Obama's "fundraising phenomenon" was nothing compared to Mnangagwa's US$240 m war chest, thanks to Gold Mafia. W Mukori

 When elections costs in an impoverished nation like Zimbabwe are comparable and even exceed those in a very rich nation like United States of America; you can be sure of one thing the Zimbabwe elections are NOT the same free, fair and credible democratic elections you get in the USA. For one thing, the budgetary difference between the contestants is so huge, it is like Fred Flintstone in his stone-age car racing against Lewis Hamilton in his F1 car.

The mismatch is so blatant one has to ask what the opposition is being paid to keep participating in such a clearly one-sided race!

Former US President Barack Obama is one of the American politicians known, amongst many other things, for his election fundraising prowess.

“In all, no US politician has ever raised so much money for a political campaign – and this one will be the most expensive ever. Of the $942m in receipts so far for the 2008 race, Obama has raised $347m, more than double John McCain's $143.8m,” reported the UK Guardian in July 2008

“If nothing else, Barack Obama has proved himself to be a financial phenomenon.”

Who would have guessed that President Obama would be outdone by President Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, one of the poorest nations on earth!

"In this (2023) election, I think, they are spending something like US$240 million and that is his (Mnangagwa) money. It's not somebody else's. It's not the party, it's his money," Uebert Mudzanire alias Prophet Uebert Angel, alias Diplomat Mafia, claimed in the Al Jazeera “Zimbabwe: Gold Mafia” documentary.

"So, when somebody has got that money to spend on an election campaign, you give him one million, it's like a slap in the face, unless you say this is to thank you.

"The guy doesn't take bribes. Oh no, no, he won't. There is a big difference in appreciating somebody and bribing."

The truth is Mnangagwa in raising a hell lot more for the 2023 Zimbabwe elections. His fellow Zanu PF ruling elite leaders like VP Chiwenga, ministers, high ranking officers in the Police and Army, etc. who too have benefited from the wholesale looting of the nation’s resources will show their appreciation of the Zanu PF dictatorship by making a generous contribution to keep the regime in power. The biggest donations will come from the Gold Mafia bosses, the individuals (mostly foreign) sitting at the apex of the gold smuggling and money laundering activities, who make a lot more money than the Zanu PF ruling elite who facilitate the looting.

Similar generous donations will come from the Diamond Mafia (country was swindled out of US$15 billion in diamond revenue in the period 2007 to 2014 according to Professor Jonathan Moyo in a recent SABC interview), Lithium Mafia and platinum Mafia. More donations will come from the many cartels that have mushroomed including such tycoons as the Kundakwashe Tangwirei whose business empire is worth US$ billions, etc.

As the incumbent government Zanu PF will be creaming-off billions of dollars in material, labour and cash from the state to pay for Zanu PF election expenses.

All told Mnangagwa and Zanu PF will be spending a staggering US$4 billion to secure a Mnangagwa victory and Zanu PF parliamentary majority. Most of the money will be spend on vote buying from the few bags @ of food and/or agricultural inputs for the ordinary voters, buying US$60k cars for chiefs to turn them into party political commissars, US$230k bribes for key officials in ZEC, Police, etc.

The regime is spending millions of dollars in making sure the opposition participate in these elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process gets. Ever since the 2008 GNU, Zanu PF has been careful to ensure the party bribed opposition to entice them to participate in the elections to maintain the façade Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning multi-party democracy. The GNU forced the party to discard the de facto one-party image.

CCC and the rest of the opposition parties will have done very well indeed if they raised US$4 million for their campaign, including the direct and indirect financial assistance from Zanu PF.

So, the opposition’s campaign budget is 0.1% of Zanu PF’s US$4 billion; that alone shows this is not a fair contest! There many other reasons making this an unfair contest such as ZEC’s refusal to produce a verified voters’ roll, a blatantly pro-Zanu PF public media, etc. The thing is the opposition know these elections are not free nor fair and yet they insist in 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.”

In other words, the opposition are participating in these flawed and illegal elections out of greed. Pure and simple!

USA GDP                            23 618.00 USD Billion.

ZIMBABWE GDP                       28. 00 USD BILLION

Zimbabwe’s GPD is 0.1% of USA and yet Zanu PF is spending US$4b or14% of the country’s GPD on elections! How is that possible?

Easy, Zanu PF has captured the state institutions and commandeered the nation’s material and human resources, which should be used for the good of all, to securing electoral victory for Mnangagwa and the ruling party, Zanu PF. The regime is squandering millions buying chiefs new twin-cab trucks every five years, down payment for them to frogmarch the rural voters to vote for the party, and yet many rural hospitals have no ambulance service!

The real big surprise is how Zanu PF has managed to get the opposition to work for the regime, making a mockery of the whole electoral process!

“The Gold Mafia is bigger than the government. Bigger than any authority!” boasted Dawood Khan Former Gold Leaf Mafia Member turned informer.

The opposition knew the 2013 election process was “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw”; they did not withdraw because the Gold mafia and their Zanu PF ruling elite partners had opposition in their deep pockets. Today, ten years later, two rigged elections later, the opposition are still hell bent on participating in the same flawed and illegal elections.

The one thing Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has shown beyond all reasonable doubt is just how powerful the Gold Mafia and the Zanu PF ruling elite partnership is in Zimbabwe. Those who expect any meaningful democratic changes in Zimbabwe without first implementing the democratic reforms are naïve.   

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw!” confessed David Coltart in 2013, ten years ago. The electoral process today, 2023, is just as flawed and illegal as in 2013 and yet CCC are just as determined to participate in these 2023 elections as they were in 2013! Until we implement the democratic reforms designed to end the tyrannical hold of the Gold Mafia and Zanu PF ruling elite have over the people notably the opposition the country will never hold free and fair elections. Never! 

"Impeach Mnangagwa over Gold Mafia!" Focus on denying him legitimacy not inconsequential side shows! W Mukori

 

Team Pachedu have done excellent work in the fight for free, fair and credible elections. However in calling for Mnangagwa to be impeached over the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia expose, they are losing the plot.

"As Team Pachedu, we think the opposition should put the necessary pressure on Mnangagwa to step down and a good safe way is to move a motion to impeach him in Parliament.

"The legislators have a role to play in checking the executive," Team Pachedu told NewsDay.

Yes, the opposition MPs can table a motion to impeach Mnangagwa, but to what end and purpose! Even if they did table the motion, it will be quashed like a bug underfoot. Remember Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament and these MPs are not accountable to ordinary Zimbabweans but to Mnangagwa and the rest of the corrupt ruling elite! Mnangagwa and his cronies rig elections – remember!

As long as Zanu PF is able to rig the elections and stay in power the gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical oppression will continue. So, if we are serious about ending the mismanagement, corruption, etc. we must focus on implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Anything else is just a waste of time and effort!

We are in the middle of an election campaign and will be going to the polls in four months’ time. There is overwhelming evidence already to show the process is flawed and illegal including the failure to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. Team Pachedu has done excellent work in helping to document some of the evidence.

Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections. After 43 years of rigged elections, it is insane to let this happen yet again!

With four months to go before polling day, it is too late to get any meaningful democratic reforms implemented nor can we stop the elections going ahead. What we can do is make sure everyone knows that these elections as flawed and illegal and cannot therefore produce a legitimate government. Zanu PF must not be allowed to get away with yet another rigged election and granted political legitimacy.

It is a well-documented historic fact that Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC/CCC have played a major role in helping Zanu PF rig elections and get away with it. MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one reform.

Worse still, Chamisa and his opposition friends have insisted on participating in these elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections and that participating will give the process some modicum of credibility and the outcome legitimacy. They have participated regardless 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 (2013) elections,” confessed David Coltart, CCC Treasurer General,  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.”

Chamisa and his CCC friends are once again participating in these flawed and illegal 2023 elections to give Zanu PG legitimacy out of greed. How long are we going to allow this blatant betrayal of the people fight for reforms and free elections to continue, for Pete’s sake!!!!

The suggestion that the opposition MPs must table a motion to impeach Mnangagwa will be a welcome distraction from addressing with the critical questions; why the sold out on reforms and continue to do so by participating in flawed elections?

Indeed, the very act of raising the motion of impeaching Mnangagwa on corruption, even if everyone knowing it is academic, will be a feather in the opposition’s cap. They will see it justification for their continued participation in these flawed elections!

The number one task before us is making sure Zanu PF does not get political legitimacy and thus get away with yet another rigged 2023 election. The last thing we want is give the sell-out opposition a feeble excuse to justify their participation.

Tabling the motion to impeach Mnangagwa over the gold looting will be no more than a house-fly to a elephant, the Al Jazeera documentary has been a swarm of stinging bees, at the very least. Deny Mnangagwa political legitimacy and the Zanu PF dictatorship will end and with it the mismanagement, corruption, etc.

We can end the Zanu PF dictatorship, the regime is rigging these elections and knows that getting away with it is not going to be easy. The regime on the ropes and we need to stay focused and not the distracted by impeachment side show of no consequence!

"Gold Mafia will face full wrath of the law" Zanu PF promise. Bollocks! Face povo's wrath in free elections. W Mukori

“Charova sei chando kukwidza hamba mumuti!” (The winter will have to be extraordinarily cold to force the tortoise to climb a tree!) so goes the Shona adage. Well after weeks of dismissing the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary as a storm in a tea-cup, the Zanu PF tortoise has lumbered up a tree!

“Government takes note of a documentary titles “Gold Mafia” currently being serialised by an international broadcasting channel which purports to expose a network of alleged  money laundering and gold smuggling in Zimbabwe” stated the Press Statement signed by Senator Monica Mutsvangwa, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services.

“Government takes the allegations raised in the documentary seriously, and has directed relevant organisations to institute investigations into the issues raised therein. Any person found to have engaged in acts of corruption, fraud or any form of crime, will face the full wrath of the law.”

Bollocks! These Zanu PF thugs must think every Zimbabwean is a certified village idiot who will believe anything the regime says!

In Zimbabwe corruption has been tolerated as the norm and even approved and legitimised and thus institutionalised. It is not just a few individuals who are corrupt the whole organisation is rotten to the core.

When those in position of power and authority are corrupt, it is not surprising how quickly the rot will spread. When the subordinates are armed with the details of the criminal activities of the boss, they are emboldened to commit similar crimes themselves confident the boss would never act for fear of self-incriminating.  

The very fact that 80% of Zimbabwe's US$2 billion gold or 16% of the country's GPD is being smuggled out of the country every year, this has been going for years and it is not only gold but diamonds and other resources; proves corruption in Zimbabwe has reached pandemic proportions. All our institutions and organisations, banks, security services, Customs, right up to government itself; are not just corrupt but rotten to the core!

“Any person found to have engaged in acts of corruption, will face the full wrath of the law!” Yeah right!

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission was launched in 2018 with the usual funfair and razzmatazz and so far ZACC has spent US$ 33.3 million fighting corruption. The Commission has not managed to have even one big fish charged and convicted. The modus operandi is catch and release, and after a while the case kicked into the long grass and forgotten.  

The British Football Premier League is one of the most successful sporting leagues in the world. Their secret? Teams attract the best players and managers in the world and anyone whose performance falls short of the demanding standards is sacked.

So far, with 28 games played out of 38 in a 20-team in the Premier League, 13 managers have been sacked. There are no sacred cows!

43 years after independence, Zimbabwe has only had two leaders and it took a military coup to remove Robert Mugabe only for the coup plotters to replace him with another dictator, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis is political stagnation, the nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 43 years and counting, regardless of the regime’s pathetic track record of failure corruption and tyrannical oppression.

It was none other than President Mugabe and after him Mnangagwa who has presided over the wholesale loot Al Jazeera Gold Mafia has uncovered. It was Mnangagwa himself who appointed this third-grade crook, Prophet Uebert Angel, ambassador-at-large and granted him the plenipotentiary, carte blanche, powers! How can such a dunderhead be the Head of State! And yet Mnangagwa is

Head of State but only because Zanu PF has rigged elections these last 43 years, denying the ordinary people a meaningful say in the governance of the country! The failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic decline, notoriety as one of the most corrupt nation on earth and political paralysis. Nothing of substance can ever be accomplished until we cure ourselves of this curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Nothing!

Zimbabweans will be going to the polls in four months, the exact date is yet be announced; the signs are Zanu PF is once again blatantly rigged these elections. The regime has stubbornly refused to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, has denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote or 37% of the electorate, etc., etc. This time Zanu PF must be denied political legitimacy for filing to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Deny Zanu PF political legitimacy will force Zimbabwe to set up an interim government, a GNU, as happened in 2008. This time we will appoint individuals with at least the common sense to implement the democratic reforms to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and end the curse of rigged elections!  

“Zanu PF government will “institute investigations into the issues raised therein. Any person found to have engaged in acts of corruption, fraud or any form of crime, will face the full wrath of the law.” No, forget Zanu PF launching yet another ZACC! We know already the criminals behind the economic meltdown, the tyrannical oppression and the looting of our gold and diamonds and they must now face the full wrath of the electorate in a free, fair and credible 2023 elections! If Zanu PF rigs the 2023 elections, as it did with past elections, then the party must and will be denied legitimacy!  

"No to white super-dog to observe, pass or fail our elections!" Rigging elections again and don't want truth known. W Mukori

 

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! Zanu PF has rigged elections since the country’s independence in 1980 and now President Emmerson Mnangagwa thinks the party has the divine right to rig elections!

"Going forward, and as a country and Nation which is proudly African and sovereign, we shall be insisting on the principle of reciprocity when it comes to the practice of international election observation. The time will soon come when we will not accept that condescending and even racist view of a pecking order when it comes to measuring electoral democracy unfolding in our sovereign countries, and which, in any event, is meant for our people,” argued President Mnangagwa in the Sunday Mail column.

When you know, you are going to rig the elections; you have failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, will frogmarch voters to vote for you, etc.; of course, you will not want anyone to scrutinise the process.

Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut is now unstoppable and the party has bribed the opposition to guarantee their participation no matter flawed and illegal the process get. The party has woken up to the political reality that party will not get political legitimacy if the process is judged to be flawed and the opposition is dismissed as lacking political credibility.

The recent Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has portrayed Mnangagwa himself and his administration as dunderheads controlled by the white, Indian, Chinese and Russian Mafia Gurus operating in the country. Before the documentary the Zanu PF regime’s reputation was bad and now it is mud. Some of the African leaders who would have turned a blind eye to Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections will now be forced to think twice about granting legitimacy to a regime of dunderheads!

"A pecking order with white super-dogs who must observe elections of lesser beings, on the one side; and black underdogs whose polls must be observed, passed or failed, on the other,” continued Mnangagwa.

"Nothing about our chequered colonial history justifies that false hierarchy; nothing in present international rules legitimises that presumptuous supremacy. The theory and practice of election observation must be on the basis of equality and reciprocity among nations. Anything less and one-sided diminishes and creates a deep sense of bruise and injury to our sovereignty.”

This is just nonsense! In a healthy and functioning democracy every stage of the election process is transparent and open for verification by all the election contestants, the media, the public and observers. Zimbabwe has never requested to observe any Western nation’s elections and had the request denied. What “reciprocity” is he wittering about!

In democratic nations, any election irregularities are dealt with by an independent judiciary. In Zimbabwe it is laughable that the Constitutional Court handled the 2018 election challenge when 8 months earlier the same judiciary had ruled the November 2017 military coup was “justified, legal and constitutional”!

The right to free, fair and credible elections is not just universal right; it is the very foundation of good governance. Zimbabwe is a failed state precisely because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship for 43 years and counting.

"Much worse, we reject as utterly racist and condescending this practice of making our proud and sovereign Nation an equal if not a junior of some Western non-governmental centre, institute or foundation. We are no one's subaltern, least of all of some non-governmental organisation. Never again will we subject ourselves to such false, humiliating equivalences.

"We go to elections as sovereign nations, indeed as State Parties of the United Nations; its hallowed Charter makes all Nations equal, regardless of size and age, however these are reckoned or claimed. State Parties relate to each and to one another on equal terms, with respect, and strictly on the basis and principle of reciprocity. Going forward, only those Nations who invite us to observe their own elections in future will also be invited to do the same here.”

“One man, one vote!” was the rallying cry before independence. It was valued then as more than just a human right but as one of the key pillar on which good governance stand. Zimbabwe is failed state and in economic ruins precisely because the nation has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections since independence in 1980. The country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 43 years!  

Only a dunderhead, drunk after decades of enjoying absolute power, would now think he has a right to rig elections and justify his foolishness on the grounds free, fair and credible elections are a threat the nation’s sovereignty!

It was foolish of us to have allowed the Zanu PF dunderheads to rule for even a day much less for 43 years. We have paid dearly for our folly and must now put an end to this madness. Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections and CCC are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections for selfish reasons. Our task is to denounce the flawed elections, show the opposition have lost political credibility and thus stop Zanu PF getting political legitimacy.

How can a flawed election process, so flawed it does not even have a verified voters’ roll, in which a discredited opposition participate for 30 pieces of silver produce a legitimate government?

"CCC and MDC are two different entities!" St Paul's Damascus moment was about much more than changing his name! W Mukori

 “CCC and MDC are two different entities so please your arguments have no basis, and it lacks facts. We are in 2023. MDC then was Tsvangirai and ZANU was Mugabe,” complained Jimmy Marunza.

Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends from MDC Alliance cum MDC-T rebranded their new political party and called it CCC but we should not be fooled into believing they are now squeaky clean. During the GNU days they sold out by failing to implement even one democratic reform even when they had the golden opportunity to do so.

Worse still, they have since given up on reforms and free elections since the GNU debacle by participating in the 2013 and then 2018 elections knowing fully well Zanu PF was rigging the elections and doing so would only give Zanu PF legitimacy. They have done so out of greed; pure and simple!

“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.”

CCC are hell bent on participating in these 2023 elections knowing fully well the whole election process is flawed and that participating will only give the process some modicum of “credibility”, as Coltart put it, and thus give vote rigging Zanu PF some modicum of political legitimacy. Once again, they are participating out of greed.

CCC rebranding is no different from Mnangagwa’s Second Republic rebranding of Zanu PF. The dictator is demanding of us all not only forget what Zanu PF has done from 1980 to November 2017; “let bygone by bygones”, he argued. He too, just like Chamisa and company, is refusing to held to account for what Zanu PF has done until November 2017 although he has not only a senior member in the Zanu PF governments throughout those years; he was Mugabe’s henchman!

The Mugabe dictatorship lasted 37 years because Mnangagwa played a major role in imposing and retaining the de facto one-party dictatorship by spearheading the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre and carrying out the blatant rigging of elections. Mnangagwa, by his own admission, was the principal player in the 2008 election coup that denying MDC the keys to State House.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies promised the Second Republic will have “zero tolerance on corruption” and will hold free and fair elections. Corruption is now into overdrive as the ongoing Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary is revealing. The regime blatantly rigged the 2018 elections and is doing the same now with the 2023 elections.

When Saul had his Damascus moment, he was completely transformed from the zealot persecuting and murdering believers of Jesus Christ to one of the most outstanding Christian evangelists of all time. Even if Saul had never changed his name to Paul his work from that dramatic moment on the road to Damascus earned him the heavenly acclaim and rightly honoured as a Saint!

Both Emmerson Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa have rebranded their political parties from Zanu PF to Zanu PF Second Republic, MDC cum MDC-T cum MDC A to CCC respectively for the sake of running away from their dismal past and to deceive the populous by claiming they have changed when they have not change one bit! They have cast off the old party regalia but not its old dirty habits. A cobra does not seize to a deadly snake just because it has shed off its old skin. It was not the change of name from Saul to Paul that made him a Saint it was the transformation from a murderous zealot to an Christian evangelist per excellence! 

Al Jazeera Gold Mafia exposed Mnangagwa as a corrupt dunderhead, Charamba the gene is out of the bottle. W Mukori

 

The Al Jazeera Zimbabwe’s Gold Mafia documentary uncovered the details of gold smuggling and money laundering that has left all those involved stack naked with nowhere to hide. Zanu PF has hit the panic button!

The initial reaction by the Zanu PF regime was to dismiss the documentary as a just another Western inspired “regime change” propaganda to discredit the regime’s sanctions-busting stroke of genius. It is a hard sell to tell people the nation is prospering from the gold smuggling and money laundering when the economic reality tells of the few who have become filthy rich and wasteful and the millions living in abject poverty.

When President Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe in 2017, he promised “zero tolerance on corruption”. The Al Jazeera has him as the godfather of all those involved in the gold smuggling and money laundering. The man he appointed Zimbabwe’s first ambassador-at-large is the one using the diplomatic bag to transport dirty money!

You can fool some people all the time. You can fool all the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all the people all the time! The Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has uncovered so much in so much detail it is really impossible for the Zanu PF regime’s snip doctors to deny corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe. Impossible! And so they have changed tac, gag the nation.

"Al Jazeera is not a court of law before whose claims impart privileges to defamatory utterances,” tweeted George Charamba, President Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, under the pseudonym Tinoedza Zvimwe.

“It is merely some weaponised channel.

“If you are reckless to enough repeat what it's phoney documentary defamatorily says hoping to plead ‘I heard/saw it on Al Jazeera', you will be sorry for yourself.

"Do not for once think there is no grit to act against reckless, defamatory and politically-motivated journalism. Faceless Twitter names egging you on will not be a factor when brickbats come. Be warned."

NewsDay contacted Charamba and he added, "Waverenga tweet yacho (You read the tweet). It's complete in its meaning and sense."

Mark my words and mark them well. I am not dismissing Charamba’s threats, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are ruthless thugs they carried out the 1983 to 1987 Gukurandi massacre in which they murdered over 20 000 innocent civilians and have murdered a further 20 000 more since to consolidate their strangle hold on power. The regime has a well-documented track record of rigging elections and, time and again, resorting to wanton violence in its desperate effort to gain and retain absolute power at all costs.

President Mnangagwa has clearly failed to revive the Zimbabwe economy since taking over from Mugabe after the 2017 military coup. The Al Jazeera documentary could not have come at a worse time for him, he is facing elections in five months. In their desperate effort to silence the corruption narrative and hang on to power, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will do anything.

Still, what cannot be denied too is the heavy price the nation has paid in allowing Zanu PF rid roughshod over us all. 43 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule have left the country a failed state, unable to provide even the most basic necessities of life such as education and health care, millions are living in abject poverty. The present economic and political situation is set to get worse not better.

One of the key revelations of the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary is that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are buffoons, “dunderheads” as one Mafia gangster aptly put it. It is bad enough that we have allowed dunderheads to ride roughshod over us denying us our freedoms, rights and human dignity for the last 43 years. Enough is enough! We must not allow ourselves to be outwitted by dunderheads ever again, even though they are the ones wielding the stick!  

In the 9 Oscar Award winning epic movie Gandhi, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, Mahatma Gandhi showed the world that even the rich, powerful and ruthless tyrants can be defeated. In one scene a calvary of horse mounted Police armed to the teeth charged Gandhi and his fellow peaceful demonstrators who were demanding a fair wage and justice. Instead of the marchers scattering in panic, they laid down. The horses reared up and would not tramp over the humans.

The Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary detail is but a side issue, the most important issue before us is the 2023 elections. The documentary has once again underlined the importance of implementing reforms and thus ensure we have free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF is rigging these elections, the Gold Mafia are using the looted wealth to bankroll the Zanu PF and opposition alike to make sure the country remains in the power of these dunderheads.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Zanu PF has stepped up the threats to use violence to silence discussion on details of the gold smuggling and money laundering we must response by demanding reforms and free elections.

Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections. CCC will participate no matter how flawed and illegal the process get because they are after the few gravy train seats on offer as bait. We can outsmart these dunderheads by refusing to participate in the flawed elections and by making sure Zanu PF is denied political legitimacy. How can an election process so flawed there is no verified voters’ roll, rural voters are frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF, etc. produce a legitimate government!!!

Zanu PF thugs rigging their own party primaries underlines the folly 2023 without even verified voters' roll W Mukori

 

“Matsotsi haagerani!” (Crooks do not cut each other’s hair!) so goes the Shona adage. Meaning it is one thing the crooks playing their mischief on the unsuspecting public, when one of them is the victim; they do not like it one bit!

All the losing candidates in the Zanu PF primary elections have complained the elections were rigged. One of the losing candidates could not even vote for himself because his name and many of his supporters were no longer on the membership register! He was shocked at just how many new members had joined the party in the last weeks before the primary!

Tales of Zanu PF blatantly rigging the national elections, including the use of wanton violence, are abound. During the Zanu PF elections there was the usual vote buying. Come the national elections, there will be a bigger stick and a small carrot.  

"We allowed people to lodge complaints, an ad-hoc special tribunal will be meeting today (yesterday) and outcomes of these complaints will affect results," said Mike Bimha, Zanu PF National Political Commissar.

Complaining at national election level has been a complete waste of time, since the ruling party Zanu PF has captured and corrupted the state institutions like ZEC, Police, judiciary, etc. It was laughable when Nelson Chamisa lodged a Constitutional Court challenge the 2018 presidential elections results. The same judiciary had just ruled the November 2017 military coup “justified, legal and constitutional”!  

Any day now, President Mnangagwa will dissolve parliament and announce the date for presidential, parliamentary and local council elections. The nation has not yet produced a verified voters’ roll, nor is it likely to do so now!

Indeed, ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, the country has never ever produced a verified voters’ roll. Never ever!

How can we expect to hold free, fair and credible elections without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll beggars belief! The Americans were reminding us of this, calling on ZEC to "polish" the voters roll and avail it to the public to guarantee credible polls.

"The consistent message that we provided to the government was that we are calling for peaceful elections. That was the issue that we raised with both the government and the opposition leaders. We call for political leaders to come out and call for peace during and after the elections," Robert Scott, USA deputy assistant in the Bureau of African Affairs, reminded Zimbabweans.

"They should disavow any of their members who resort to violence instead of a peaceful exchange of ideas, transparent elections which include polishing the voters roll, accrediting long-term international and local observers and inclusive elections that include allowing the media to report freely, and the civil society organisations."

This is not the first time the American have called for free and fair elections nor are they the only ones to do so. The EU, Commonwealth, SADC and many others have done so but all to no avail. It was none other than SADC who proposed and were the guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) whose primary purpose was implement the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.

In June 2013 SADC leaders made a last-minute bid to get the democratic reforms implemented before the elections. “If you participate in the elections, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders in Maputo in 2013. As we know, their warning fall on deaf ears and, in disgust, SADC leaders have ever since endorsed Zanu PF rigged elections granting the party legitimacy.

Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, Zanu PF leaders have always believed they have the right to rule the country by right of conquest; they are the ones who fought and defeated the white colonial government. Robert Mugabe and his cronies had their way, they would have imposed a de jure one-party state but had to settle for a de facto one-party state instead. They have maintained their iron grip on power all these last 43 years by rigging the elections; period.

The only time Zanu PF did not enjoy absolute power was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when SADC refused to recognise the party’s election victory because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence. Being asked to share power with Morgan Tsvangirai was the most humiliating time in Mugabe’s whole political career – up to that point. (Worse time was when he was booted out of office in the 2017 military coup!)

Mugabe had always assumed that SADC will turn a blind eye to his election shenanigans and grant his regime legitimacy. When SADC refused to endorse his 2008 election victory, it was a really shock to him. He had never thought SADC would dare to hold him to political account.  

Mugabe thanked his lucky stars that MDC leaders turned out to be so hopeless corrupt and incompetent they failed to implement even one reform during the GNU. And so Zanu PF emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial power untouched. Still he was shrewd enough to scrap the one-party state ethos and replace it with a façade of Zimbabwe as a multi-party democracy. All he had to do was to bribe the opposition to make sure they participated in the elections no matter how flawed and illegal the process got. SADC leaders have obliging reverted to turning a blind eye to Zanu PF election shenanigans as long as the opposition participated.

And so Zanu PF will ignore the call to produce a verified voters’ roll, to free the media, etc., etc. because the party is confident of two things:

1)     That the opposition will participate in these elections in numbers regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be.

 

2)     That SADC will endorse the election process regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be. SA’s ruling ANC government has already said it would not permit regime change in Zimbabwe (presumably, regardless how flawed and illegal the election happened to be). It is sweet music to the Zanu PF leaders’ ears!

The task of implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections has never been more urgent than it is right now with the country in a serious economic and political mess. 43 years of the Zanu PF dictatorship has left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis another rigged elections to give the regime five more years of this chaos and human suffering is unthinkable.

We cannot stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections, it is too late to do it. What we can and must do is make sure that this time, Zanu PF does not get political legitimacy by:

a)     Denouncing the electoral process for failing to produce a verified voters’ roll, no free media, denying 3 million in the diaspora or 37% of voters the vote, etc. How can such a flawed and illegal process produce a legitimate government!

 

b)     Denounce the opposition for not only selling out by failing to implement the democratic reforms and by insisting on participating in flawed elections out of greed and to give the flawed election some modicum of credibility. How can discredited opposition give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

 

c)     SADC election observers must, like all the other election observers stick to their task of judging whether the elections process is free, fair and credible to internationally accepted democratic elections norms. To judge rigged elections as “substantial free and fair” to stop regime change or to punish the incompetent opposition is totally unacceptable particularly since it is the ordinary people who are paying dearly for the erroneous judgement.