Zanu PF's will is to burn down Zimbabwe than let anyone else rule. CCC's will is to do nothing whilst everything burn. W Mukori

 It is a historic fact that the MDC opposition sold out big time during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when the party failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Ever since the GNU debacle MDC leaders have participated in flawed elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the process and their participation would only give the regime legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship. 

Still they have soldiered on and participated out of greed - Zanu PF was offering a few gravy train seats as bait and they found the bait irresistible. 

CCC’s failure to come up with party structure, a constitution and all the other basic requirement one would expect from a national party seeking to win public support has made CCC a totally  ineffective opposition party in these 2023 elections. In a recent interview with SABC, Professor Jonathan Moyo has dismiss CCC as an opaque party whose ethos of “strategic ambiguity” is the mother of chaos and confusion.

Still, CCC would win these 2023 elections hands down if the elections were free, fair and credible. The people are so desperate for change they would vote for a donkey if only to get rid of Mnangagwa! 

Fortunately for Mnangagwa, he has carte blanche powers to rig these elections. Zanu PF is rigging these elections, this is obvious. 

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends justified their participating in rigged elections claiming they have Winning In Rigged Elections Strategies (WIRES). Mass voter registration followed by mass voting has been their flagship strategy since the 2018 elections. The party set a target on registering six million voters for this 2023 elections.

As of 30 May 2022, ZEC reported that only 250 000 new voters had registered since 2018. Even if one assumed these were all CCC supporters, this would be 4% of their own 6 million target. Mass voter registration was dead in the water! 

There is a sober and subdues atmosphere in Zimbabwe and among Zimbabweans wherever they are in the world. The euphoria that greeted the launch of CCC early this year has dissipated and fizzled out. The buzz that followed the launch was expected to grow and grow as the 2023 election campaign heated up. 

So what happened? The people are finally waking up to the political reality that they are stuck with Zanu PF and CCC, for all their political posturing has all but resigned themselves to that.

Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF cronies believe they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe and the belief is so strong, profound and weird they would rather “burn down” the country than let anyone else rule!

“The ‘new’ regime can be viewed from different angles, but the nub of it is this: there’s a recognition that the economic fiasco of the last 20 years was suboptimal, but Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow travellers will burn the house down if they feel it necessary. Make no mistake, their will to power is every bit as intense as Mugabe’s—as is their belief that they own the country’s choicest fruits by right of conquest,” wrote Stuart Doran in ASPI Strategist.

“There’s no comprehending Zimbabwe without an appreciation of that mentality. Yet many fail to get it because they don’t read the country’s history. In 1979, at the height of the struggle against white rule, a diplomat who mixed frequently with Mugabe and other leaders of his party observed that ‘ZANU does not seem to attach much importance to the destruction caused by prolonged war’. They said they were content to see Zimbabwe ‘totally’ demolished if that was the price to be paid for preventing others from ruling it. That attitude has not changed an iota, notwithstanding the passage of 40 years and Mugabe’s departure. After all, the men who now rule wielded his hatchets for most of that period. 

“That’s a tough ask for the same group of individuals who have shredded the country since 1980—a fraternity that will continue to loot, will continue to be tetchy about the merest hint of dissent, and will continue to patently despise the notion that it requires the consent of the people to govern.”

If it can be considered a plan, then MDC/CCC’s plan is do nothing. The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the promise they would implement the democratic changes design to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Nelson Chamisa, just like Morgan Tsvangirai before, is not going to implement even one token reform and thus challenge Zanu PF domination. He is quite contend fighting for the few gravy train seats, Zanu PF is obliged to give away for the sake of maintaining the facade of Zimbabwe as multi-party state, whilst he waits his turn to rule.

Since Zanu PF would rather burn down Zimbabwe than let anyone else rule, CCC is waiting for Zimbabwe to burn down - it is burning down alright. 43 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical rule have left the country is economic ruins and millions are living in abject poverty. 

Still CCC continue to participate in flawed elections to give Zanu PF more time in power to burn down the country even more. They want to Zimbabwe completely burnt down! 

Of course, if your plan is to sit and wait for the country to burn down, you do not need a functioning political party complete with party structures, a constitution, etc., etc. After all Morgan Tsvangirai had all those political party niceties and MDC accomplished nothing of not.  

 

The political atmosphere in Zimbabwe is subdued because a number of Zimbabweans now realise these 2023 elections are not going to deliver any change. The so-called CCC big win is just hot air. The penny has finally dropped that MDC/CCC are not fighting for reforms, free and fair elections and thus end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance - the very things they promised to do and what the people elected them to do. 

If Zimbabweans still want an end to the Zanu PF dictatorship and an end to their own tragic suffering then they must search for the men and women willing to implement the reforms and end the madness of Zanu PF dictatorship. Because Zanu PF is burning the country down and would have the whole country in ruin than let anyone else rule! 

Zanu PF does not have the divide right to rule the country much less burn it down. By participating in these flawed elections and giving the regime legitimacy we are, per se, perpetuating the dictatorship and our own suffering. This is insane!

Biti calls CCC colleague "a snake whose head must be crushed"! CCC vs Zanu PF "fanana" (the same)! W Mukori

 In his book David Coltart acknowledged the sheer of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. He explained that it was greed that forced him and his follow MDC friends to participate in the elections regardless.

"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections," confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

"The 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."

When the 2013 elections results were announce, a resounding Zanu PF victory, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T colleagues realised the sheer folly of participating in flawed elections. The party passed a resolution not to participate in future elections without first implementing reforms. “No reform, no elections!” the 2014 MDC-T party congress resolved. 

Within a year, the then party Secretary General, Douglas Mwonzora, announce that the party would ditch the “No reform, no elections!” resolution and will participate in the 2018 elections with or without reforms implemented. 

“Tsvangirai knew he would face a rebellion, if he did not ditch the resolution!” one senior leader admitted. Such was the pull to go after the few gravy train seats even though they all knew they are Zanu PF bait. 

Still no one would have ever guessed the greed for the few gravy train seats was so powerful it would turn some one as rational and level headed as Tendai Biti into a ruthless thug on par with any Zanu PF thug out there! 

“Tendai Biti has rebuffed efforts by the Citizens Coalition For Change leader Nelson Chamisa to dilute his influence by pushing him to contest for a Senatorial seat instead of a House of Assembly seat to open a slot for Allan Norman "Rusty" Markham,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“Markham is currently a member of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe for Harare North since 2018 a constituency which was merged with Biti's Harare East Constituency.

“In a video circulating on Social Media, Biti calls Markham a snake, whose head must be crushed.

“He also mocks Markham, calling him 'asina mabvi', the one without knees. The term was used during Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.”

Well, well greed has sure turned Tendai Biti, one of the few opposition leaders one would have considered level headed, at least until now, into a thug no different from any other Zanu PF thug out there.

Some people have argued that CCC will boycott these elections if Zanu PF fails to produce a verified voters and compromised in one or two other things just to make these elections a respectable electoral contest. With emotions this high, it is clear CCC is hell bent in participating in these flawed elections and nothing, absolutely nothing, is going to stop them. Nothing!

Of course, Chamisa and company know that the consequences of their participation is to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the regime’s corrupt and tyrannical rule  and the suffering of the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans. They know is and they don’t care! They don’t give a damn!

The transformation of MDC/CCC leaders champions of democratic change into power hungry thugs happened during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they failed to implement even one token reform. Most people did not realise that the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the reforms; miss that and you miss everything. 

CCC will never implement even one democratic reform and thus deliver free elections, if they failed to do so when they held all the trump cards it is naive to expect them to do so. The sooner people accept this reality the sooner the nation can find other people who would get this important task done. 

One only hopes that watching a video of Biti help the penny drop, we need people to open their eyes and minds, if we are ever to get out of this hell-on-earth we are stuck in! The transformation of MDC/CCC leaders into power hungry thugs just like Zanu PF is a reality we must now deal with.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

― George Orwell, Animal Farm.

"CCC is causing suffering through sanctions and inflation" said Big Spender. Stop him rigging and he'll stop lying! W Mukori

 During elections, President Mnangagwa become Mr Bigger Spender! Anyone who is anyone gets something from Mr Big Spender. 

Village hears got motorcycles plus free public service medical aid membership. Chiefs got the traditional new twin-cab trucks plus lavish new home steads. CIO directors and judges, whose role in the vote rigging is crucial, have receive US$400 000 housing loans. Zanu PF parliamentary candidates in these elections got new twin-can trucks,  etc. Even the teachers and nurses have finally got a wage increase, after years of endless negotiations. They got 100% wage increase with the low ranking Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services getting a differential 400%. 

Where is Mr Big Spender getting all this money from? From all the wholesale looting of the nation’s resources, all those benefiting the looting are bankrolling the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut. And then there is the option of printing more and more local currency, the Z$! 

The increase in the local currency without a corresponding increase in wealth is the essence of inflation and therefore it was no surprise the prices of goods and services started to soar and the value of the Z$ started to fall compared to the US$. Within a matter of a few weeks the exchange rate from Z$200 to Z$ 600 to US$1.00. 

The regime first blame the business owners and the street corner money traders. It has gone up the gears, it is now blaming the opposition and the West! 

"We in Zanu-PF are building this country while some opposition parties supported by their Western handlers are causing suffering to our people through sanctions and the attack on our currency,” President Mnangagwa to Zanu PF supporters in Masvingo.

"We are aware of those bent on causing havoc in the country by attacking our currency, they will never succeed, and they want our minerals. They want citizens to get frustrated and rise against the Zanu-PF party. They are fighting to take advantage of manufactured poverty.

"These detractors and their surrogates have never had the people of Zimbabwe at heart, our mass revolutionary party is the only party with a vision for the future.” 

In a country where the ruling party rigs elections, it can say whatever it wants, blame everyone else except itself for all the country's ills, promise the moon on a silver platter, etc., etc. Nothing matters because it is not democratically accountable to anyone. Come elections it will rig, secure its iron grip on political power and to continue to do as it damn well please!

I blame the opposition for the country’s sorrow state of economic and political affairs. MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. As long as Zanu PF is able to rig the elections and impose itself on the nation the party will stifle all meaningful debate on the economy, politics and everything under the sun. 

Lest we forget, MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they sold out. They failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Worse still, MDC/CCC have been participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship. 

What makes Zimbabwe’s political situation infuriating is that MDC/CCC leaders know it is futile participating in these flawed elections only to give Zanu PF legitimacy but they continue doing so regardless out of selfish greed! 

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections," confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

"The 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."

If Zimbabwe was a healthy and functioning democratic country is which there was healthy public debate on issues, of course, many people will know by now that corruption, not sanctions, is the number one cause the country’s economic meltdown.

A few weeks ago an Al Jazeera documentary revealed that Zimbabwe is losing a US$1.6 billion per year to gold smugglers or 80% of its gold. In 2016 the late dictator Robert Mugabe admitted the country had been swindled out of US$15 billion in diamond revenue. He did not say over what period but many believe in five years or so. And so Zimbabwe is losing a staggering US$4.6 b every year to gold and diamond smugglers alone or 17% of its US$28 billion GPD. No nation can expect that level of looting and expect to survive much less prosper. 

But most important of all the people would have voted for regime change decades ago! 

Zimbabwe is a failed state, 43 years of this corrupt, tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship has left the country in economic ruins. The state is failing to provide even the most basic services such as education, health care and clean running water. 49% of the country’s population is now living in abject poverty. 

The prospect of Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections and thus extend the regime’s stay in power to continue riding roughshod of the people’s rights, hopes and dreams is simply too gustily to contemplate. And yet this is a political certainty given CCC are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections for 30 pieces of silver.

"Tsvangirai in power is albatross round the nation's neck" warned USA Ambassador. CCC is exactly that! W Mukori

 “Morgan Tsvangirai is a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment,” wrote then USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, in a top-secret cable to his bosses back in Washington, USA. The cable was leaked and published in Wikileaks.

"He is an indispensable element for opposition success … but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short … Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery."

What Ambassador Dell said about Tsvangirai was equally true of the rest of the MDC and now CCC leadership. And these corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent MDC leaders are now the mile-stone round the nation’s neck dragging the whole country into the crashing abyss! 

It took the people of Zimbabwe twenty years to accept that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends were corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Even during the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi Massacres when Zanu PF declared war on the late Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu party to force they to merge and clear the way for the imposition of the de facto one party state; many people forced to accept Zanu PF leaders were thugs. When the penny finally dropped, the people the nation would need to implement democratic changes to wrestle away Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers including the carte blanche powers to rig elections.

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life (over 500 were murdered in cold blood by Zanu PF during the 2008 elections alone) and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power on the understanding the party will deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for. After 23 years on the political stage, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC has failed to implement even one democratic change. Not one!

Tsvangirai and company had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, it was the country’s best ever get-out-of-jail card, and they wasted it. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a US$ 4m mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. In return, the MDC leaders forgot about the reforms. And worst of all, since the GNU debacle MDC/CCC have been participating in flawed elections, knowing fully well it was folly!

“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.”

David Coltart too admitted the folly of participating in these flawed elections but went one step further - he explained why MDC/CCC leaders continue participating regardless.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections,” confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“The 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.”

Both Tendai Biti and David Coltart were ministers in the GNU and the are Vice President and Treasurer General in the CCC party.

CCC is hell bent on participating in these 2023 elections knowing fully that doing so will only give the flawed election process credibility, give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus will perpetuate the dictatorship. Chamisa and company have been claiming to have Winning In Rigged Elections Strategies, to justify they stubborn insistence in participating in the flawed elections with no reforms. All hot air to hide their real reason for participating - greed. 

So the MDC/CCC, the political party, people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect for the purpose of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship has not only wasted many golden opportunities to end the dictatorship but, worst of all, are now conniving with Zanu PF to perpetuating the dictatorship. MDC/CCC are now the mile-stone round the nation’s neck dragging us all into the crushing abyss! 

It took Zimbabweans twenty years to finally accept Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. It has taken Zimbabweans 23 years and counting and still the penny has not dropped that MDC/CCC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. It took Ambassador Dell a few meetings over a handful years to see Tsvangirai for what he was - a flawed character and a dangerous leader. The people of Zimbabwe are fast running out of time to see MDC/CCC leaders for the corrupt and incompetent leaders they are and decoupled the nation from the party or be crushed in the abyss. 

The people must denounce these flawed and refuse to participate because all they will achieve by participating is Zanu PF legitimacy. They must also denounce CCC’s blatant betrayal in failing to implement reforms and in participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. Denying  CCC political credibility will go a long way in helping to deny Zanu PF political legitimacy. 

The truth is Zimbabwe cannot afford another five more years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule. Deny Zanu PF political legitimacy after these 2023 election and country will be forced to have another GNU , as happened in 2008. This time the country will implement the democratic reforms and finally end the Zanu PF dictatorship. 

Zanu PF is loaded: party MP candidates are getting new cars, Judge US$400 000, etc., etc. - the vote rigging juggernaut is overdrive! W Mukori

Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF colleagues and their cronies are loaded and they are using some of their ill-got loot to bankroll the regime’s many vote rigging schemes!

“The judiciary plays a crucial role in elections in Zimbabwe starting from presiding over the nomination court, managing the whole process through the Electoral Act to resolving post election disputes,” reported Nehanda Radio.

“Against this background, the government has decided to pamper judges with US$400 000 housing loans.

“It’s US$400 000 per judge. Started off as something for the CJ (Chief Justice Luke Malaba) and the DCJ (Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza). Now going to other judges,” a source told Nehanda Radio.

This is not something new, last year the regime made similar generous payouts. The Central Intelligence Organisation directors received US$350 000, MPs and senators US$40 000 each and cabinet ministers and their deputies received US$500 000 and US$350 000 respectively. 

It is now the norm that all Zanu PF parliamentary candidates receive new cars and this year was no exception. All Zanu PF candidate have received brand new off-road Toyota Hilux GD6s, Ford Rangers, Nissan Navaras or a comparable model. The party will pay their US$1 000 nomination fee plus all their campaign expenses. 

No one knows for certain, Zanu PF will never ever an audited account of its election spending, but many believe the regime is spending a staggering US$ 4 billion plus on its many multifaceted vote rigging schemes. The huge government spending on elections takes on its true significance when viewed in the context of Zimbabwe IS a failed state that is failing to provide even the most basic needs to millions of its own people. 

In 1980, the country had the potential to become the South Korea of Africa, a democratic and prosperous nation. Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies rigged the first elections; the people were told if the party lost the vote the bush war would continue, and imposed a de facto one-party dictatorship and the rest is history! 

The nation had many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship with the best chances coming during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were entrusted the task of implementing the democratic reforms. Mugabe intervened, he bribed the MDC leaders with the trapping of high office and they forgot about the reforms. 

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train good-life, they will not rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF leaders during the GNU when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms. 

Of course, the Zanu PF leaders knew exactly what they were talking about because Mugabe had bribed them with the same trappings of high office to buy their silence. They did not rock the boat whilst Mugabe rod roughshod over the people denying them the freedoms and rights to create the Zanu PF dictatorship. Even at the peak of the Gukurahundi Massacre in 1983 to 1987, Zanu PF leaders said nothing to stop the madness. 

Zanu PF has used the same dirty tactic of bribing people in positions of power and authority to neglect their set task to do the party’s bidding - undermining the rule of law to keep the regime in power at all costs. The judges, MPs, etc. are being bribed to stop regime change.

It is ironic that Zimbabwe’s vast mineral wealth which, per se, is a blessing to the nation is now the source of the wealth use to bribe and bankroll the Zanu PF dictatorship. The blessing, in the wrong hands, is now a curse! 

It is very sad that 43 years after independence, 2 500 years after the Greeks proposed democracy in which everyone is compelled by law to treat others as they would like to be treated and no one is above the law; we are still failing to do the most basic thing like holding free elections. We are still stuck with autocracy in which the only law that matters is the primeval survival of the fittest, dominate or be dominated.

Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections. It is exasperating that Zanu PF is not only robbing the nation blind but is using the looted wealth to bankroll is corrupt the nation's institutions and vote rigging juggernaut. After 43 years of rigged elections and tyrannical rule the need to end this madness has never been more urgent than it is now. Zanu PF must be denied political legitimacy. 

Just one-week voters' roll inspection uncovers "thousands of missing names, etc." proof Zanu PF is rigging 2023. W Mukori

 One of the distinguishing features of democracy as contrast to autocracy, totalitarian or fascism is the strict adherence to the law and rule of law. Democratic elections must be free, fair and credible or they are a mockery. 

As much as President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies would like to claim that Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy in which elections are free, fair and credible; this is just a lie. Zimbabwe has failed to produce a verified voters’ roll one of the most basic requirements for free and fair elections. 

“Thousands of people found their names missing from the voters' roll upon verifying via mobile phone platforms,” reported News24.

“Others noticed their names were moved from the polling stations in which they registered in.

“For a country with a history of suspicion of electoral fraud, some saw the glitches as part of structural vote rigging.”

Of course, the glitches ARE part of the structural vote rigging! 

It should be noted that the thousands of these voters’ roll anomalies were picked up after only a six or so days of the voters’ roll being made available for each individual to check his/her details. So even more people would have found their names missing, etc. if more time had been allocated. 

There is no doubt that a full blooded audit of the voters’ roll would have found even more worrisome flaws and illegalities such as multiple entries. The social media has been awash with videos of Zanu PF supporters bused in from rural areas like Domboshava and Goromonzi into Harare urban to register to vote. Come voting day the individuals will vote in their rural areas and bused in to vote again in the urban area. 

“Nothing must be spared to ensure the environment is right and conducive for free, fair and peaceful elections in which the right to vote is available to all those eligible, in terms of our laws and laid-down procedures,” wrote President Mnangagwa is his regular Sunday Mail column.

“Secondly, we must ensure that the ballot is secure; that every vote is counted and respected; and that the overall outcome expresses the will and choice of the sovereign people of Zimbabwe. This requires that the whole plebiscite attains levels of integrity which the people of Zimbabwe can vouch and attest to. 

“Above all, this requires that our whole electoral process is fool-proof and insulated against undue influence and manipulation by outsiders and foreigners. No foreign power is a stakeholder in Zimbabwe’s electoral processes; this is why foreigners come in by invitation, and participate as observers, and not as monitors.” 

How cynical! It is not outsiders who have consistently denied the ordinary Zimbabweans their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance these last 43 years. It is you Mr President Mnangagwa and your Zanu PF cronies who have done that by failing to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. 

43 years and counting, and we cannot hold free, fair and credible elections. The very thing the nation fought and thousands died for, we are now denying our own people. It is most ironic that even here the ruling elite are blaming foreigners for their own failures! 

What makes Zimbabwe’s political mess a hopeless cause is that the nation wasted many opportunities to implement the democratic reforms and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorships, with the golden chances coming during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC/CCC leaders, who were entrusted the task of implemented the reforms during the GNU sold out. Worse still, ever since the GNU debacle they have participated in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for the same reasons they failed to implement reforms - greed and breath-taking incompetence. 

Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends hell bent on participating in these 2023 elections even with no verified voters’ roll, wanton violence, etc. They are after the few gravy train seats and the POLAD freebies Zanu PF is offering as bait and they do not care the price to the nation is perpetuating the dictatorship and with it the economic meltdown. 

Zimbabwe is a failed state, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF thugs who are still in power because they rig elections. MDC/CCC have played their part in allowing Zanu PF get away with rigged elections. 

Everyone, especially SADC leaders, must be reminded these 2023 elections are flawed and illegal and election process. CCC leaders must be denounced for insisting on participating in these flawed elections out of greed. The regional body has used the opposition’s participation in these flawed elections as an excuse for granting Zanu PF legitimacy. SADC cannot keep punishing the whole nation just because CCC leaders are corrupt and utterly useless! 

We, the long suffering ordinary Zimbabwe cannot stop Zanu PF or CCC holding these flawed 2023 elections, even without some thing as basic as a verified voters’ roll. What we can and must do is make sure Zanu PF does not get political legitimacy. Not this time!