Coup plotters' hero public support in now wearing off, it will evaporate if they rig the elections P Guramatunhu

I remember the scenes in the Streets of Harare on Saturday 18 November 2017 as if it was only yesterday. It you were a soldier wearing ZDF uniform you were a hero per excellence! The nation and the world at large were sick to their back tooth of Robert Mugabe’s 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule they were overjoyed to see him go. They would have turned up their noses to a military coup on some other day but not this time; they were so thrilled to see Mugabe’s back they did not care that those who carried out the task committed high treason.

Naturally President Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters used the goodwill generated from the ousting of Mugabe; to relaunch themselves and Zanu PF. They wanted people to believe the Zanu PF of corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs of the last 37 years, had been cleansed by the coup, by the ouster of Mugabe and the “criminals around him”, leaving behind the Zanu PF party of honest, hard-working members who are as straight as the arrow and who care about the people of Zimbabwe.

President Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters milked all they could from the public goodwill   generated by Mugabe’s demise they, literally, plastered themselves with it like a Topi antelope covering itself with mud, war-paint to a Topi bull. Today, hardly two and half months since the November coup, it is clear that the Zanu PF faction President Mnangagwa is leading full of corrupt and murderous thugs including the President himself! The mud on the Topi bull is washing off in the rain!

“The richest man in Zimbabwe is not Strive Masiyiwa,” twittered Gift Phiri. “It is President ED. He controls the $1.5 billion per year fuel industry in Zimbabwe through proxies. Who owns Puma, who owns Zuva? Who controls the fuel pipeline, who is the major indigenous partner?”

“Why is there mandatory fuel blending? Who owns the Chisumbanje plant which is supplying ethanol for blending fuel?

“He also owns a bank through Musha.

“He has bought into Telecel, he is setting up a satellite TV station Dr Dish. He has covered his tracks through proxies.

“How did he make all this money? It all started on the DR Congo. All the coup plotters made their money during that military sojourn, operation sovereign legitimacy (osleg).”

Whilst President Mnangagwa may well have done a good job of “covering his tracks through proxies”, as Phiri said; there is no denying the DRC story. A UN report on DRC has named him as one of the Zimbabwean leaders who have amassed wealth from the systematic looting of that nation’s wealth. There is no doubt that our president is a seasoned economic and political thug and the mud is washing off there too.

President Mnangagwa has always been at the very heart of all Zanu PF’s vote rigging, political violence including the Gukurahundi mass murders and the military coups. The first the military coup was staged in 2008 to stop Morgan Tsvangirai taking power after Zanu PF was soundly defeated in the March vote. The second coup was in November last year to force Mugabe to step down. Those who wanted to believe that he will abandon his tried and tested dirty tricks of retain power just because he was now the leader of Zanu PF were naïve!

Whilst President Mnangagwa has often promised the coming elections will be free, fair and credible he has, however, pointedly refused to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote. Indeed, he been busy implementing the traditional vote rigging programmes such as bribing the Chiefs and deploying known party thugs like retired General Engelbert Rugeje to threating the electorate.

The regime has been on an all-out charm offensive to woo the would-be foreign investors needed to kick start the country’s economy, in ruins after decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Unemployment has soared to 90% and 72.3% of the population now live in abject poverty; the country desperately needs to revive the economy. The investors have shied away from Zimbabwe because of the country’s reputation as a corrupt and lawless nation ruled by thugs.

Last week, President Mnangagwa was in Davos, Switzerland, leading from the front, to sell the “Zimbabwe is open for business” message. Sadly, none of the would-be investors were fooled. All his answers and comments made it clear that Zimbabwe is still a corrupt and lawless nation ruled by thugs!

"We may say nice things, but on the ground you find that there are issues that need clarification. We will direct them to correct authorities. If you find that a door is closed, a situation which was common in the past dispensation, come to my office and I will open that door." President Mnangagwa told Switzerland’s CEO and captains of industries at luncheon hosted by the Africa Swiss Business Circle in Zurich, Switzerland.

So, he was admitting there are still many “closed doors” to doing business in Zimbabwe and the only person who has all the keys is himself. Only a fool would not see that as a very serious problem!

If Zimbabwe had held its parliamentary and presidential elections on 18 November 2017, President Mnangagwa and his coup plotters would have won hands down. The coup plotters were heroes; the goodwill of having ousted Mugabe was very strong then. The Topi bull looked heroic and majestic in its mud war-paint. Today, hardly three months down the line people are beginning to see the plotters for the thugs they are. The elections are another four to five months away, by that time all the mud will have been washed clean; Mnangagwa and company will have no choice but to resort to their vote rigging dirty tricks to win.

President Mnangagwa and his coup cabinet are truly in an unenviable position; damned if the rig the elections – it will confirm they are thugs – and damned if they do not rig the vote – with all the goodwill of the oust of Mugabe gone, they are certain to lose free and fair elections.

The early signs – failure to implement reforms, the pursuit of the old vote rigging shenanigans, etc. – are the regime going to rig the vote, damn the consequences! We have been here before; President Mnangagwa and his friends would remember if they were not so torpid! It was Mnangagwa and the same thugs who instructed ZEC to cook up the March 2008 election result to reduce Tsvangirai’s 73% win to 47% to force the presidential run-off. In the run-off they masterminded the wanton violence to force the electorate to vote for Mugabe. The consequence was that not even the AU or SADC, known for accepting dodgy elections, would accept the election process as free and fair. The Zanu PF regime was therefore declared illegitimate.

The whole world should have condemned the November 2017 coup as an act of high treason, treason is treason even if it was to remove a despot. So, strictly speaking, the present President Mnangagwa’s regime is illegitimate. This time the whole world will not hesitate to call the Mnangagwa regime illegitimate if it fails to hold free, fair and credible elections.

As punishment for failing to hold free elections in 2008, Zanu PF was forced to sign a Global Political Agreement (GPA) accepting the need for the country to implement a raft of democratic reforms design to ensure the blatant vote rigging and violence of 2008 will never be repeated again. The GPA also asked for the formation a Government of National Unity (GNU) comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions. SADC was the guarantor of the GPA. If Zanu PF fails to hold free elections this year, the party will not get off so lightly, of that we can be certain.

Robert Mugabe was a domineering character and ruled his party, Zanu PF, and the country with an iron fist. It was natural therefore that many people, especially the more naïve and simple minded, thought that Zanu PF, without Mugabe would be a totally different party. The truth is the political rot in the party went beyond just the one man, Robert Mugabe, and this is why, three months after the removal of Mugabe, for are no signs of investors flooding back into the country, no reforms implemented, etc.

In November 2017, President Mnnangagwa and his coup cabinet were convinced that “baby dumping,” as Grace Mugabe would have called it, Robert Mugabe was enough to rebrand Zanu PF as caring people centred party and secure their hold on power. The party members’ thuggish past is coming out and already its hold on power is getting increasingly shaky. The party will have no choice but to rig the vote but whether it will get away with it this time is the billion-dollar question!

Mnangagwa's diaspora vote promise is a cynical ploy - unbroken bull's thigh bone to a puppy P Guramatunhu

In one of the many interviews President Mnangagwa gave in Davos, Switzerland, President Mnangagwa agreed on the need to allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote. He did not give much detail on how this was going to happen or whether it would happen quickly enough for them to vote in this year’s election. This has been such a very emotive issue and was not surprising that many Zimbabweans have jumped on to it like a dog to an old bone that has yet to yield the marrow. 

It is a tried and tasted Zanu PF diversionary tactic, the diaspora vote is nothing more than a bull’s unbroken thigh bone to puppy; not a dog, a puppy. The puppy knows the bone has plenty of marrow to yield but it is also as hard as granite; all the poor creature can do is lick the bone. What everyone should be concerned about is President Mnangagwa’s repeated promise to hold free and fair elections and yet doing nothing to make this happen. What good is having the diaspora vote if the elections are rigged? 
The elections are due in six months at the latest, it is impossible to see how diaspora voter registration can be carried out in time to include them on a national voters' roll this late. And, more significantly, what will the nation gain from having some people in the diaspora able to vote if the Zanu PF is able to blatant rig the local vote to secure 60 to 70% a landslide victory!
When it was clear that MDC leaders had sold-out during the GNU and had not implemented even one democratic reform; SADC leaders did not hesitate to ask for the 2013 elections to be postponed.

“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza explained to Violet Gonda. 

“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”

It should be noted that SADC leaders had very right to ask for elections to be postponed. The region body was the guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement which had called for the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF blatantly rigging and repeat the barbarism of the 2008 elections. SADC leaders arm twisted Mugabe to get him to agree to the need for democratic reforms. 

SADC leaders did their best to remind Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement the reforms but they were ignored. As we know, MDC leaders also ignored SADC leaders’ warning not to contest the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. 

Five years later from the rigged July 2013 elections, we still face the same political situation – new elections but still with not even one democratic reform to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote implemented! No even one!

Yes President Mnangagwa has been promising that the elections will be free, fair and credible but has not implemented even one democratic reform that SADC leaders called for in 2013. The Army, ZEC, the Police, Public Media, etc., etc. are still staffed with Zanu PF loyalists whose commitment to the party’s no-regime-change mantra is as unshakable as ever. 

Indeed, contrary to his public platitudes of free and fair elections, Mnangagwa has been implementing Zanu PF’s carefully laid out vote rigging plans the party has used in the past. He bought the Chiefs the new trucks, a bribe Mugabe had promised. The Chiefs have always done a sterling job of threatening rural voters and frog marching them to Zanu PF rallies and then to vote for the party. President Mnangagwa wanted the Chiefs to know that he, just like Mugabe, appreciated their blind loyalty and, more significantly, will happily pay the bribe. 

Two weeks ago Engelbert Rugeje, the man President Mnangagwa appointed Zanu PF Political Commissar, was in Masvingo Province, his old stamping ground, telling the people that the wanton violence of 2008 and 2013 elections will return if they do not vote for Zanu PF. The people know Rugeje is not Father Christmas sending the message of good will. Last week it emerges that Zanu PF operatives have amassed an impressive data base of people’s voter registration details. 

President Mnangagwa keeps talking of holding free and fair elections and yet continues to blatantly disregard everything to make free elections possible. He is like a hyena that denies that it does not eat rotten meat but its bad breath gives the game away!

So, what should be the national response to the certainty there will be NO free, fair and credible elections? 

The only logical response is for the people of Zimbabwe to have absolutely nothing to do with these flawed and illegal elections. After 38 years of Zanu PF blatantly rigged elections, it is insane to keep taking part in such elections.

SADC leaders were 100% right in advising Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented. 

The nation’s response to Zanu PF’s stubborn refusal to implement the democratic reforms everyone agrees are absolutely necessary for free, fair and credible elections must be clear and unambiguous. Free, fair and credible elections are a fundamental right; not a privilege that Zanu PF can continue to deny the people willy-nilly for the selfish purpose that Zanu PF and Zanu PF alone must rule Zimbabwe regardless of the democratic wishes of the electorate.

Of course, there is nothing President Mnangagwa would want more than for the elections to go ahead without  ever implementing even one democratic reforms to dilute the party’s carte blanche powers to rig elections this year or ever. 

“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchigo hukura. Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! While you (demanding the implementation of reforms) bark! And bark!) President Mnangagwa has said repeatedly it has become his all-day all-night cock crow! 


It would a great tragedy if Zanu PF’s corrupt, vote rigging and autocratic rule was to continue for another five more years because the nation, once again failed to send a clear message on the need for democratic reforms. The confusion this time, coming from those in the diaspora because the cunning and cynical Zanu PF regime dangled the diaspora knowing only too well it will never deliver.

"I apologise for propping white regime'" says Coltart - but will not do so for propping up Zanu PF P Guramatunhu

“I sincerely apologise for the role that I played in propping up a racist regime as a young man in the police. If I knew then what I know now, I would have resisted conscription and actively sought to fight, using non-violent means, the injustices of the Rhodesian regime. Even though I was a teenager at the time, I take responsibility for my actions and inactions.  I also acknowledge that, as a White person, I have benefitted from Rhodesia's discriminatory policies and laws. While I can't apologize on behalf of a government that I was not a part of, I do apologise on behalf of the broader White community which was largely complicit in the oppression of Black, Coloured and Asian brothers and sisters,” you say.

You put so much emphasis on your being “a young man” as if your selfish streak ended when you became an adult! It did not!

You were a senior member of the MDC in the 2008 to 2013 GNU who sold-out. There is no logical explanation why MDC failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU. The party had the chance to redeem itself when the choice was not to contest in flawed elections. You admit in your book that you lot participated out of 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 elections,” you admitted. 

“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.”

You have pointedly refused to admit that you and your fellow MDC friends sold-out much less apologised and has instead continued to take full advantage of the ordinary people who have failed to figure out for themselves what is going on here.

Right now you are preparing to contest this year’s elections although you know only too well that boycotting the elections will be the “obvious” and most prudent course of action. MDC factions have formed the MDC Alliance, so what is your excuse for contesting flawed elections this time?

By failing to implement even one democratic reform in your twenty years in the opposition camp but especially during the GNU you and your MDC friends have helped “prop up the Zanu PF dictatorship”. SADC leaders would have declared the July 2013 elections null and void if MDC leaders had boycotted the elections, as you admit yourself. The country could be saved the torment of another rigged election if MDC leaders honoured their own “No reform, no election!” resolution.

As a white, you and your fellow whites had it all; a privileged upbringing, first class education, wealth accumulated from slave black labour, etc. Compared to your black MDC friends, like Morgan Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti whose education qualification is not much more than can read and write and whose lifetime of poverty made them susceptible to bribery and corruption. What was your excuse for succumbing to Mugabe’s gravy train lifestyle honey pot trap?

After nearly 100 years of black oppression and exploitation so you, as a white person, get first class everything whilst some of us had to make do with third class everything for no other reason than because we are black. The least you could do is use your first-class education to help us get out on the hell-hole Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs landed us into instead you are using it to get back on the gravy train for selfish greed. Is that the thanks we get from you for white colonial oppression?  

Senator Coltart your apology for your pre-independence wrongs has no value whatsoever when you will not admit to the post-independence wounds you have inflicted and continue to inflict. You are just like a bully who apologises for stepping on your toes yesterday and yet is crashing your toes as he speaks!