When Mugabe failed to pay patronage dues, he was booted out. ED is next. "It's economy, stupid!" W Mukori

Robert Mugabe was a ruthless dictator who enjoyed absolute power and thus demanded blind loyalty from those below him. Such blind loyalty comes with a high price tag. Mugabe could afford to pay the price because he inherited the Biblical seven fat cows and seven fat ears of corn. 

In an interview with Trevor Ncube, In Conversation With Trevor, Dr Simba Makoni described how Prime Minister Mugabe replaced Peugeot 406 Ian Smith had given to his Ministers with Class E Mercedes Benz limousines just a few weeks after taking office in 1980. The limousines were not budgeted for and there was no cabinet approval. This was Mugabe’s gift to his cabinet, kicking starting the patronage system that has remained the hallmark of Zimbabwe’s political system. 

The cabinet ministers, MPs, etc., the beneficiaries of the the political patronage, returned the favour by giving Mugabe their blind loyalty. Even at the height of the Gukurahundi Massacre in 1983 to 1987 there was no voice of dissent in parliament or cabinet. 

“Mose murivakadzi vaMugabe!” (You are all Mugabe’s kowtowing concubines!) Margret Dongo scolded her fellow Zanu PF MPs and Ministers in protest at their slavish subservience to Mugabe. No doubt the dictator was tickled to no end. 

The trouble with political patronage, by its very nature of rewarding blind loyalty instead of merit, it is, per se, a criminal waste of human and material resources. The appetites of beneficiaries of the patronage system once awakened grew exponentially matched only by their wastefulness. The seven fat cows and seven fat ears of corn inherited from Smith were soon gone and Mugabe was forced to dig deeper and deeper to keep his ever demanding hyenas fed. 

By the turn of the century, just 20 after Zimbabwe’s independence, the country’s once promising economy was in deep trouble. Mugabe had no wealth left to give away except for one thing - land. And started seizing the white-owned farms, supposedly to give to landless peasant, but in reality to give to his Zanu PF cronies. By 2005 Zimbabwe’s once very productive agricultural sector had collapsed and with it the nation’s economy and both have yet to recover to this day. 

Mugabe lost the 2008 elections to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party and had to rely on the Joint Operation Command, a Junta composed of the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Service, to spearhead the infamous Operation Mavhotera Papi to stop MDC getting into power. Mugabe was obliged to reward the securocrats with diamond mining concessions under such generous terms the holder(s) have no legal obligation to declare their earning nor pay any tax - in short, they are looting licences. In time the securocrats have demanded more and more economic and political power and influence. 

Zanu PF emerged out of the 2008 to 2013 GNU with all the party’s carte blanche dictatorial powers untouched largely because of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ being corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Mugabe himself was a spend force, he had no wealth to doll out and without the blind loyalty of those around him had disappeared like mist in the morning sun. 

Of course, Mugabe was disappointed in being booted out of office in the November 2017 military coup but that is not to say he was surprise with the coup. He saw it coming. He has no wealth to doll out to the ever demanding party members for their blind loyalists; the minute they realise you cannot their loyalty to you evaporates. 

Emmerson Mnangagwa was the principle beneficiary of the 2017 military coup and, of all people, he knew his stay in power was totally dependent on his paying his patronage dues. He inherited a collapse economy from Mugabe and so he knew he would have to revive the economy quick smart. He thought he had hit the ground running with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra. 

Sadly, no one was fooled especially the savvy investors, Mnangagwa was hoping to attack and kick-start the comatose Zimbabwe economy. They could see that the coup had removed the old dictator Mugabe but only to replace him with an new dictator. When Mnangagwa failed to hold free and fair elections in 2018 he confirm that nothing indeed had changed. “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was dead in the water. 

For the last two years, Mnangagwa and his spin doctors have tried to sell the narrative that Zimbabwe’s economy has turned the corner from the Mugabe days and things are getting better and better every day! The reality on the ground has told its own story that things are getting worse. Zimbabwe is a failed state and anyone with eyes can see that for themselves. Zimbabwe’s present social, economic and political situation is unsustainable and it is no surprise then that President Mnangagwa is at a loss what to do.

“President Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken a huge political risk by sidelining the military - which has kept Zanu-PF in power directly since 2000 - from his dicey intelligency-driven presidential election campaign, state security sources say,” reported NewsHawks.

Mnangagwa is now working with the dreaded state security agency, Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)’s shadowy political dark arts structure Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz).

“An internal secret intelligence assessment by CIO, on which The NewsHawks was briefed, shows Mnangagwa has moved to sideline the army in the elections for three main reasons,” the report explained.

“It is a huge risk which may pay a political dividend for him, but trigger the military to fight back.

“Firstly, Mnangagwa is pushing back against the army which is still heavily influenced by Chiwenga and is suspected of planning a 2008-like "bhora musango" (sabotage) campaign which led to Mugabe's shock defeat by the late founding opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round of polling.

“Secondly, he is trying to disentangle and wean himself off the army, which brought him to power through the coup, to secure his own mandate through Faz.

“Sources say Mnangagwa is fed up with Chiwenga and the army's "we put you there" mantra used to blackmail and control him.

“Thirdly, having dismantled the coup coalition which brought him to power, the President wants to push the army back to the barracks and remove them from the political fray.

“The intelligence briefing sheds light and insight on the matter which will persist well beyond the elections, perhaps deciding Mnangagwa's fate even after he has won.”

It must be said that Mnangagwa has dug deep and extended the Marange and Chiadzwa diamond looting licence scheme to other areas such as gold, lithium and platinum mining, fuel cartels, etc. to securocrats, cronies, war veterans, church leaders and all those in a position to help him stay in power. Looting in Zimbabwe has gone into overdrive and the few well-connected have become filthy rich. 

The recent Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has confirmed Zimbabwe’s position as one of the most corrupt and lawless country on earth. Zimbabwe has attracted unscrupulous business at the expense of the honest long term investors and it s not surprising the country’s economy has sunk deeper and deeper into the abyss. 

Mnangagwa can get away with sidelining his former military friends with his new found Faz friends. Can outwit the corrupt and incompetent Chamisa and his CCC friends into participating in flawed elections to give him political legitimacy. What he cannot cheat or falsify is Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. A Mnangagwa electoral victory next month will be greeted by a new wave of Zimbabweans living the country. Having denying them a meaningful ballot people will vote with their feet, a vote he cannot rig and drawing attention back to the elephant in the room - the collapsed economy! 

“It is the economy, stupid!” said former US President Clinton. And when the chips are down it is the economy that boot Mnangagwa out of office.   

"Elections give citizens opportunity judge leaders!'" said Zuma. Good! Just use 3-foot yard stick this time. W Mukori

 "As neighbours, no matter what they feel, they must mind their own business because they cannot interfere (in Zimbabwe). Whatever comments we (as neighbours) have, they have to be very limited because you cannot interfere,"  said former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. 

He was commenting on Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections which are in full swing. Voting day is set for 23 August 2023.

"We want to ensure that when you are leading a country, it must spread and influence good neighbourliness and good relations,” he continued.

"Every country looks at elections as a very important event because after a particular period, you reach a point where you say, are we doing very well?

"Also, it gives citizens an opportunity to judge you if you have been doing very well. I am looking forward to the elections."

One hopes that in acknowledging that elections “give citizens an opportunity to judge” those in power, SA’s former president is endorsing the universal maxim that the mandate to govern is derived from democratic will of the people and the people alone and through the holding of free, fair and credible elections. 

When the 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement even one token democratic reform to ensure free and fair elections, SADC leaders (Zuma was president of SA then) wanted the 2013 Zimbabwe elections postponed to allow for reforms. “If you go into the elections next month, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to their faces. 

Sadly, SADC leaders’ advice fell on deaf ears. 

Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections, as SADC had predicted. The regional body did a volte-face and endorse the election process as “substantially free and fair” granting Zanu PF legitimacy although they had dismissed it as a farce a few weeks earlier. 

Once again, SADC observers judged the 2018 elections as “substantially free and fair” granted Zanu PF legitimacy. The EU Election Observers dismissed the same election as a farce. 

“The right to an effective legal remedy was not adequately provided for, there is no equal suffrage and shortcomings in the registration of voters somewhat compromised universal and equal suffrage. Notably, major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report. 

“Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. 

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

The EU made 23 reform recommendations which, implemented, would have brought Zimbabwe’s election to accepted international standards. Not even one of these recommendations have seen the light of day. 

These 23 August 2023 elections are going ahead without even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake!

SA is one of the few countries in SADC that has successful held free, fair and credible elections to international accepted standards. We want SADC observers to use the 3-foot yard stick to judge these 2023 elections and not the 1-foot yard stick used in 2018. Nothing more, nothing less. That is all Zimbabweans are asking of SADC Election observers and that is not too much to ask.

"Give your vote to those who deserve it!" argue ZCBC. But how, when elections are rigged. W Mukori

 There were times when the church, especially the Catholic Church, used to be the voice of the oppressed and downtrodden and spoke the truth to power. Alas, those days are long gone and the nations is truly lost. Oh how I miss them days when the church was the light in the darkness, the beacon of hope. 

Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence, in 1980, the church has pandered to the whim and diktats of the ruling elite and lost their moral and spiritual compass. The church leaders have continued to pretend they still had the spiritual authority but they did not, for no one can serve two masters especially contrary masters. Either you travel the straight and narrow path to salvation or go down the broad and ease broadway to damnation. There is no deny which route the church in Zimbabwe has been traveling - the broadway to damnation.

Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections. Nothing new, the regime has rigged elections ever since the country’s independence in 1980. The country’s main opposition party, CCC, and the rest in the opposition camp are participating in these flawed elections knowing fully well that the whole process is a mockery and, worst of all, that doing so will give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship and the tragic human suffering it has brought. They are soldiering on regardless because they also know that Zanu PF is offering a few gravy train seats and POLAD freebies to entice the opposition. 

David Coltart has summed up Zimbabwe’s precarious political situation in one paragraph. 

"The (2013) electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility," confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

There is absolutely nothing to be gained by the long suffering povo out of these flawed and illegal elections. Indeed, it is insane for povo to participate in these elections when all they are doing is giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating their own misery. Povo are participating in these flawed elections to perpetuate their own suffering out of ignorance and/or fear. 

Credit were credit is due, in the late 1990s the people of Zimbabwe came to the consensus that the nation was being dragged deeper and deeper into hell-on-earth by the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime and the only way to end this ruinous reign was for the country to implement democratic changes designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. It was a belated consensus for Zanu PF had had two decades to dig in and was deeply entrenched in every facet of society; up rooting the dictatorship was, per se, going to be a challenge. 

Still, better late than never!

The nation’s golden opportunity to implement the democratic changes came during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Alas, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, who the people had risked life and limb to elect into power on the promise the party would implement the changes, sold out. MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in 5 years of the GNU for the same reasons they have been participating in these elections - greed and breath-taking incompetence. 

Mugabe bribe Tsvangirai and company 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 throw democratic reforms out of the window! 

Although the people had reached the consensus to demand democratic changes, they clearly had no clue what these changes are much less how they would be implemented. Ignorance, the people’s worst curse. And because of their ignorance of what the reforms were, they failed to realised MDC leaders’ betrayal in failing to implement even one reform during the GNU. 

Worst still, it is ignorance that has stopped the people from realising the sheer folly of participating in elections “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw” and that participating will give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate their own suffering.  

“Any party or politician that incites violence or persuades you to join in violent attacks, is not worthy of your vote,” said the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) in a Pastoral Statement ahead of the country’s general elections scheduled for 23 August 2023.

“Give your vote to those who deserve it. Of the many choices that you are presented with, be discerning with the aid of the Holy Spirit and choose who you want.”

How naive! How insane!

The millions of rural voters are routinely frogmarched to attend Zanu PF rallies and in like manner will be frogmarched to vote for the party on 23 August. These people are no more than medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF landlords; they have no choice. 

Zanu PF has already denied 3 m Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote for the obvious reason they were not going to vote for the party. How can these elections be anything but a mockery when one contestant is allowed to cherry pick the electorate to the tune of denying 37% of the potential voters the vote!

Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections and the EU recommended 23 reforms to bring Zimbabwe’s elections to accepted international electoral standards. Not even one reform has seen the light of day. It was SADC who proposed the 2008 Global Political Agreement leading to the GNU and they too wanted democratic reforms implemented before elections. They took were ignored by both Zanu PF and MDC/CCC. 

Both Zanu PF and CCC are hell bent on these flawed elections going ahead for their own selfish reasons. They both need the people to participate to give the process legitimacy and who would have guessed that the church leaders are now doubling up as political commissars encouraging people to participate in a flawed and unGodly process. 

Having encouraged people to participate in these flawed and illegal elections on the presumption the nation does not need reforms, it can win rigged elections; the church leaders cannot complain the elections were rigged. The church leaders know all that and they have played along and issued a muted criticism of the election process in the past. They will do so again in six weeks time!

Of course, it is insane and unGodly to keep participating in elections processes “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw”, etc., etc., expecting a different result; especially after 43 years of Zanu PF Mafiosi rigging elections. Who would have guessed that even our clergy would join in in this unGodly insanity! They have and it underlines the sicken depths of depravity our nation has sunk.

Povo should be fighting for reforms and free elections and not be involved rat race to win rigged elections W Mukori

 Deep down most Zimbabweans out there know that Zanu PF is rigging these elections and CCC’s claim of “winning big” is just hot air. They are fighting for a reason to justify why they are participating in these flawed elections, particularly they also know that by participating they are giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating their own suffering. 

Of course, they know it is insane to repeat the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. They have participated in these Zanu PF Mafiosi rigged elections for 43 years expecting Zanu PF to lose - they its another Zanu PF victory on 23 August 2023. They know they are shooting themselves in the foot by participating. What they are searching for now is some excuse for their insanity, for knowingly shooting themselves in the foot yet again!

“Boss we heard you since last year you have been posting the same thing, (Zanu PF is rigging these elections. CCC is participating to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. It is insane for povo to participate in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuate their own suffering.) over and over again. Tave bhoo. (We are now fine.) Now tell us the solution. What must CCC do? What do you want us to do?” shot Nyuchi in my WhatsApp group.

Of course Nyuchi is not fine, if he was then he would not be asking what CCC and the people should do. And so I replied:

If you are asking what is the solution then you have heard the message but failed to understand it. If you had understood the message, you would KNOW not only what CCC must do but you and the rest of the masses out there must do!

Let me start by repeating the quotation from David Coltart’s book (it does contain the essence of Zimbabwe’s political paralysis today). 

“The (2013) electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility,” confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

There are five key points that you must focus on and understand:

1. that these 2023 elections just like the 2013 elections are “so flawed, so illegal” it is naive to think that Zanu PF can ever lose given the party has control of every aspect of the process. The only way to take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers is by implementing the democratic reforms. SADC begged MDC to implement reforms during the GNU and they were ignored. EU listed 23 reform recommendation in their 2018 final report and not even one reform has been implemented. Not one. So with not even a toke reform in place the “only logical step IS to withdraw”.

1. Worse still, both CCC and the people should not participate give the flawed process “credibility” and thus give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

1. Zanu PF was forced to go into the GNU in 2008 because the party had cheated and used wanton violence. What the party has learnt since then was that it can still cheat and use wanton violence and get away with it PROVIDED Zimbabwe’s opposition parties participate in the elections. So since the GNU Zanu PF has allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats to entice them to participate no matter how flawed and illegal the electoral process got. Mnangagwa has even added the POLAD freebies for losing presidential candidate who publicly endorse the rigged elections were free, fair and credible. 

1. So CCC and the rest in the opposition camp MUST NOT participate in these flawed elections for the two reasons in 1) and 2) above. They are participating out of greed, they cannot resist the bribe Zanu PF is offering in 3) above. Neither CCC, MDC, NCA, etc. can withdraw from this rat race “for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats,” confessed Coltart. It was the same reason - greed - that stopped MDC leaders from implementing even one token reform during the GNU. CCC are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections and it is foolish to expect them to do anything else.

1. The ordinary Zimbabweans should not participate in these elections for the two reasons in 1) and 2) above. Other than the generous bribes and looting opportunities paid to Zanu PF ruling elite, top brass in security services, judiciary and the chiefs and the crumbs and scraps thrown to low ranking security services war veterans and other minions doing the regime’s dirty work the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans get nothing from this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Zimbabwe is a failed state and the masses are on the coal face of it all. It is insane for the masses out there to freely (many especially in the rural areas are coerced) participate in these flawed elections. Many are doing so freely because they have been conned into believing Chamisa’ s oxymoronic nonsense of having winning in rigged elections strategies even after 43 years of Zanu PF Mafiosi rigging elections. No wonder the country is a failed state, a naive and gullible electorate will never produce a competent government.

“Zanu PF is not as invisible as you think. Change is coming. We are not going to give up our constitutional right to vote and will go down fighting!” fired Nyuchi.

Both CCC and Zanu PF have one thing in common, they don’t care whether the elections are free, fair and credible as long as they win. Indeed, they really do not see what all the farce on rule of law; constitution; free, fair and credible elections; implementing reforms; etc.; etc.; are all about. 

Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies signed the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement agreeing to rules to ensure free, fair and credible elections. By the time they landed back in Zimbabwe the party had hatched a plan to deny the people a free vote. The party let it be known that if it lost the elections the bush war would continue and, contrary, to the Lancaster House Agreement, the party did not withdraw all its cadres from the field and they were used to reinforce it campaign message. It’s “One man, one vote!” promise to the people was thrown out of the window. 

MDC/CCC leaders failed to implement even one token reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU because they believed they could win rigged elections. Chamisa and company have ignore the 2018 EU Observer Mission’s 23 reform recommendations for the same reason. 

“We have to be ready, prepared to win elections under the most adverse of conditions, to be able to overwhelm, overpower, overrun Zanu PF even without electoral reforms,” Professor Welshman Ncube one of the there CCC Vice Presidents to Daily News last year. 

When Mnangagwa stage the November 2017 military coup he expected to be embraced by the whole world as a democrat even after he went on to blatantly rig the 2018 elections. He still proclaimed “Zimbabwe is open for business!” and was disappointed the flood of foreign and local investor he expected to answer the call did not materialise. 

Zimbabwe is now a byword for a failed state in which mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness are rampant, the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is one key indicator of lawlessness. Who would want to do business in such a failed and chaotic nation, certainly not the shrewd, savvy and honest foreign investors. 

It is interesting to note that Nelson Chamisa expects the international community to accept these elections to be ruled free, fair and credible, regardless of the mountain of evidence to the contrary, if he was declared the winner. He too will expect the investors to flood in! Again there would be no such flood because they know a regime change will not guarantee the end of lawlessness especially when the new regime too has no respect for rule of law. 

How can anyone help Zimbabwe end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance when the people who should be fighting for the implementation of the necessary reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections are not interested in reforms because they believe they can have change without the reforms. There is no good governance without rule of law. 

Yes Nyuchi go ahead, fight on. You should be fighting for reforms and free elections but you are insisting on having the elections without reforms because you believe in Chamisa’s Winning In Rigged Elections strategies. Don’t even dare to complain on 24 August that Zanu PF rigged the elections!

CCC are participating in these elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. Will the penny finally drop on 24 August! W Mukori

 “Sunday was a bad day to forget for Amos Chibaya in Bulawayo where he was heckled and rebuffed by an angry CCC crowd, after Advocate Nelson Chamisa sent him there to calm down boiling tensions over CCC's imposition of candidates - for the August 2023 harmonised general election - who either resoundingly lost the party's derided "Bereka Mwana" [queue behind your candidate] community selection caucuses, or who did not even participate in those caucuses,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“The angry CCC crowd Chibaya had gone to address told him to go back and demanded that, instead, Chamisa himself should come to Bulawayo to explain his wanton imposition of candidates in the province, apologise and remove from Bulawayo province the culprits who connived with him to enable the imposition!”

We all make mistakes it is just that with MDC/CCC leaders they seem to blunder from pillar to post. When they failed to implement even one token reform in five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU, it was more than a mistake; they proved beyond all doubt that they were (and still are) corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. 

It was USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who said Morgan Tsvangirai, then leader of MDC, “was a flawed and indecisive character who would be an albatross round the nation’s neck if he was ever to assume any public office.” 

The ambassador could have said the same of all the other MDC leaders. And, alas, MDC leaders have been in public office for the last 23 years including the 5 years in the GNU. They have not only failed to implement even one token reform during the GNU but, ever since the GNU debacle, they have insisted on participating in flawed elections only to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship. 

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC/CCC leaders into power on the understanding the party would bring about the democratic changes necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. Most people had no clue what these democratic changes were, even to this day with the benefit of hindsight, they still have no clue what they are much less how they were to come about. And so many Zimbabweans did not realise that the GNU was THE golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms.

It is therefore not surprising that many Zimbabweans have never blamed MDC/CCC leaders for wasting the GNU golden opportunity to implement the reforms. How can they, when they themselves have failed to see it as such.

By insisting on participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy, MDC/CCC leaders have become the milestone round the nation’s neck dragging us all into the crashing abyss, as ambassador Dell had predicted. What is infuriating is that MDC leaders know they are now aiding, abetting and perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship and still the do it out of greed.

“The (2013) electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility,” confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

It took the people of Zimbabwe nearly 20 years to finally accept that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were not the liberation heroes and heroines the nation imagined them to be. Ever since the country’s independence in 1980, Zanu PF had ridden roughshod over the people, denying them their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. In 1983 to 1987 the nation had witnessed the Gukurahundi massacre, over 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered in cold blood, whose primary purpose was to force PF Zapu to sign the Unity Accord and pave the way for the imposition of the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship. 

It was in the late 1990s that the penny finally dropped in the nation’s collective mind with the realisation that Zanu PF was a party of corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs and, most significantly, that as long as the party continued to enjoy the carte blanche powers to rig elections to stay in power, the nation is doomed. The rallying call for democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging elections was loud and unstoppable.

In 1999, Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their political party calling it the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to echo the popular demand for democratic change. After 23 years on the political stage, 5 of which in the GNU, the party has not only failed to deliver even one democratic change but, worst of all, its leaders are the ones now helping Zanu PF stay in power for 30 pieces of silver!

Many Zimbabweans are slowly but surely waking up to the reality that Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends have given up on implement democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections and their promise to win rigged elections is an oxymoron. Come 24 August 2023, the morning after the voting day, Zanu PF will claim yet another landslide victory proving once again that Chamisa’s big win was just hot air. Will that be the final straw that broke the camel’s back and forced Zimbabweans to finally wake up to the political reality that CCC will never deliver the democratic changes and free elections the nation has been dying for dating back to the fight to end white colonial rule!