Change will not come out from violent protests or participating in flawed elections. We have been down these rabbit holes! W Mukori

 “Winds of change don’t blow automatically: Zimbabweans need to fearlessly stand up against oppression,” argued Tendai Ruben Mbofana in his blog, mbofanatendairuben.news.blog. 

“In recent years, a transformative shift has been sweeping across Southern Africa.

“A wave of democratic movements and electoral successes by opposition parties has caused significant disruptions in long-standing political structures, particularly in countries where former liberation movements, once heralded as champions of independence, have held power for decades.”

Zimbabweans have gone down this rabbit-hole of armed struggle, violent street protest and participating in flawed elections and they have all failed to end the oppression. We need to ask ourselves why these have failed and stop the insanity of repeating the same mistakes expecting a different outcome. We need to think and act smart!

If the truth be told there have been many occasions when the nation believed the winds of change were blowing, notably when MDC was launch in 1999. The people have risked livelihoods, limbs and even their lives (over 500 were murdered by Zanu PF in 2008 Operation Mavhotera Papi alone) to elect MDC/CCC leaders in power on the belief they would bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for.

It has been 24 years, including 5 years in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, and MDC/CCC leaders have not only failed to implement even one token reform but, worst of all, they have been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for a few gravy train seats reward!

The most memorable stand against oppression was in the fight for independence. There is no denying that everyone played their part from the povo in the rural areas to those with the guns who fought white regime’s soldiers. And yet when it came to the elections in 1980, Mugabe and his cronies denied povo a meaningful vote. Zanu PF told the people if the party did not win those elections the bush war would continue. 

Of course, the people voted to end the war and with that vote lost their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

Yes Zimbabweans must fearlessly stand up against oppression, again, but first we must establish why their bravery in the past have all failed to deliver the peace, justice, freedom and human rights they were fighting for. Our aim should be to break this cycle of standing up against the oppressors, get all worked up risking all, only for the whole thing to fizzle out and the majority to still find the oppressors’  boot on their necks choking in the gutter. 

All we have ever changed so far is swap white oppressor for black one and after 37 years swapped Mugabe for Mnangagwa. To the oppressed race or name of the oppressors it is academic all the want is to end the oppression. 

Why have we failed to break the cycle of oppression? 

There are many reasons for this but one of them has to be the people ourselves’ failure to define what were the democratic changes required to secure our freedoms and rights and to elect the competent men and women who will implement these changes. 

After the Zanu PF thugs’ blatant betrayal we should have learned the important lesson of making sure we elect competent men and women to implement the democratic changes. Morgan Tsvangirai and company failed to implement even one token reform. And still we have not learned the lesson of the need for competent leaders because millions continue to follow Chamisa and company even now with the mountain of evidence that they are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless.

It is not the number of violent protests, the value of properties destroyed or the number of the injured and dead that will finally end oppression in Zimbabwe. All these things have happened in the past and yet the oppression has remained. Man is a creature of reason and we must do so now. 

The rallying call is not to go out in the street for fresh protests or to go and vote in flawed elections, “so flawed, so illegal, the logical step is to withdraw,” as David Coltart readily admitted. The rallying call is for people to take time out and be educated on what the democratic changes we need are and to demand that the reforms are implemented before the next elections. 

The whole idea of participating in flawed elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and then stage street protest to remove the regime is the very epitome of moronic madness. Why participate in flawed elections and give the regime legitimacy - thus the whip, the power and authority to whip you. Violent street protests are an attempt to achieve regime-change by unconstitutional means and, per se, a legitimate opportunity and excuse for the regime to whip you. 

The truth is Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are buffoons and they have managed to oppress us all these last 44 years not so much because they are smart (if they were smart the country would not be in such an economic and political mess). We have been out witted by buffoons for 44 years, that’s all. Of course, it speaks volumes of our own IQ! Ouch! The truth hates. We just need to put our thinking caps on and be smart for a change.