Democracy demands E Roosevelt's "great minds" not Zimbabwe's Lewis Carroll's Dodos

It was the wife of US President Roosevelt, Eleanor who said, "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Zimbabwe is in a political and economic mess today because most of our people have not even reached the “small minds” level, they are still stuck in the minion minds level graphically portrayed by characters in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland characters where reason has been thrown out of the window and chaos reigns supreme. Where you can be hero one minute and it is “off with his head” the next for no discernible reason other than that, before, you were standing up and now you are sitting down!

“Each time this Wilbert Mukori guy writes he screams about MDC's failure to implement democratic reforms during the GNU, on the while sipping whiskey in foreign lands,” wrote one commentator going by the name Fox. (Appropriately named for Carroll’s animal characters.)

“I don't know why he is so mad about those reforms. Maybe he was promised something, a wife or something. His obsession with so called reforms is just surprising. He must understand the political environment in which the MDCT was operating relative to ZANU PF and Mugabe's belligerence. But alas, he is blind to all that.

“He doesn't realize that the new constitution is a product of the GNU, together with many other seemingly less important but consequential reforms implemented during the GNU.”

I will just pick four things to characteristic of the irrational mind of our Fox:

a)     Even with the benefit of hindsight Fox still fails to understand that the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections as happened in 2008. Zanu PF went on to rig the 2013 elections precisely because not even one of the reforms were implemented. Understand that then you will also understand why the whole nation, not just a few individuals, must be obsessed about implementing reforms because nothing of any substance will ever be accomplished without first implementing the reforms.

b)    One would think that Fox would have finally made up his/her mind by now on whether MDC leaders carried out whatever tasks they were asked to do during the GNU. Sadly, the fog in the Fox’s mind is clearly a permanent fixture. He/she complains of Mugabe’s belligerence in one breath and is praising the new constitution in the next.

c)     The people of Zimbabwe voted YES to approve the new constitution on the back of Tsvangirai and the other MDC leaders’ promise that it will deliver free, fair and credible elections. The test of the pudding is in the eating; the nation had diarrhoea, food poisoning, etc. The new constitution was “dictated by Mugabe” as the Zanu PF MP, Paul Mangwana, on the parliamentary committee tasked to write the new constitution boasted after the referendum. The majority of the populous had voted to approve the new constitution on the strength of Tsvangirai’s foolish assurance without even reading the document for themselves.

d)    Fox is one of those Zimbabweans who have developed a distinct dislike of any Zimbabwean in “foreign lands”; in typical Alice in Wonderland chop logic only Zimbabweans in the country talk sense those who left the country talk nonsense. The nation welcomes diaspora dollar, indeed many, many more people will be suffering was it not for the billions of dollars keeping the economy ticking; but not diaspora idea and diaspora vote!

"VP Chiwenga is a true hero of our time,” piped in Tinotenda Musodza in a Bulawayo 24 report. “He has managed to retire dictators by paying them a visit at their homes. VP Chiwenga visited Mugabe who was refusing to retire despite him being physically and mentally disabled. Mugabe retired and the whole of Zimbabwe exploded with joy.

“Day before yesterday VP Chiwenga visited another dictator Morgan Tsvangirai who has refused to resign despite his deteriorating health condition."

Here are two Lewis Carroll’s character foolishness in Musodza’s statement:

1)    Mugabe managed to stay in power for the 37 years because the Joint Operation Command, a shadowy Junta comprising the top brass in the security services including Chiwenga and all the generals involved in the November 2017 coup headed by Mugabe and Mnangagwa, masterminded and executed all the vote rigging, brutal political repression, coups and the wholesale looting to raise the cash to bankroll Zanu PF’s dictatorial rule. The Junta stage the November coup to remove Mugabe only because he was had initiated a process to boot the other Junta members out of power and hand over to his wife and her G40 faction.

The coup was to stop Mugabe booting out the Junta members out of power and nothing to do with rescuing the nation from Mugabe. The Zanu PF dictatorship of which Chiwenga and Mnangagwa were linchpins, did not end with Mugabe’s demise, all what happened is the figure head changed.

So, why should the nation be thankful to Mnangagwa and Chiwenga for removing the dictator, they had imposed on the nation, and only to replace him with another dictator?

2)    Mnangagwa and Chiwenga know that the coup, even to remove a seasoned murderous tyrant like Mugabe, is a treasonous act and it only confirmed what people already know – that Zanu PF is a party of lawless thugs. The Mnangagwa regime is illegitimate and one way for it to gain legitimacy is for it to hold free, fair and credible elections. This is proving a bridge too far for Mnangagwa and company given they are used to rigging elections. The regime has been promising free elections and yet has not implemented even one democratic reform.

As we already know Zanu PF is a party of corrupt, vote rigging, coup staging and murderous thugs; they are not going to risk losing power in free and fair elections. They will never hold free and fair elections because it is not in their thug DNA to hold free elections.

Mnangagwa and his cabal will not implement even one reform what they are hoping the goodwill generated by the removal of Mugabe will last long enough for the populous to vote for Zanu PF without the need for the usual blatant vote rigging much less the harassment, beatings, etc. The regime’s failure to implement any meaningful reforms will be the stack reminder to the naïve and gullible voters that the Zanu PF dictatorship is alive and thriving.  

This year, Zimbabwe is going to hold elections; the elections are nothing like the democratic elections held in many other countries. Our elections are comparable to like Lewis Carroll’s caucus-race, only worse!

“First it (Dodo) marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, ('the exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party (contestants) were placed along the course, here and there,” was Carroll’s description of the caucus-race.

“There was no 'One, two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over.

“However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out 'The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, 'But who has won?'”

“At last the Dodo said, 'everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'”

Zimbabwe’s rat-race elections there are no verified voters’ roll, opposition supporters arbitrarily denied the vote, Zanu PF supporters allowed to cast multiple votes, opposition members are harassed, beaten or worse, etc., etc. In the rat-race, only one winner is allowed; Zanu PF!

SADC leaders have warned Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition not to contest the flawed 2013 elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote. “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” they warned just before the July 2013 elections. Tsvangirai and company paid no heed, as we know.

A healthy and functional democracy demands a diligent and wide-awake electorate who understand the national issues of the day, question and cross-examine the prospective leaders before making their selection and will hold the elected leaders to account. That is only possible when a significant number of voters are “great minds” and the great majority consider “average mind” or better on Eleanor Roosevelt’s sliding scale.

Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth political and economic chaos of our own making because we are a banana-republic, on the opposite side of a healthy and functioning democracy, here chaos reigns. At the very best, we have a select few small-minded voters, the rest are minions, real life characters from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland!

ZEC Magade, extending voter registration alone will not end "disputed elections" P Guramatunhu

The voter registration exercise which started 14 September 2017 and chalked to end 15 January 2018 has been extended by a month.

“ZEC acting chairperson Emmanuel Magade told ZimEye.com in Harare on Monday that the country’s election body wanted to ensure that  no political party complaints  about its supporters being left out of the voter registration process,” reported Zimeye.

“Commissioner Magade said he wished to preside over an undisputed election where losers would shake hands with the victors as opposed to all the previous polls whose outcome would be highly contested.”

The failure by our politicians and public officials to take their set tasks with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands is one of the root causes of why Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess. ZEC is tasked with the very important task of delivering free, fair and credible elections and in the last 38 years the commission has yet to deliver one free and fair election. Instead of ZEC members redoubling their efforts to make sure this year’s election are free and fair the acting ZEC chairman is treating the whole matter as some stupid joke!

Of course, commissioner Magade’s suggestion that this year’s elections will be “disputed” just because ZEC has extended of the voter registration period by a month is a sick and foolish joke. To guarantee free and fair elections there is a raft of democratic reforms to free the public institutions such as the Police, Army, Public Media and ZEC itself that must be implemented; reforms to stop the wholesale looting of national resources to bankroll Zanu PF’s vote rigging schemes; etc. 

Commissioner Magade should know that it will take more than extending voter registration period by a month, just to focus on what ZEC alone must do to deliver free elections, to register all 7 million expected voters. A few weeks ago, ZEC officials said they expected to register 5 million even with the month extension. The only reason ZEC is failing to register all expected voters is because the registration exercise was, deliberately, started very late. The situation was made worse by the chaos of ZEC officials taking two hours to register one voter instead of the expected five minutes, lack of VR9 forms, etc.! What is there to gloat about an election process that disenfranchises 2 million of 7 million voters, nearly 30%, just because the authority deliberately delayed the voter registration exercise? 

ZEC’s next big challenge is to produce a verified voters’ roll. Even with all the political good will, there is no way ZEC is going to consolidate the field data, issue draft voters’ roll for the voting public to cross-check, update and produced a verified voters’ roll in the remaining four months for July elections. 

The law demands to release of a verified voters’ roll at least one month before voting day.  

ZEC failed to produce verified voters’ roll in 2013 and opened the door to all manner of vote rigging shenanigans. There will be NO verified voters’ roll again this year! Of course, an election in which the authorities failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll is open to rigging and the result must be discarded. 

President Mnangagwa has repeatedly assured the nation this year’s elections will be free, fair and credible and yet he has not implemented even one democratic reform. As a senior member of the shadowy Joint Operation Command (JOC); the Junta comprising the top brass members in the Army, Police, CIO and Zanu PF headed by Mugabe with Mnangagwa as his assistant; Mnangagwa knows only too well it is impossible to hold free and fair elections without first implementing the reforms. It is JOC that has masterminded and executed all the vote rigging, political violence and the 2008 coup to stop Tsvangirai entering State House. It is JOC that has helped keep Mugabe and Zanu PF in power all these last 38 years. 

It was none other than JOC members headed by Mnangagwa and Chiwenga -minus Mugabe, Police Commissioner Chihuri and one or two others - who masterminded and executed the 14 November 2017 coup to remove Robert Mugabe. “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword!” 

If nothing is done to implement all the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections then Zimbabwe is setting itself up for violent street protests, another coup d’état anything to stop the vote rigging and to force through the desperately needed regime change. 

Zimbabwe is a divided nation of the filthy rich ruling elite few, on the one hand. And on the other hand the filthy poor majority. Unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90% plus and 72.3% of the population now live on US$1.00 or less a day. The situation is socially, economically and politically unsustainable. 

Mugabe refused to implement the democratic reforms and he ended up falling on his own sword. We need the reforms implemented to make sure this year’s elections are free, fair and credible or we too will be forced to violence as the only option to achieve political change and economic recovery. 

Commissioner Magade’s suggestion that extending the voter registration exercise alone will deliver free and fair elections must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves. He is campaigning to be appointed the new ZEC chairman and all the perks that comes with the post; he could not care less that the elections flawed and illegal and the tragic human misery being stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime has brought.

Did Mnangagwa and Tsvangirai discuss matters of national interest or mutual selfish interests?

Politicians are like cats they growl when they fight and they growl even louder when they are making love. So, what was the purpose behind President Mugabe and VP Chiwenga’s visit to MDC leaders Morgan Tsvangirai’s home and who initiated the visit?

“The Daily News reports that the meeting was at the MDC leader's request,” reported Bulawayo 24, to answer the question.

“Tsvangirai had been eager to meet with Mnangagwa to discuss the way forward on elections and the worsening economic plight.”

Tsvangirai left his SA hospital bed in a huff last year in November following the coup that forced Mugabe to resign. He did not condemn the coup because he wanted to be friends with Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest of coup plotters. He wanted them to agree to the formation of a government of national unity in which, Richard Morgan Tsvangirai, will be given a prominent role, possibly his Prime Minister position of the last GNU. 

The big carrot to Mnangagwa and his coup cabal in Tsvangirai’s proposal was that MDC will support the postponement of the elections by two or three years on the ground the unity government needed time to prepare for free, fair and credible elections. The argument was that Mugabe had done nothing to prepare the nation for free and fair elections.

What Tsvangirai was conveniently ignoring was that the coup was an internal power struggle within Zanu PF; the Mnangagwa faction, which had emerged victorious, was as much a Zanu PF government as the Mugabe’s administration. It will be nonsensical for President Mnangagwa to argue that ZEC was not ready to produce a verified voters’ roll, for example, when as VP and Minister of Justice in Mugabe’s government it was his responsibility to supervise ZEC.

Mnangagwa and the coup plotters had insisted before the coup that they represented the real Zanu PF and the coup was to take power away from the “criminal elements surrounding the President Mugabe”. The fact that the plotters wanted Mugabe himself to resign too is a finer point they hoped no one would notice.

President Mnangagwa’s administration was a Zanu PF government there to service the remaining term of Mugabe’s five-year term. Of course, the incoming President Mnangagwa was free to invite anyone he wished to join him in his new government but what he could not do is extend his stay in office. Zimbabwe was due to hold fresh elections by the end of July 2018, at the latest, and it would be a serious breach of the constitution to postpone the elections under some fanciful pretext.

It is nonsensical to hope that the unity government Tsvangirai was proposing would implement any meaningful democratic reforms this time when it is the same Zanu PF and MDC leaders who failed to implement even one reform in the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU.

Tsvangirai’s “way forward” last November was nothing more than a desperate pitch for him and a few other MDC leaders to get back on the gravy train for another two or three years. He wanted President Mnangagwa to unconstitutionally postpone the elections, something that not even the tyrant Mugabe had never done; short changing the Zimbabwe electorate for no gain. One can only imagine what way forward Tsvangirai was proposing now!  

“Highly-placed sources familiar with the visit said the meeting was conducted in a friendly atmosphere so much that one would have confused it for an engagement among brothers,” continued the report.

“They said Tsvangirai's visitors pledged to materially support the frail opposition leader in his battle with cancer, which has drained the family's savings.”

Just as I had feared; Tsvangirai had initiated the meeting supposedly to discuss “way forward on elections and the worsening economic plight”, matters of national interest; in reality all he wanted to talk about is what President Mnangagwa would do for him in return for MDC’s continued cooperation with Zanu PF. No doubt, Tsvangirai had a similar meeting with Mugabe to discuss the “cooperation” between the two leaders and parties during GNU.

As we know, Robert Mugabe granted Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends all the trappings of offices; the ministerial limos, generous salaries, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai himself, etc., etc. MDC leaders showed their appreciation by kicking the democratic reforms into the prickly pear thicket. Not even the repeated nagging by the SADC leaders, who were the guarantor of the GPA, would get Tsvangirai to implement even one reform and upset Mugabe.

Tsvangirai would insist to this day, indeed will swear on his dying bed, that he has always put the interests of the Zimbabwe people above his own personal interests. Of course, MDC sold-out during the GNU. MDC leaders had readily overlooked the coup was treasonous act, hoping they will have a share of the spoils. Tsvangirai is not interested in making sure the country holds free, fair and credible elections, the pre-requisite to meaningful economic recovery; all he cares about is what would President Mnangagwa pay him for playing ball!

President Mnangagwa and his cabal are smarting from the coup, they know it was a treasonous act; they all know the regime is illegal. The last thing they want is to compound their situation by failing to hold free, fair and credible elections. President Mnangagwa has promised free and fair elections and yet has done nothing to implement even one meaningful democratic reforms to make that possible.

The key coup plotters have all been rewarded with promotions in the Army and in government with more rewards lined up for the future. For example, President Mnangagwa is to serve as president for one or two terms and then hand over to VP Chiwenga. Of course, none these Zanu PF thugs would not risk their position and future prospect by holding free and fair elections is a luxury all Zanu PF leaders know the party cannot afford because they will lose the elections.

So, President Mnangagwa and his cabal are caught between a rock and the deep blue sea in that the need to hold free and fair elections to earn their legitimacy but risk losing their new found political power is the hold such elections. The way out is to bribe the opposition participate in the flawed and illegal elections to give the process the modicum of credibility – just as Mugabe has done for the July 2013 elections.

“Mnangagwa also undertook to look into the MDC leader's long-standing grievances about his outstanding pension, accrued when he was prime minister in the inclusive government between 2009 and 2013,” continued the report.

“It will not be the first time that Tsvangirai has been assisted by his rivals in Zanu PF.

“Under Mugabe's regime, Tsvangirai received about $70 000 to pay for his medical expenses.

“Sources said Mnangagwa repeated his commitment during his meeting with Tsvangirai that the forthcoming polls would be free and fair, and even pledged to work closely with the opposition in the event that he is re-elected.”

Even if ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for the coming elections, that will not stop Tsvangirai and his MDC friends contesting this year’s elections. I will leave the reader to make his or her own conclusion whether Mnangagwa and Tsvangirai discussed matters of national interest or of mutual interest, whether the cats were fighting or making love!