Zanu PF mercenaries', still masquerading as heroes, hunger for power is insatiable even as nation burn to ashes W Mukori

 Heroes fight because they believe in the cause, mercenaries fight for a reward. As much as Robert Mugabe and many of his fellow Zanu PF cronies portray themselves as the nation’s liberations heroes fighting for freedom liberty and human dignity for the oppressed black majority, they always had their eyes on the reward - to be Zimbabwe’s next absolute rulers. 

What Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have been good at these last 43 years was to come up with a narrative to cover their mercenary drive. 

Zanu PF’s 1980 election campaign position was the party would not accept the results if it lost; the bush war would continue. Of course, the position was a blatant violation of “One man, one vote!” and free and fair elections. Zanu PF argued that they were forced to do this because they did not trust the British and the white Rhodesians to hold free, fair and credible elections. And rightly so too. After all had the two not connived to exploit and oppress the black majority all these last one hundred years!

The people of Zimbabwe voted to end the war and, per se, gave up their right to free, fair and credible elections! A right they were denied from the start and have yet to taste 43 years and counting after independence. 

The litmus paper test for Zanu PF’s commitment to the liberation war values of freedom and liberty was whether, now in position of power and authority, the party would indeed up hold the rule of law and the people’s freedoms and rights. It failed the test. Within three years of independence, Zanu PF dragged the nation into the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi Massacre whose primary purpose was to force PF Zapu leaders and supporters to join Zanu PF. 

PF Zapu leaders and supporters were accused of supporting “dissidents” seeking to remove the Zanu PF government by force. Over 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered by government operatives, the very people whose sacred duty is to protect the people, and yet only a few hundred “dissidents” were uncovered. “It was a moment of madness!” Mugabe later admitted.

Gukurahundi madness ended with PF Zapu merging with Zanu PF with the signing the 1987 Unity Accord. This paved the way for Zanu PF to impose the de facto one party state. And from 1987 to 2008 Zanu PF has denied the people their right to a meaningful vote under the pretext multi-party democracy threatened the “hard won unity of 1987”!

By the late 1990s Mugabe was running out of loot to give to his very demanding wasteful cronies and so he turned to the one asset the nation still had - land. Zanu PF’s narrative that the white own farms were seize to give to the landless peasants was the cover story. The farm seizures were accompanied by gratuitous violence itself a cover for violence visited on MDC, Zanu PF’s main political opponents, who were accused of siding with the white farmers.

For the 2008 elections, SADC forced Zanu PF to implement many democratic reforms, effectively forcing the regime to switch off its vote rigging juggernaut; these are the nearest the nation has ever come to holding free and fair elections. The people voted for change but before the results were announced, Zanu PF switched back on its vote rigging juggernaut. ZEC was ordered to recount the votes. 

It took six weeks to recount five million votes. Tsvangirai’s 73% votes were whittle down to 47%, enough to force a runoff. The runoff was about punishing the voter for having dared to reject Zanu PF in the March plebiscite.  

Not even SADC and AU could pretend the 2008 elections were free and fair given the blatant cheating and wanton violence and for the first time ever both the regional and continental bodies refused to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy. 

SADC forced Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the people’s basic freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. The 2008 to 2013 GNU was tasked to implement the reforms.

Alas! not even one meaningful reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU. Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who were supposed to implement the reforms and the rest is history. 

Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were chuffed to bits the party had emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial powers untouched. The party could continue running its vote rigging juggernaut but to avoid the punishment of being denied political legitimacy, the party was forced to abandon the de facto one party state to embrace the multi-party democracy facade.

Since the 2013 elections, the post 2008 to 2013 GNU era, Zanu PF has tolerated the opposition winning a few gravy train seats in parliament, senate and local government to maintain the multi-party democracy facade. A small price to pay for political legitimacy!

The bottom line is Zanu PF thugs have always believed they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe as the heroes who vanquished the white colonialists and their have viewed the demands for free, fair and credible elections, upholding rule of law and all the other human rights and freedoms as contrived for the purpose of denying them claiming their conquering heroes’ reward.  

“If the British and their Western allies were so hot on free and fair elections, etc. why then did they deny blacks the vote, etc. during the colonial days?” Zanu PF thugs have often argued. “It is us, Zanu PF, who extended universal suffrage to the black majority!” 

This is just a feeble excuse for denying the ordinary Zimbabwean their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote. As much as Robert Mugabe and his cronies admired the economic prosperity, freedoms and social and political stability the western democratic system of government offered they still gravitated towards the one-party autocratic system of China and Russia. Even today Zanu PF still strut around as liberation heroes but when push comes to shove they are mercenaries who fought for absolute power and they knew to secure absolute power they needed autocracy not democracy.

Like it or not, Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies’ hunger for political power has always been insatiable they would rather burn down the whole country than see some one else rule. After 43 years of absolute the Zanu PF ruling elite and their progeny are now addicted to power, giving it up is simply unthinkable. Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corrupt and tyrannical rule left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis, the varying stages to decay and rot! The burning down Zimbabwe to ashes, has started in earnest. And yet still Zanu PF thugs’ hunger to rule is as keen as mustard.

Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections and, unless we mount a concerted campaign to denied the regime political legitimacy, Mnangagwa would be sworn in as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe for a new five year term. And the looting will continue.

"ANC is fighting to stop SA degenerating into a failed state" vs "comprehensive plan to stop regime change in Zimbabwe (a failed state)" W Mukori

 When ANC Secretary General, Fikile Mbulula was asked by Stephen Sackur on BBC HardTalk on 23 May 2023, whether the ANC government was disappointed with the sorry economic state in the country. His answer was a defensive denial and yet insightful. fooled no one.

“South Africa is undergoing challenges like many other countries. But to put us in the category of failed state, is an exaggeration.

“If certain things are not resolved, we will become a failed state.” He admitted. 

“In the 30 years we have connected our people to the grid. We have guaranteed and given our people social security. We given our people decent housing. We have faulted on electricity, which is load shedding; a single demand for our people and our economy. And are going to solve it. 

“Undone the misrule of 300 years, in 30 years we have done so much! And yet we are defined by one single issue. We will defeat that issue. As African National Congress we are determined to ensure that load shedding is something of the past.  It does not erode everything good we have done.

“Not that in that 30 years we did nothing wrong. We did faulted, we made mistakes. We did veer away. We accept. And that is why we are determined to come back and renew ourselves. We change things. We fight corruption. We fight even the possibility of degenerating into a failed state. That is what we are determined to do as the ANC!” He concluded.

Mr ANC Secretary General, I wish you, ANC and the people South Africa well in your fight to end corruption and bad governance so that South Africa does not become a failed state. 

Zimbabwe is a failed state! And that is not an exaggeration. 

Zimbabwe’s travel down this failed state path started straight after the country attained her independence in 1980. After 20 years or so the majority of our people were finally convinced the nation was on the wrong path but were helpless to do anything about it. Why? 

Zanu PF has rigged elections ever since the country’s independence in 1980 and imposed itself on the nation. Because the party was not democratically accountable to anyone, it has done as it damn well pleased. To consolidate the party’s iron grip on political power Zanu PF has created an elaborate patronage system designed to reward those loyal to ethos of keeping Zanu PF in power at all costs. Political connections was valued way above merit and competence. It is not surprising that mismanagement and corruption ruled the roost. 

43 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have all but destroyed Zimbabwe’s once upon a time thriving economy. Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of Southern Africa, not any more. A country that, for all practical purposes, is the Garden of Eden is now failing to feed its own people much less have any left over for export - a damning testimonial to the country’s failed leadership. 

Zimbabwe is a failed state because we have failed leaders, in the first instance, and, worst of all, because we are stuck with the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical thugs! 

If ANC FAILED to fight corruption, to end the crippling load shedding, etc., etc. then, as night follows day, SA will degenerate into a failed state. Fortunately for SA, the nation will have the democratic opportunity to remove this ANC government as early as next year’s elections if people so decide. The people of Zimbabwe have been denied the same opportunity to remove Zanu PF from power regardless of the party’s pathetic track record of tyrannical oppression and economic ruins. 

What is particularly infuriating is that this ANC government has now taken it upon itself to publicly support Zanu PF’s denial of the people’s fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country under the spurious pretext ANC is fighting for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Zanu PF by the West.

"There is no justification for the sanctions against Zimbabwe. It is imposing economic hardships on the people. Also, these sanctions are perpetrated for political reasons like regime change by superpower countries, which we don't support," ANC Secretary General said in an interview in Beijing, China.

"We are against unjust sanctions against any country. The only sanctions that were justified were against apartheid, because apartheid was inhumane, and the rest of humanity gathered in one corner against the sanctions.

"We are working on a very comprehensive action plan and campaign . . . because, as much as we address all the other issues . . . we have a problem next door. It means South Africa must stand up to that. We have been blamed for some time about quiet diplomacy but we need to voice our actions openly in terms of advocating the end of sanctions in Zimbabwe.

"In terms of the Lancaster House Conference, we know those who made pledges and agreements in Zimbabwe are now imposing sanctions for the sole reason that they want regime change.

"They have not played their part in terms of land distribution programmes.

"Zimbabwe implemented a land reform programme because of their (West's) intransigence and not coming to the party in terms of what they committed at the Lancaster Conference."

This is really infuriating for a number of reasons:

1. Zanu PF has denied the people of Zimbabwe a meaningful say in the governance of the country ever since the first post independence elections in 1980, long before the first sanctions were imposed on the regime in 2001. In any case is the right to a free and democratic vote not an inalienable right and therefore not be curtailed or denied at the whim of a dictator.

1. If sanctions were justified, and they were justified, against the racist and oppressive white regimes in colonial Africa, are we saying they are not justified in black ruled Africa even if the regime is corrupt and oppressive? Zimbabwe is a failed state precisely because the ordinary Zimbabweans are denied their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country - the very essence of good governance and economic prosperity. It is ironic that ANC leaders have accorded their South African citizens the basic freedoms and rights but, some how, believe Zimbabweans are not worthy of the same human rights and dignity! 

1. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and the people of Zimbabwe are banking on the hope that SADC will finally condemn these flawed elections and deny Zanu PF political legitimacy. The repeated assurance (first stated as an ANC congress resolution last November) that ANC will not allow regime change in Zimbabwe will give Zanu PF the confidence the regional body, like it or not SA is the dominant player in SADC, will once again turn a blind eye to the rigging and grant Zanu PF political legitimacy. 

1. The right to decide who governs Zimbabwe should be exclusive prerogative of the people of  Zimbabwe alone in a free, fair and credible election by granting vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy ANC is usurping the people right. As election observers SADC leaders are asked to judge whether or not the elections are free, fair and credible against universally accepted election standards. ANC’s decision to prejudge the process for the purpose of ensuring “no regime change” is an outrage. Whose gives ANC the right to usurp the fundamental rights of the people of Zimbabwe elect a government of their choice?

"Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of the African continent. Zimbabweans never went to South Africa to seek jobs; they were working in their own country, but today, they cross the Limpopo River, coming to work in South Africa illegally because of sanctions,” continued ANC Secretary General Mbulula.

"We are opposed to sanctions and it is important that all right-thinking and peace-loving people oppose sanctions against Zimbabwe; more so, when sanctions are guided by the policy of regime change, which we don't subscribe to, as ANC.”

It is one thing to say Zimbabwe is a failed state and it is our own fault. It is another to say we are a failed state but it is not entirely our fault we cannot get out. ANC’s “very comprehensive action plan and campaign to stop regime change in Zimbabwe” will help keep Zanu PF in power and keep Zimbabwe a pariah and failed state. 

So to end the curse of Zimbabwe as a failed state, Zimbabweans have not only to fight the vote rigging Zanu PF and the sellout MDC/CCC, who failed to implement the reforms even when they have the golden opportunity to do so, but must fight South Africa’s ANC government hell bent on keeping Zanu PF in power against the democratic wishes of the people of Zimbabwe. 

Our hopes to have SADC deny Zanu PF legitimacy for failing to hold free and fair elections so we can have a new GNU and a chance to implement the democratic reforms are doomed. SA’s ANC government is determined to grant vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy to stop regime change! We did not pick this fight with ANC, we did not want it and would do anything to avoid it. We cannot avoid it and therefore must and will fight! 

"Biti must remain an MP, it's in national interest" argue Zamchiya. Surely, not to "legitimise sham elections!" W Mukori

 The worst thing that has happened in Zimbabwe since MDC leaders sold out of implementing democratic reforms was for the nation to abandon the fight to implement the democratic reforms as the only sure way to guarantee free, fair and credible elections. The new rallying call was to forget reforms and concentrate on winning rigged elections. SADC leaders, did not agree and even tried to have the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented. 

“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 told Journalist 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’.”

As we now know Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T and MDC-N friends ignored the waring to postpone the elections. Tsvangirai’s self-confidence that participating was the right decision by the “sea of red”, MDC-T regalia colour, at the party’s campaign rallies. 

The 2013 election results was a landslide Zanu PF victory as SADC leaders had predicted. The victory was so overwhelming that many MDC-T and MDC-N leaders were surprised and more significantly it knocked so sense into their heads. The 2014 MDC-T party congress resolved the party will not participate in future elections without first implementing the democratic reforms.

“No reform, no elections!” was the new MDC-T rallying call. Tendai Biti was one of the senior opposition leaders to underline the sheer futility of participating in these flawed elections.  

“Look, you can't keep on participating in flawed electoral processes that serve to give big benefits to dictators such as Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has perfected the art of winning elections. So it will be very foolish for the opposition to continue legitimising these sham elections which don't deliver. This country will go through a serious economic crisis in 2020 caused by Zanu PF. And yet, this is the only country where a government doesn't perform, it is encouraged by a super majority in parliament,” said Tendai Biti in a 2015 interview with Isaac Mugabi.

“So you can't continue subjecting Zimbabweans to processes where their hopes just get crushed.”

Sadly, greed got the better of our opposition leaders because by the 2018 elections they had all changed their minds; they participated in the elections although not even a token reforms had been implemented. 

Since the 2018 elections some opposition leaders and supporters have shifted one gear up. Instead of the usual “we can win rigged elections, if we work hard enough”, they now add the foolish notion that few opposition leaders elected into parliament have been effective. In other words the status quo in which Zanu PF blatantly rigs the election to secure a Zanu PF majority in parliament and senate plus the presidency is fine because the few opposition leaders elected have done a splendid job of representing our interests.

“Dear Reader,

Tendai Biti of Zimbabwe's Citizens Coalition for Change's re-deployment to PARLIAMENT & others of his pedigree is a matter of NATIONAL & not PARTY/ MOVEMENT interest.

Sometimes a PARTY/ MOVEMENT must consider NATIONAL ahead of INTRA interests.

That is NATIONAL  LEADERSHIP  DEFINED or at least SIGNALED especially in a POLITICALLY POLARIZED  context like Zimbabwe.” pleaded Dr Phillan Zamchiya an Oxford based academic.

On the contrary Zimbabwe’s tyrannical autocracy, masquerading in the post 2008 GNU era as factitious multiparty  designed to deliver a majority Zanu PF government with a sprinkling of opposition leaders, has failed the nation and must be dismantled. Opposition leaders like Tendai Biti and Temba Mliswa have said many pertinent issues in parliament but when push came to shove Zanu PF used its majority to do as the party damn well pleased. 

What is the point of electing leaders like Biti into power when all they ever do is make noise! 

Zimbabwe is a failed state, pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have rigged elections to stay in power. The thugs learned during the 2008 to 2013 GNU that by letting a few opposition leaders win some other gravy train seats they can continue to rig elections and get political legitimacy. 

43 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins and political paralysis. Millions of our people are now living in abject poverty, without hope and a future. The current economic, social and political situation is unsustainable we need change. Real and meaningful change! 

Opposition leaders like Tendai Biti have done nothing of note to stop Zimbabwe becoming a failed state and will not make any difference post 2023 elections. The nation is hungry for real change and not token change.

“Does the TRANSITIONAL PATHWAY to STATE POWER remain the same even in the case of CCC winning the POPULAR VOTE on election day that is on the day our Lord 23 August 2023. Yes, it does,” concluded Dr Zamchiya.

Zanu PF control every aspect of Zimbabwe’s election process. It is naive to expect the opposition to win these flawed elected elections especially after 43 years of Zanu PF Mafiosi rigged the elections. 

Besides the notion that we should give up the fight for reforms and free elections in pursuit of winning RIGGED elections is an oxymoron. Why are we trading gold for fool’s gold!

 Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections and thus underline that fact that Zimbabwe is a pariah state and nothing has changed. If Tendai Biti was to be honest and put aside his greed, the only reason for participating in the flawed elections, then he would be boycotting these flawed elections and be calling on his fellow opposition leaders to do the same. 

“It will be very foolish for the opposition to continue legitimising these sham elections!” said Tendai Biti in 2015. He was right then and he will be right now! In the present political system all he does is make noise and that is a criminal waste of human resources.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

― George Orwell, Animal Farm.