hope. I found mine in a little baboon sitting high up in a Mahobohobo tree.
He ducked and weaved as he watched me watching him, eyebrows raised, standing on tiptoes, threatening me. Every now and again, he uttered a little selection of angry chitter-chatter at me, choice swear words, no doubt.
Making himself look bigger and fiercer, the little primate did a couple of arm presses on the branch, dislodging a handful of golden fruit in the process, which rained like manna from heaven onto the troop below.
Oh, Zimbabwe, when it comes to the wild side, you’ve just gotta love it. And there is hope; there is always hope. But sometimes, it needs a big hand to help sustain it.”
It is nice to notice that you certainly have not lost hope in a better tomorrow even when all evidence points to things are getting worse and worse every day, year and decade. I am constantly reminded of the Japanese writer and scholar who said Zimbabwe could have become the South Korea of Africa, and oasis of economic prosperity and peace in the desert of poverty, corruption and despair. With our luck, we have instead become textbook failed state ruled by buffoons!
We had the great misfortune of having a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant like Mugabe as look after independence. He took the wrong turn, surrounded himself with equally brain dead men and women and the slide into hell has been relentless.
The chance to implement the reforms and get the nation back on track during the 2008 to 2013 fell to Morgan Tsvangirai and the opportunity was wasted! Instead of implementing the reforms Chamisa and company have given up on reforms and settled for participating in flawed elections for a share of the spoils of power.
What makes ours a pernicious situation is the people have been hopeless slow in realising that the opposition is now working for the ruling party and so they are easily conned into giving up their right to reforms and free elections believing the opposition has winning in rigged election strategies. Even after 43 years of Zanu PF mafiosi rigging elections, they still believe the opposition can win rigged elections!
@ COT MGT
The truth is no meaningful reforms were ever implemented. Mugabe dictated the new constitution and that is why it is weak and feeble! Some people refuse to accept the truth and so they pretend all the reforms were implemented and the constitution is the best ever. They will never ever accept that MDC leaders sold out, they corrupt and incompetent.
It is not enough to condemn Zanu PF for rigging the election we must now be sophisticated enough to realise that dictatorship would have disappeared by 2013, at the latest if MDC leaders had not sold out. Zanu PF is half of Zimbabwe's political problem the other half is the corrupt CCC who are participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhYxRI-3ED0
@ Rutendo Matinyarare
“THE problem we have in Zimbabwe is we have a new generation of people who think they are educated and thus they don't acknowledge that Zimbabwe is a sacred country, nyika ine varidzi (a country with a creator and spiritual overseers).
They fail to appreciate that these spirits will never accept or forgive children of this nation who have partnered with enemies of the nation and our colonisers to impose sanctions on innocent people, women, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, widows, orphans, the vulnerable and disabled, to coerce them to vote for the opposition so that they can reverse land reform and give the country back to colonisers.
It took the children of Zimbabwe to be filled by the spirit of Murenga (a revered ancestral figure who inspired Zimbabwe's fight for freedom from colonialism) for them to sacrifice their lives, spill their blood, and fight (undertake ChiMurenga/Umvukela) for the liberation of Zimbabwe.”
Actually Zimbabwe is failed state and doomed to remain for forever doomed because it is governed by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have remained in power these last 43 years because they believe thy alone have the divine right to govern the country.
Loud mouths like Rutendo are coming up with all manner of false narratives to justify Zanu PF dictatorial oppression for the purpose of earning a favour with the regime and thus earn their own place at the high table. It is a historic fact that Zanu PF leaders called and supported the UN sanctions imposed on the Rhodesia white colonial regime. Google “Zanu PF - Eddison Zvobgo calls for sanctions against the Rhodesian government in 1978 at the UN” and hear it for yourself.
The UN sanctions were more damaging to the country’s economy than the present Western impose sanctions. And yet those who call for UN sanctions are not only governing the country but are persecuting those who have dared to support the present sanctions.
The reasons to justify the imposition of the sanctions before independence were to end white oppression. Zanu PF has just rigged the August 2023 elections as SADC and the AU election observers have testified!
Zanu PF and its apologists believe they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe and, like all tyrants, believe any excuse to justify their tyrannical oppression is a good reason. The truth is not even Zanu PF can justify rigging elections and denying the ordinary Zimbabweans their right to meaningful say in the governance of the country; sanctions or no sanctions. What has the ordinary Zimbabwean to do with the sanctions?
The real tragedy here is that when the nation had the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, the opportunity was wasted!
@ Nectar
After 43 years of rigged elections you have no clue what is going on and never will. It would be irresponsible to let you set the national agenda. Reforms are on the national agenda because that is the only sure way to end the curse of rigged elections!
The tragedy here is all this would have never happened if MDC had implemented the democratic reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Not even one token reform was implemented! Not one!
Worse still, CCC has been insisting on participating in flawed elections claiming they have “plugged all vote rigging loop holes.” All hot air but what mattered is the electorate believe it! Chamisa has been complaining of “gigantic elections fraud” but too late, by participating CCC had given SADC the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy.
We cannot even define what constitute free and fair elections and thus believe the oxymoronic nonsense of winning rigged elections! Kurumwa nechokuchera!
@ George
Zimbabwe is a failed state and the root cause is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and hence the reason why we have been stuck with the same corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship.
The nation had many golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms and thus end the curse of rigged elections. Alas! Not even one reform was implemented in 23 years including the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
Worst of all MDC/CCC have given up on implementing reforms and delivering the right to free, fair and credible elections; they are telling the nation they have devised winning in rigged elections strategies. All nonsense to hide they are participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship for a share of the gravy train seats.
It is plain foolish to think that Chamisa and his CCC friends will implement the democratic reforms and thus deliver free, fair and credible elections - the prerequisite for democracy and good governance. The challenge for this generation is to find the men and women who will implement the reforms! But when one has the blinked, binary mentality with the fixation of choosing between Zanu PF and CCC, it is no surprise you think Chamisa Chete Chete!
You will never ever understand that Zanu PF’s continued stay in power is thanks to MDC/CCC greed and breathtaking incompetence. Never ever! I realise that it is not your fault, you just do not have the intellect to see it even with the benefit of hindsight! Sad. Very sad but there it is!
Not to worry, you have many on this platform who are just as blinked, thick and slow as yourself. Ladies and gentlemen welcome Zimbabwe’s very own HOWLER MONKEYS!
All those who were in the GNU are responsible. I have never singled out Chamisa as the only one who should have implemented the reforms. Are you saying unless I name everyone who was in the GNU then I must never ever mention Chamisa?
As the current leader of the MDC/CCC Chamisa is carrying on from where Tsvangirai left and therefore mentioning the leader is the norm.
I have said it before and will say it again, those who hold public office are accountable to the public. You just cannot bear to see Chamisa held to account.
Well Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends sold out big time by failing to implement reforms and continue to sell out by participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. They must and will be held to account for that - that is not negotiable!
BRUSSELS, 17 November 2023 – Today, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Zimbabwe published its final report on the 23 August 2023 harmonised elections. This report offers a set of key recommendations to improve future electoral processes. EU EOM Chief Observer, Fabio Massimo Castaldo, underscored in the final report presentation: “While election day was largely calm, it was assessed as disorderly. The process curtailed fundamental rights, overall, and lacked a level playing field, which was compounded by intimidation. During the post-electoral period, the EU EOM observed a climate of retribution.”
“I would like to emphasise that the EU EOM came to Zimbabwe as a partner and in the spirit of achieving common goals to further advance democratic processes. It is important to also view the EU EOM’s recommendations in this context. It is up to Zimbabweans to take ownership of their implementation. The European Union remains ready to assist such efforts”, said Mr. Castaldo.
Out of 21 recommendations, the EU EOM lists 7 as a priority. In particular, the EU EOM considers that a comprehensive and meaningful electoral reform is needed to bring legislation in line with regional and international standards espoused by Zimbabwe.
The EU EOM also recommends that measures are taken to ensure that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and its staff are able to operate without political influence at all levels, including in their appointment mechanisms and by removing governmental approval of its regulations. Further, the EU EOM recommends that ZEC provides timely and comprehensive information on all aspects of electoral preparations to the public, including its decisions and regulations and that ZEC publishes timely electoral results, disaggregated by polling station.
To safeguard the right of assembly, it is recommended to amend the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (MPOA), to limit discretionary application and ensure that its implementation never unduly limits the right to assemble. To safeguard the independence of the judiciary, the EU EOM recommends reviewing the appointment procedures of judges to guarantee the separation of powers.
Further, the EU EOM recommends to establish and implement effective mechanisms to prevent undue restrictions on observation activities, and to prevent pressure and intimidation of both citizen and international observers
The recommendations are the quintessence of the work of the EU EOM, which comprised some 150 observers from all 27 EU member states and its partner countries Canada, Norway and Switzerland”, said Mr Castaldo.
“The EU EOM was invited by the Government of Zimbabwe. In accordance with an Administrative Arrangement between the government and the European Union, the mission conducted an independent and impartial long-term assessment of all aspects of the entire electoral process. The EU EOM did not interfere in the elections at any time and has no interest in the results”, underlined Mr. Castaldo.
The EU report is just a copy and paste of the 2018 report; the 2023 elections were repeat of the 2018 elections because not even one token reform was implemented. It does not help when those should be pushing for reforms are adamant they don’t reforms because they devised winning in rigged elections strategies!
t did not take long for the celebration of Robert Mugabe's resignation as President of Zimbabwe on the 17 November 2017 to turn soar very, very soar. Zimbabweans have since "christened" 17 November "#Dzungu Day!" because they were really stupid to thought swapping one dictator for another was a smart move.
The real tragedy with Zimbabweans is that they have learned nothing, they are as myopia and binary minded as ever. They have learned nothing, absolutely nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqjj_y6ttC8
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