Voters' roll is in a mess, Zanu PF admits - will SADC still stamp 2023 "substantial free" regardless W Mukori

One thing can be said about Zimbabwe’s political leaders; they are breathtakingly incompetent, and, in their blundering, have knack for shooting themselves in the foot!

When the late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU; that was mass political suicide, the preserve of cult groups. MDC lost direction and political credibility there and then and have never recovered.

Mnangagwa has just shot himself in the foot as before the start of the 2023 harmonised elections! He has just admitted that the voters roll is in a mess and needs serious scrutiny and audit for it to be credible.

"We received a report of manipulated voters rolls from different people. As such, the department conducted a mini-audit of the voters roll for Harare West. The department unearthed several anomalies, including multiple registrants on a single house and non-existent addresses,” stated the Zanu PF Central Committee report tabled at the just ended Zanu PF 7^th National People’s Congress.

"However, the time of objecting had elapsed, so we resolved to conduct a national voters roll audit, particularly in towns and cities ahead of 2023 elections."

It is no secret that ZEC, the body tasked to produce the voters roll and conduct the elections, is a department of Zanu PF in all but name. Yes, there are glaring irregularities and downright illegalities in the voters’ roll but, dig deeper, and one will find these were brought in at the behest of Zanu PF officials and with the connivance of ZEC officials who turned a blind eye.

In his Book, “The Struggle Continues 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe”, David Coltart gave a detailed account how ZEC, in 2013, made it very difficult for people in opposition strong hold to register whereas in Zanu PF strong hold the bar was not just lowered, it was removed! Zanu PF bused in its supporters from as far afield as Rusape, 100s km, to vote in Mount Pleasant as video evidence showed!

It is a historic fact that ZEC has never ever produced a verified voters’ roll in post-independence Zimbabwe and for very a very good reason too, at least as far as Zanu PF is concerned; the voters’ roll is one of the key tools in Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut and producing a verified voters’ roll will give away the concrete evidence of how the party rigged the elections.

So, it really beggars belief that Zanu PF has let the cat out of the bag that the voters’ roll is in a mess. I will bet my bottom dollar the party has already set up a high-powered committee tasked to get the cat back in the bag.

However, such is the damage done by the admission nothing short of releasing the whole voters’ roll for verification yesterday, now is already too late; will change the reality that Zanu PF is using the messy voters’ roll to rig the 2023 elections.

Even SADC election observers, who endorse the 2018 rigged elections as “substantially free and fair” will have no choice but to condemn the 2023 elections as a farce. How can the elections be “substantially free and fair” when, by the regime’s own admission, the voters’ roll is in a mess?  

"Zanu-PF's admission vindicates our long held narrative that we have a problem with Zec, and one of the issues that must be resolved before the 2023 elections is the voters roll. We have proffered what Zec must do in order to conduct a credible election, and it is not imaginary, but is within the confines of the law," commented Gift Siziba, CCC deputy spokesperson.

One can always count on CCC leaders to jump in and talk with a foot in their mouth! So, CCC readily admits that the party has known that Zanu PF was rigging elections and yet has participated in these flawed elections even when ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll!

Lest people forget, MDC (now rebranded as CCC) failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU which, implemented, would have severed the umbilical cords giving Zanu PF undemocratic control over ZEC and all the other state institutions.

Yes, Mnangagwa shot himself in the foot by admitting the voters’ roll is in shambles; but we can be certain that ZEC will never ever release the roll for verification, that would be tantamount to Mnangagwa shooting himself in the head, particularly when he knows the opposition will participate and give him legitimacy. He is dumb but not that dumb.

Chamisa and company know that Zanu PF is using the messy voters’ roll as one of the ways to rig these elections. They also know that Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in the flawed elections; they have found the bribe irresistible and Mnangagwa knows that too.

The real losers here are the ordinary Zimbabweans, the country is in this economic and political mess precisely because the country has failed to hold free and fair elections. The people have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders on the understanding the party would implement the democratic changes and stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.

It has not even occurred to many Zimbabweans that MDC has failed to implement even one reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU. And they are participating in these flawed elections because the believe the nonsense CCC can win rigged elections.

So, the nation started by risking all to have reforms and free elections is now risking all to win rigged elections? MDC not only betrayed the people by selling out on reforms but, worse still, has conned them to they can win rigged elections even ones so flawed there is verified voters’ roll!

As a rule, nations get the government they deserve. We, in Zimbabwe, certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the coterie of equally corrupt and useless opposition parties. If the people do not appreciate the need for something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for free elections, then we are not ready for democratic government nor deserve one! 

ICT Minister Chamisa cut SIM card price from US$200 to 50c in one month - but implemented zero reforms in 5 years W Mukori

 

“When @nelsoncha became Minister of ICT, a mobile phone SIM card was US$200 in Zimbabwe due to the incompetence and looting of Zanu PF.

It took Chamisa less than a month to bring the price of a SIM card to first US$1 then 50 cents.

He did this when sanctions were in place.” Twittered Hopewell Chin’ono.

True! And the message Mr Chin’ono is sending is clear: “Follow Chamisa, he is the man who will get Zimbabwe out of this economic and political mess!”

Chamisa and his CCC have come under increasing pressure to justify why the party is insisting on participating in the 2023 elections when it is crystal clear not even one token reform in place Zanu PF will rig the 2023 elections just as it rigged the 2018 elections!

Speaking in the House of Lords Friday, Lord Robert Hayward, who was an observer at the country's last general elections, questioned the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) capacity to provide an uncontested poll, referencing the 2018 one.

"My Lords, reference has already been made to the elections in 2018; the report was pretty damning, particularly in relation to the events after the general election in 2018,” commented Lord Robert Hayward in a recent House of Lords debate in UK.

"Can my noble friend ensure that very strong representations are made to the electoral commission, because it has been lamentable in any action.

"It was before the 2018 election, and there is no sign that it will enforce any form of free and fair elections next."

The debate has received wide social media and print media coverage, once again highlighting the folly of participating in the elections with no reforms.

Chamisa and his CCC friends are hell bent on participating in these elections and Hopewell Chin’ono is one of those who have backed CCC’s position to the halt. The twitter above is no doubt meant to buttress that position by reminding us all what a competent Minister Chamisa was during the GNU. Chin’ono only told a small part of the GNU story and one has to ask why!  

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends failed to implement even one token reform in five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. How was that possible especially for one who sorted the SIM card problem and a multiple of other problems in record time?

The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms and restore the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Zanu PF was able to rig the 2013 elections at the end of the GNU and get back into power precisely because MDC failed to implement the reforms.

There is no doubt that implementing reforms was more important and urgent than reducing the price of SIM cards, especially when failing to implement reforms allowed Zanu PF back in power!

“Mazivavhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train good-life, they will never rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies during the GNU when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms.

It was bad enough that MDC sold out by failing to implement even one reform during the GNU the situation could have been redeemed if MDC leaders paid heed to SADC leaders’ advice not to participate in the flawed elections until reforms were implemented. They ignored the advice for the same reasons they failed to implement reforms – greed and incompetence.

Whilst one can accept that my uncle and Nice in Zimbabwe’s rural back waters will not know that the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement reforms, that MDC leaders sold out by failing to implement reforms and that it is insane to participate in the flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. A town-wise person like Hopewell Chin’ono, Award winning International Journalist| Film Maker | 2 Time African Journalist of The Year | Africa Leadership Fellow I Nieman Fellow, will know ll these historic facts.

So, one has to ask why is savvy Chin’ono determined to see CCC participate in a flawed elections process when the obvious and rational thing to do is demand reforms, more so now after 42 years of rigged elections?

Whatever corner Hopewell is fighting for, it is not the long-suffering ordinary Zimbabweans’ corner. Participating in these flawed elections will only serve to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship, that is the last thing povo want!

“Zimbabwe is indeed open for business!” Yeah right! 1 – 5 = -ve 4 not +ve 4! P Gurmtunhu

 “Zimbabwe is indeed open for business including our air space where Ethiopian Airways had its maiden trip to Bulawayo today. There was water canon salute for the inaugural Ethiopian airlines flight connecting Bulawayo and Addis Ababa, becoming the first airline to service Bulawayo!” read the WhatsApp text.

The text was accompanied with a photograph of the Ethiopian plane on the tarmac and in the foreground a water canon shooting a jet of water at the plane!

Following his visit to Zimbabwe soon after independence, Ken Yamamoto, a Japanese scholar and analyst, said the country had the potential to become the South Korea of Africa. After decades of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule, there is no denying we are the North Korea of Africa.

Zimbabwe is a pariah state, a failed state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have rigged elections to retain their iron grip on power. And as long as the country remains a pariah state; there will be no meaningful economic recovery.

The Zanu PF propaganda machine has always gone into overdrive celebrating every positive development, many of the developments long overdue and over budget, the nation has done. What the regime has been very careful to hide is the regime’s many failures. For every one step forward, the nation has taken five or more steps backwards.

One positive step forward followed by five negative steps backwards = four negative steps backward

No among of propaganda or spin will change the negative backward steps into positive forward steps.

Ever since the country’s independence in 1980 Zimbabwe’s economic trajectory has been negative. The seizure of the white own farms to give to Zanu PF loyalists mostly aided by the idiotic printing of money that saw inflation soar to dizzying height of 500 billion percent accelerate the economic meltdown. The Zimbabwe economic shrunk by a world record 50%, for a country not at war, in the period 2000 to 2008 alone.

The economy has never really recovered even after the scrapping of the of the worthless Z$ during the 2008 to 2013 GNU because no meaningful democratic reforms to dismantle the dictatorship were implemented.

When Mnangagwa replaced Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup he promised to stamp out corruption and hold free, fair and credible elections. These changes would have gone along way to end the pariah state and restore business confidence. Sadly, he did not keep his promises and so Zimbabwe remained a pariah state or be it under a new dictator.

In the 42 years of Zanu PF rule the country’s basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed. Millions have left the country to escape the economic chaos and/or political tyranny. The country has a staggering 80% plus skilled manpower shortage in many key sectors such as engineering, education, health care and farming. How the country can survive let alone thrive without skilled manpower, an ill-educated population, etc. beggars belief!     

“Zimbabwe is indeed open for business!” Yeah right! 1 – 5 = -ve 4 not +ve 4!

SADC's tous pour un, un pour tous over sanction must NOT extend to 2023 Zanu PF rigged elections P Guramatunhu

 

Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections and the party knows that there is real danger of SADC and AU condemning the process and deny Zanu PF legitimacy as happened after the 2008 elections. The party’s strategy is therefore double edged, the blatant cheating and wanton violence will be accompanied by the propaganda to draw attention away from the flawed and illegal election process.

President Mnangagwa and his cronies must be really pleased with the way African leaders in both SADC and the AU have responded to the anti-sanction mantra. Every hour spent discussing sanctions is an hour that would have been spend discussing Zimbabwe’s flawed and illegal election process! As much as Zanu PF will go into overdrive with its anti-sanction propaganda, the regime’s legitimacy and thus continued rule depends on this, we too must intensify our campaign to remind the SADC and AU leaders to keep their eyes on the ball – free, fair and credible elections.

Zanu PF is denying 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora, by the regime’s own reckoning, the vote, for example. This is a very significant number given Mnangagwa was declared the winner of the 2018 elections with 2.4 million votes.

“Zanu PF will not grant the diaspora vote as long as sanctions imposed by the West remain,” acting party spokesperson, Patrick Chinamasa explained. Nonsense! One does not beat up the wife and children because he quarrelled with the neighbour!

Why should the ordinary Zimbabweans be denied their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country because the West imposed sanctions on Zanu PF?

It is no secret that the majority of Zimbabweans in the diaspora are economic and/or political refugees and they blame Zanu PF for their plight. And so, most of the diaspora votes would not be voting for Zanu PF and, worse still, the party would not have the same opportunity to rig that vote as it does with the local vote.

Zanu PF is denying 30% of the population the vote. How can the election be free, fair and credible when one contestant is allowed to cherry pick the electorate?  Is the right to a meaningful vote sacrosanct or not? This is the question SADC, AU and all the election observers must bear in mind here.  

It is most reassuring that the British and American continue to support the ordinary Zimbabweans demanding free, fair and credible elections.

“UNITED States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) yesterday rubbished anti-sanctions marches that took place on Tuesday, saying the demonstrations will not jolt them into removing them until there is rule of law and democracy in the country,” reported Bulawayo24.

“The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Anti-Sanctions Day was held on Tuesday in solidarity with the Government of Zimbabwe to force the US and UK to remove the sanctions imposed in 2001 following chaotic and bloody invasions of white commercial farms.”

Zanu PF is hoping SADC and AU’s tous pour un, un pour tous (all for one, and one for all) anti-sanctions support will be replicated endorsing Zanu PF rigged 2023 elections. The regional and continent leaders must remember that national elections are, above all, about the sacrosanct right of all ordinary citizens people to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

Zimbabwe is standing at the very edge of the precipice, four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left millions of Zimbabweans living in abject poverty and hopeless despair. The situation is socially, economically and politically unsustainable. The cure for Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. By endorsing yet another rigged Zanu PF elections SADC and AU leaders will be once again helping Zanu PF ruling elite stay in power at the expense of the ordinary citizens desperate for good governance.

SADC and AU leaders musketeers style support of Zanu PF over sanctions is foolish enough and it must not be repeated come the 2023 elections to grant vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and push Zimbabwe over the precipitous abyss!  

Sanctions must remain until have free elections and Zanu PF is stopped from marking its own homework N Garikai

 

SADC leaders, in their infantile wisdom, have put aside a day, 25^th October, as Anti-Sanctions Day, to demand the lifting of the sanctions imposed on the Zanu PF regime by the West. It is great pity that the regional leaders have been listen to Zanu PF propaganda and no one else!

“The United Kingdom (UK) has dismissed continued claims its sanctions and those imposed collectively with western allies on Zimbabwe have impeded economic development in its troubled former colony,” reported Zimlive.

“This comes after Harare has gone into overdrive in its denunciation of western measures imposed soon after the turn of the century in response to gross rights abuses, unbridled corruption and poll fraud presided over by the Zanu-PF led authority.

“Zimbabwe has roped in its SADC allies to try and add impetus to protracted demands for the unconditional scrapping of the measures culminating in the so-christened Anti-Sanctions Day now observed every 25 October by the region.

“The Western powers have steadfastly maintained the measures pending Harare's behavioural change, though they have gradually relaxed them.”

Zimlive is 100% correct to say Zanu PF has “roped” in SADC to join in this foolish campaign to have the sanctions lifted. Everyone knows that the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown are the decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The sanctions’ contribution to the meltdown is 5% at most. Why make a big song and dance to fix 5% whilst doing nothing about the 95%!

SADC leaders have joined the chorus demanding the lifting of the sanctions to appease Zanu PF and have some peace! After two decades of Mugabe and now Mnangagwa nagging endlessly about sanctions, it was doing everyone’s head in!

What is interesting to note here is that SADC leaders themselves have never disputed the fact that Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the people denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life! It was the regional leaders themselves who refused to rubber stamp Zanu PF’s 2008 election victory because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence by the party.

SADC forced Robert Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) whose primary purpose was to implement a raft of democratic reforms to restore the individual freedoms and rights and stop the cheating and violence of the 2008 elections. A GNU comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions was tasked to implement the reforms.

SADC headed by SA was the guarantor of the GPA. Not even one meaningful democratic reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU in spite the best efforts, especially by SA’s Minister Lindiwe Zulu, to get this done.

Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high-office and they forgot about the reforms!

SADC leaders asked the 2013 Zimbabwe elections to be postponed until reforms are implemented. “If you go into the elections next month, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends at the June 2013 SADC summit in Maputo, Mozambique.

As we know, MDC leaders ignore the warning and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2013 elections as SADC had predicted. The regional leaders washed their hands of Zimbabwe and reverted to endorsing Zanu PF rigged elections and granting the party legitimacy.

MDC participated in the 2018 elections once again ignoring advice to have reforms implemented first. SADC leaders, for their part, have granting Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuated the dictatorship.

With each year Zanu PF has remained in office the country has sunk deeper and deeper into economic trouble as the criminal waste of human and material resources from gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have taken their toll.

Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections because not even one token reform has been implemented. CCC, rebranded MDC, is participating in these flawed elections for the same reasons they failed to implement even one reform during the GNU – greed and incompetence. The big question is: Will SADC, once again, rubber stamp the rigged elections, grant Zanu PF legitimacy, and perpetuate the dictatorship?

Zimbabwe’s worsening economic situation has forced millions of Zimbabweans into abject poverty and millions have left the country as economic and/or political refugees. If Zanu PF rigs the 2023 elections, which is now almost certain, there will certainly be a new wave of economic and political refugees leaving the country.

SA, Botswana and Zambia have a significant number of Zimbabwean refugees and their presence is already causing economic and social tension, especially in SA. Another wave of Zimbabwean refugees will only make matters worse.

Of course, it will be hypocritical of any SADC leader to stop Zimbabwean escaping poverty in Zimbabwean when it is the leaders themselves who have been frustrating efforts to restore good governance in Zimbabwe by granting vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

SADC leaders should be piling pressure on Zanu PF to implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance, the prerequisite to ending mismanagement and corruption. And since the primary reason the West imposed the sanctions to pressure Zanu PF to implement reforms and hold free elections; the sanctions must remain until there are free elections.

Of course, it is foolish to lift the sanctions to appease Zanu PF. There is nothing to be gained from appeasing tyrants and dictators. Give a tyrant an inch, he will take a foot and will soon be back demanding a yard. Give him a yard, he will take a mile.

Besides, the people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country is sacrosanct, it is the guarantor of good governance, and per se cannot be bargained like tomatoes at the market; especially after 42 years of Zanu PF rigging elections.

We demand reforms and free elections. Zanu PF has marked its own homework for 42 years, this is insane and must be stopped.   

What have we got, a republic or a monarchy? - "A republic, if you can keep it!" answered Franklin N Garikai

 

The story goes on the last day of Constitution Convention, 18 September 1787, a lady asked Doctor Benjamin Franklin, one of the convention delegates and America’s founding fathers; “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

“A republic, if you can keep it.” Replied Dr Franklin, according to James McHenry (1753-1816) journal entry.

America’s founding fathers had produced a constitution in which political power derived from the people through the holding of regular free, fair and credible elections. The American Constitution has become one of the most influential documents in human history because it has successfully delivered a government of the people, by the people and for the people and has endued the test of time. Dr Franklin was right to be concerned if the people would be able to keep the political power and not lose it to the elected officials.

The events of 6th January 2021 when President Donald Trump and his supporters refused to accept he lost the elections and stormed Capitol Hill, the sanctum sanctorum of USA political power, to stop the confirmation of Joe Biden as the dually elected president of USA. The rioters sort to set aside the democratic wish of the majority of the voters and usurp power. If they had succeeded, America would have seized to be a democratic republic there and then!

In 21^st December 1979 Zimbabwe’s founding fathers signed the Lancaster House Constitution marking the end of the war of independence and paving the way for the country’s first multi-racial elections. If someone had asked Robert Mugabe, “So, what is it, a democratic republic or a socialist dictatorship?”

“A democratic republic but not for long!” Mugabe would have replied.

It is no secret that both Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies and Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu wanted the independent Zimbabwe to be a one-party dictatorship along the same lines as communist China or Russia. Attempts to unite the two parties had failed, they could never agree on the sharing of the spoils of power, and so they had no choice but to agree to a multi-party Lancaster House Constitution.

Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies made it clear that it they did not win the 1980 elections they would disregard the election result and restart the bush war. Of course, the people voted to end the war. And as soon as Zanu PF got into power the party has worked tirelessly to consolidate the party’s iron grip on power by appointing party loyalists in key institutions, disregarding the law, etc.

In 1983, three years after the country’s independence, the political rivalry between PF Zapu and Zanu PF reached boiling point with Mugabe accusing the late Joshua Nkomo of plotting a military insurgency to topple the Zanu PF government. Mugabe launched the 1983 to 1987 Gukurhundi military operation supposedly to stamp the dissents but also to force PF Zapu to disband and join Zanu PF.

Mugabe had his wish when Dr Joshua Nkomo signed the 1987 Unity Accord, paving the way for the imposing of de facto one-party, Zanu PF, state. Zanu PF has ruthlessly crashed it political critics nd opponents under the pretext, they threatened the nation’s unity achieved by the signing of the signing of the 1987 Unity Accord.

It is correct to say the ordinary Zimbabweans have never had a meaningful free, fair and credible say in the governance of the country. The Lancaster House Constitution promised them that right but Zanu PF snatched it away before they had even tasted it.

The opposition parties, notably the MDC, had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one reform because they are corrupt – there is no denying the bribes they received from Mugabe made them forget about reforms - but it was much more than just greed. Tsvangirai and company failed to implement even one reform because they are breathtakingly incompetent.

Indeed, it is for the same two reasons why Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies denied the people the vote and imposed the one-party dictatorship – greed and breathtakingly incompetent.

Benjamin Franklin and his fellow American founding fathers are visionaries who understood the benefits of creating a democratic republic and giving power to the people as essential for stable, just and prosperous nation. Robert Mugabe, Donald Trump, Morgan Tsvangirai are myopic leaders who only see the here, me and now and therefore would only create an autocracy with themselves as the centre of power.

It is the myopic autocrats that Dr Franklin was fearful of, that they would short-change the people. In Zimbabwe our independence was a meaningless void, all we did was replace a white colonial oppressive for an equally oppressive black regime.

Zanu PF has captured all institution, state or not including the opposition parties. The party in blatantly rigging the 2023 elections as it has done since the first elections in 1980, and the opposition parties are participating in the flawed process to give Zanu PF legitimacy for the sake of a few gravy train seats.

America’s republic has not only survived but has thrived for nearly 250 years and counting. We in Zimbabwe have been groaning under this Zanu PF dictatorship for the last 42 years and counting; it is now deeply entrenched and uprooting it will be hard. It pays in the end, to get the best in the beginning!

"Those who don't vote for Zanu PF are sell-out!" said ED - real sell-outs are those violating sanctity of free election P Guramatunhu

 

“Zimbabwe is open for business!” was more than a mantra to Emmerson Mnangagwa and his cronies when the seized power in the 2017 military coup. It was a shibboleth! The regime’s was elected into office in the 2018 elections, using the vote rigging juggernaut alone without resorting to the wanton violence to get it over the line, because many people gave the regime the benefit of the doubt it will revive the national economy!

It has been five years since the coup and the much hoped for economic recovery has not happened. Those in the know said, back then in 2017, that “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was a lead balloon that would never fly. It was obvious why!

Business had all but ground to a halt in Zimbabwe because the country was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and incompetent thugs who rigged elections to stay in power. The decades of Zanu PF gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness had made it near impossible for business to survive.

Mnangagwa promised to exorcise the pariah state curse by stamping out corruption, holding free and fair elections, etc. and thus open the country for business. Those in the know knew Mnangagwa would never stamp out corruption, hold free and fair elections, etc. because to do so would be to undermine his own power base.

After37 years of rigged elections, for example, Mnangagwa and his coup cronies knew that Zimbabweans would jump at the opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship if the 2018 elections were free, fair and credible. And so, to remain in power Zanu PF had to rig the elections.

But, of course, by failing to stamp out corruption, hold free elections, etc. Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was indeed still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent thugs who rig elections to stay in power. He confirmed the country was NOT yet open for business. Who would want to do business in a pariah state!

Mnangagwa’s failure to revive the Zimbabwe economy has hardened the people’s resolve to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The people are itching for regime change in the coming 2023 elections.

Mnangagwa and company know to retain political power in 2023, they will have to resort to wanton violence to buttress the usual subtle vote rigging measures such as failure to produce a verified voters’ roll, pro-Zanu PF public media, etc. In the 2018 elections, Mnangagwa had restrained the war veterans, the Zanu PF youth militia and the traditional leaders backed by the Police, Army, and CIO from harassing, beating the people to force them to vote for Zanu PF. This time, he has unleashed them!

“I have heard that some parts of Mutasa South are rural and urban. I know that in urban areas when we fought the liberation struggle that’s where most sell-outs ran to. It honestly does not surprise me that those from urban areas don’t support the revolutionary movement because they are sell-outs,” thundered Mnangagwa.

“This next generation should be taught to be patriotic about their country. They should be taught that their freedom was brought through the liberation struggle. They are the ones to whom we are going to leave the leadership of this country.”

Echoes of the 2008 elections when Zanu PF unleashed the party thugs to inflict some of the worst election violence in the country’s history. “What was accomplished by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” thundered the late Robert Mugabe then.

The right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country is sacrosanct because it is rock on which good governance stands.

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country is a pariah, ruled by corrupt and incompetent thugs, in power because they rig elections. Holding free, fair and credible elections is the nation’s only hope of getting out of this mess peacefully.

The 2017 military coup removed one dictator only to replace him with another. There is no guarantee that another military coup and/or bloody street protest will do any better.

The people of Zimbabwe must stand firm in our demand for reforms and free elections and in our demand for good governance and an end to the curse of rigged elections and pariah state.

We know Zanu PF has never respected the citizens’ freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and will continue to call all those demanding free elections sell-outs to justify the blatant rigging of elections and use of wanton violence.

As the government of the day, Zanu PF has the duty to ensure the 2023 elections are free, fair and credible. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections, just as the party has rigged elections in the past.

We cannot stop the 2023 elections going ahead nor stop Zanu PF rigging them. What we can do is refuse to participate in any way because doing so will only give credibility to the flawed process and thus some modicum of legitimacy to the result. We must point out the glaring irregularities and illegalities including the wanton violence in the election process and make sure such bodies as SADC do not rubber stamp the process giving Zanu PF legitimacy!

“Those who do not vote for Zanu PF are unpatriotic and sell-outs!” Actually, the real sell-outs are those violating the sanctity of free elections as the bedrock of good governance! The war of independence was about “One man, one vote!” and not about keeping Zanu PF in power against the democratic wishes of the people!