Tweedledum and Tweedledee are fight over nothing, again - MDC leaders are all "flawed characters" N Garikai

 MDC leaders are like Lewis Carroll’s characters Tweedledum and Tweedledee, complete with big mouth and pea-size brain. They will fight at the drop of a hat and, more significantly, fight over nothing. It is no exaggeration to say ever since the launch of the MDC in 1999, the party has accomplished nothing of substance and the leaders have expended a lot of time, passion and resources fight each other than fighting to deliver the democratic changes, reforms, they were elected to do.

 

It was USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who said in a leaked cable to Washington that Morgan Tsvangirai was “a flawed and indecisive character, who would be an albatross round the nation’s neck if he ever got into power!” The ambassador should have said the same about the MDC leadership, for they have all turned out to be deadwood.

 

Sadly, for Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai and company did get into power and have been the milestone round the nation’s neck, dragging us all deeper and deeper into the crashing abyss! Instead of focusing on the important task of implementing the democratic reforms and holding Zanu PF to democratic account MDC have been fighting each other incessantly resulting the party splitting again and again like amoeba.

 

Some people have focused on the events leading to these incessant fights such as Nelson Chamisa takeover as MDC-T president following the death of the late Morgan Tsvangirai as the basis for judging the leadership qualities of the individuals involved. This is a mistake because these events are trivial compared to the pressing matter of implementing the democratic reforms.

 

The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into office to implement the democratic changes, as the party-name imply, to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and thus end the curse of bad governance. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC has failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform.

 

Worse still, against repeated advice not to participate in the flawed and illegal elections until meaningful reforms were implemented. These leaders knew that by participating in the flawed elections they would give Zanu PF legitimacy. They ignored the advice and damn the consequences because they have been after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as bait.

 

All the MDC leaders who were in the 2008 to 2013 GNU and/or have participated in the flawed elections since 2013 have proven beyond doubt that they are corrupt, breathtakingly incompetent, and utterly useless. Whether or not they are also guilty in any of the other trivial matters in between; is of academic interest to the small minds obsessed about trivial matters!

 

Some people have criticised Dr Thokosani Khupe for joining Mnangagwa’s POLAD after the 2018 elections, for example. This is a trivial matter because Mnangagwa derived his political legitimacy from all 23 presidential candidates and the thousands in the parliamentary race. Those presidential candidates who went on to join POLAD and publicly endorse Mnangagwa as the legitimate winner added the cherry on top, the real cake was produced in the participating.

 

Chamisa and his supporters have made a mountain out of the POLAD molehill, focusing on the trivial matters and ignoring the real substantive issues, for the sole purpose of heaping all MDC party’s historic failures and betrayals on Mwonzora and Khupe’s doors. Making the two leaders the fall-guys.

 

Meanwhile, Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, David Coltart, Welshman Ncube and all the other MDC leaders in the Chamisa faction are emerging squeaky clean and innocent, as a rose.

 

This is the work of small minds and should be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves. Because by focusing on the trivial issues at the expense of the substantive issues the small minds are ignoring the historic facts, the truth, the reality, etc.; the stuff we need to comprehend our situation and find the solution out of the mess.

 

Ignoring the historic facts, etc. is the reason why we have been stuck for 42 years and counting in this mess. Nelson Chamisa and company have already proven that they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent pretending otherwise will help them being elected back into power but to what end and purpose. They will not implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for, for example. If they failed to get even one reform implemented during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, it is a historic fact that they did not. What is there to say they do it this time?

 

For Zimbabwe to get out of the economic and political mess we find ourselves stuck in we, the people, must have the courage to admit MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC leaders have failed to implement any meaningful democratic reforms and are not going to implement any in the future. We should have the courage to admit we made a mistake of entrusting MDC leaders with our vote, end the relationship here and now and refused to be sucked into their minion world one more day! 

US lecturing Zanu PF on "criteria for free elections" - umpteenth lecture, how naive/patronizing P Guramatunhu

  

“March by-elections and the 2023 harmonized elections give the Government of Zimbabwe a chance to show that #ZimVotesMatter, especially if it honors its commitment to level the playing field by undertaking #ZimElectoralReform,”the U.S. Embassy in Harare posted on Twitter…

 

“This week @usembassyharare will tweet several examples of what our government sees as the criteria for a free and fair election. Stated in the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) and also in Zimbabwe’s own constitution, these values have remained constant.”

 

It is all very well for the Americans giving the Zanu PF regime lectures on what reforms to implement to ensure a level playing field, the benefits of free and fair elections, etc., etc. How many times have they given these lectures? And Zanu PF has ignored the recommendations on each occasion and for one good reasons.

 

Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office, particularly when it does not need to do so. There is no pressure on Zanu PF to implement the democratic reforms, the prerequisite for free, fair and credible election. None!

 

The only time Zanu PF was under any meaningful pressure to implement the reforms was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when SADC force Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the need to implement a raft of democratic reforms. Mugabe bribed his MDC GNU partners with the trappings of high office and for five years the forgot about the reforms. The GNU failed to implement even one reform in five years and the golden opportunity was wasted.

 

Ever since the GNU debacle Zanu PF has been very careful to entice the opposition to participate in the flawed and illegal elections. In the 2018 elections there were 23 presidential candidates and thousands contested for the 210 parliamentary seats – proof, as far as Zanu PF is concerned, that Zimbabwean elections are free, fair and credible. If the elections were flawed, then why would so many Zimbabweans participate?

 

These lectures from the West on the basic requirements for free and fair elections before any elections; followed by reports on the serious shortcomings in the elections and a list of recommended reforms; are now the norm. These lectures from the Americans are the umpteenth and, like all the others before, will be ignored.

 

If these Americans are really serious about ensuring elections are free, fair and credible then they must acknowledge there are two key variables in Zimbabwe politics; the ruling party Zanu PF and the MDC. Zanu PF would not be in power today if MDC had implemented the democratic reforms, especially during the GNU. And it is MDC that is giving Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in flawed elections.

 

Zanu PF has corrupted the MDC leaders, instead of being the champions of democratic changes and pushing for free and fair elections MDC leaders have long abandoned that task for a share of the spoils of power. MDC leaders not only failed to implement the democratic reforms but are now actively undermining the efforts of those trying to do so.

 

Trying to deliver free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe by focusing on Zanu PF alone is like trying to solve a two-variable equation by pretending it is a single variable. It is a waste time!

 

MDC leaders are no long part of the democratic solution in Zimbabwe but rather part of the problem. One expected the Americans, the British, EU, etc. with all their rocket science sophistication to have figured it out by now! 

"We want Zimbabweans to work in SA but local get preference" - not even Malema can have his cake and eat it too N Garikai

 

"We want to make an emphasis to the owners of restaurants that no-one should stop employing Zimbabweans and say the EFF said they don't want them," said Julius Malema on Wednesday.

"We want Zimbabweans to work in SA. It is their home. They should make no apologies about hiring Zimbabweans or any other African brother or sister. In doing so, they must be considerate that there are locals who must at all times be given preference."

Julius Malema has yet to learn that he cannot have his cake and eat it too, not even he cannot do that. If youth unemployment in SA has soared to the dizzying heights of 66.5% and is not allowed to soar any higher then, unless the economy generates more job opportunities than the addition youths coming into the job market then the system will have to fire foreigners to create the necessary job opportunities. And thus running foul of his statements that he wants foreigners to work in SA.

In Zimbabwe unemployment has soared to 90% plus and most of the 10% in employment are being paid slave wages. 50% of Zimbabweans are now living in abject poverty and basic services such as health care and education have all but collapsed. What is so infuriating is that Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is a man-made problem – it is the result of 42 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption.

For 42 years and counting, Zimbabwe has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime that rigged elections to stay in power.

To end the ruinous misrule, we must first cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. The cure is there – implement the democratic reforms.

We had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. We failed to implement even one reform because Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who were entrusted the job to implement the reforms. With their snouts in the feeding trough the forgot about the reforms.

Worst still, since the GNU debacle MDC leaders have been insisting in participating in flawed elections for the sake of a few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered to entice them. By participating, MDC has given vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuate the misrule.

We, the ordinary Zimbabweans, have been our own worst enemy. Whilst we are the ones who voted MDC leaders into power for the express purpose of bring about the democratic changes necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. We have never taken the trouble to know what these democratic changes are much less how they would be implemented.

If the ordinary Zimbabweans knew what the reforms were and how they were to be implemented, then they would know the 2008 to 2013 was the golden opportunity to implement the reforms. And that MDC leaders sold out, big time, by failing to get even one reform implemented in five years.

Of course, it is most disconcerting that many Zimbabweans, out there, have no clue the events of the GNU years prove beyond all doubt that MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. And so, these Zimbabweans continue to follow and support MDC leaders blindly and participate in the flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the misrule!

Nelson Chamisa and company’s “winning in rigged elections strategies” are all hot air. The wheels have already fallen off MDC A’s flagship strategy of mobilising and registering 6 million new voters and then voting on mass. Voter registration started in December 2020 and a year later only 3 000 new voters or 0.05% of the target 6 million had registered.

ZEC has said voter registration will resume after the 26 March by-election and closed end of August. MDC A’s hope of overwhelming Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut with opposition votes is dead in the water because the party will not register the remaining 99.95% of the target 6 million in 5 months.

Make no mistake about it, Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and, by participating, MDC is giving the regime legitimacy.

The day the political reality finally dawns on the ordinary Zimbabweans that the 2023 elections have once again failed to produce any meaningful change, Zimbabwe is still a pariah state; there will be a new wave of economic refugees flooding into SA, Botswana, Zambia, anywhere just to eke a living! No doubt Mr Julius Malema will welcome them with his double Dutch!

A more practical and realistic solution is for SA to help Zimbabweans end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance by calling a spade a spade. Zanu PF has never ever held free, fair and credible elections and, other than the 2008 elections, SA and SADC have turned a blind eye to the rigged elections. In 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa said the elections “went well” and elections could not be traced and verified because ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.

It is clear there will be no verified voters’ roll for the 2023 elections. Zanu PF has already decreed the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora will be denied the vote “until the sanctions imposed by the West are lifted”, the party announced. Zanu PF is already rigging these elections. And we, in Zimbabwe, are asking SA and SADC to call out what they see; that is not too much to ask!   

SADC has leverage to force Zanu Pf to reform, giving that up for "winning in rigged election strategies" is insane Wilbert Mukori

 

Over the weekend Hopewell Chinono hosted a twitter discussion on “The importance of NOT boycotting elections with #ProfLevitsky”.

 

“I consider Zimbabwe to be a competitive authoritarian regime. It has never in its history been a democracy. A democracy is a system in which the playing field is reasonably level; where the opposition compete in elections on reasonable fair terms and can win. And wins with regularity,” explained USA based Professor Steven Levitsky.

 

“In an outright authoritarian dictatorship, like Rwanda, there is no competition. There may be elections, there is no serious competition. The opposition has no chance of winning and the dictator sleeps well the night before the elections.

 

“A competitive authoritarian regime is in between a democracy and authoritarian dictatorship.

 

“Sometimes, Zimbabwe has been a soft authoritarian regime in which the opposition has enjoyed some democratic space but has also used repressive measures to become hard authoritarian regime.”

 

Professor Levitsky then went on to argue that there were no easy options when it came to whether or not the opposition should participate in an election process in which the playing field is not level. Boycotting is an option when one has leverage on the regime to force it to have a level playing field otherwise the only other option is to participate.

 

“In the mid-1990s liberal Western Democracy was the only game in town. The West, international institutions like IMF and WB had leverage in the form of financial assistance which they withheld if the regime failed to hold free, fair and credible elections and therefore lost international illegitimate. This is no longer the case now, 30 years latter!” explained the Professor.

 

“The West has since lost much of its economic and military muscle and outward international focus in the last 30 years and with it lost its leverage over authoritarian regimes. The regimes have looked to China and Russia, particularly with the former’s emerging as a strong economic and military power in its own right; for financial assistance and international legitimacy.”

 

With no political or economic leverage, the least of the bad options, is to participate in the flawed elections! For one thing, the opposition is given some space during elections to campaign and it must use this space.

 

Authoritarian regimes sometimes overestimate their own rigging power. Rigging elections is not easy and there are cases where the regime rigged the elections and still lost. Or it is forced to blatantly cheat and thus losing credibility and, ultimately, legitimacy.

 

Besides, authoritarian regimes can manufacture their own opposition parties to counter opposition boycott. (Zimbabweans are very familiar with the “Government Organised” Non-Governmental Organisations (GONGO). Indeed, what is POLAD if not a Zanu PF organised opposition.) Who is there to authoritatively say this opposition is genuine and that one is not!

 

“There chance of winning a rigged election is 1 in 10 if you participate, which is much better than 1 in 100 if you boycott,” concluded Professor Steven Levitsky.

 

A very persuasive presentation and crowned by such odds; those calling for participating in the Zimbabwe’s March 2022 by-elections and the 2023 harmonised elections, regardless of the certainty Zanu PF is rigging these elections, win the day.

 

The truth is Professor Levitsky’s presentation is based on the assumption that for the last 30 years there was/is no meaningful leverage to force the Zanu PF regime to implement meaningful democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. How he, an academic intellectual whose reputation is founded on holding historic facts and truths in high regard, had completely air-brushed the watershed 2008 Zimbabwe elections and the 2008 to 2013 GNU that followed out of the country’s history beggars belief!  

 

Credit where credit is due, SADC, the regional body, (not the West or IMF, etc.) pressured the Zanu PF regime to implement several electoral reforms leading to the March 2008 elections. The March vote was the nearest to free, fair and credible elections the country has ever experienced since independence in 1980.

 

However, when Zanu PF became aware the party was heading for a resounding electoral defeat, the party’s vote rigging machine was switched back on. ZEC was stopped declaring the results. The party spend the next six weeks recounting the 5 million or so votes; whittling down Morgan Tsvangirai’s 73%, according to Mugabe’s Freudian slip, to 47%, enough to force a presidential runoff.

 

During the runoff, Zanu PF unleashed the party’s youth militia and the war veterans to intimidate, harass, beat and rape; the heavy-duty stuff of abducting and killing were carried out by the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Service personal. The regime was punishing the people for daring to reject Zanu PF is the earlier vote.

 

“What was accomplished by the gun, cannot be undone by the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe as the wanton violence engulfed the nation.

 

SADC and AU, for the first time ever after decades of turning a blind-eye to rigged elections, joined the international community in condemning Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections as a farce. It was SADC and AU’s refusal to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy that forced Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) agreeing to the need to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure future free and fair elections.

 

The 2008 to 2013 GNU, comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC faction with SADC as the guarantor of the agreement, was the vehicle tasked to implement the reforms. Sadly, not even one meaningful reform was implemented.

 

Mugabe bribed the corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and the rest was history. MDC leaders have often complained that Zanu PF would not reform themselves out of office. What the MDC leaders fail to admit is that during the GNU it was within their power to implement the reforms and they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not even one reform!

 

When the SADC leaders realised that no reforms had been implemented, they asked to have the 2013 Zimbabwe elections postponed until the reforms were implemented. “If you go into the elections next month, you will lose; the elections are done!” they told Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to their faces.

 

It should be remembered here that SADC leaders, were still the guarantor of the 2008 GPA, and therefore still had the leverage over Zanu PF. They could declare the election without reforms null and void and take back the country to the situation it was in at the end of the rigged 2008 elections. MDC leaders were clearly aware of SADC leaders’ leverage and yet they still went ahead and undermined it by participating in the elections.

 

“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, MDC-N minister in the GNU, in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years

“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.”

 

So, it was none other than MDC leaders themselves who undermined the leverage SADC leaders had to force Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections and, by participating in the flawed elections, gave flawed process credibility and vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. And all because of greed, MDC leaders knew Zanu PF was offering a few gravy-train seats to entice them to participate and they found the bait irresistible.

 

If anyone thought MDC leaders had learned their lesson after Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections; they were wrong. Four of the main MDC factions plus three other opposition parties did form the MDC Alliance coalition and yet they still failed to do the “obvious” thing – boycott the elections – for the same reason – greed.

 

Of course, it was the same greed that had stopped MDC leaders implementing even one reform during the five years of the GNU.

 

MDC leaders are participating in the 2023 elections knowing fully well that with no reforms Zanu PF will rig the elections and that by participating they will give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Nonetheless, they are hell-bent on participating for the same reason as before – greed.

 

Of course, Chamisa and company will never ever admit they are participating in these flawed elections out of greed. And so, they have made a big song and dance about their “winning in rigged elections strategies”.

 

“In 2013 we (MDC) could have boycotted the elections, the regional leaders were expecting a boycott. We did not take that option but I think it would have been a good moment to use it,” admitted Dr Alex Magaisa, he was the second keynote speaker in the twitter discussion.

 

As usual, Dr Magaisa did not explain why MDC did not boycott the elections and thus squandered the golden opportunity. He should know because he was GNU’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s special adviser. He failed to get MDC to implement even one reform during the GNU, so utterly useless adviser he turned out to be.

 

“President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to the lifting of sanctions in other countries but did not include Zimbabwe. The omission is not insignificant, it is important in so far as signalling some of the attitudes towards Zimbabwe. SA has been critical of Zimbabwe in the past,” continued Dr Magaisa in his presentation.

 

“There is a sense out there that things are not well in Zimbabwe!”

 

There is no doubt that SADC leaders are really concerned about the worsening economic and political situation in Zimbabwe. They will condemn the flawed 2023 elections and resume the pivotal role they played in 2008 in forcing Zanu PF to accept the need to implement the raft of democratic reforms necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, if they had the confidence there are Zimbabweans who can be trusted to implement the reforms.

 

If we can team the greed of the opportunistic opposition. And, more significantly, educate our naïve and gullible electorate to participating in flawed elections on the false promise of “winning rigged elections”. We will give SADC leaders the confidence to resume their role of forcing Zanu PF to accept the need for reforms, confident, this time, there are Zimbabweans they can trust to implement the reform.

 

(“The importance of NOT boycotting elections with #ProfLevitsky” is available on https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1BRKjnIWyLjKw).

"Africans manage poverty while others wealth!" - SA has hope for change, Zimbabwe none N Garikai

Dear Lindiwe Sisulu

Your article in Bulawayo 24 “Hi Mzansi, have we seen justice?” was a good read. It raised many important questions that demand serious debate, even if there are no ease answers. Thank you!

As a black Zimbabwean, I would say Robert Mugabe, if he was alive today, would have taken great comfort from this article because he has taken back the land from the whites and did a number of things you are arguing black ruled South Africa must do.

 “Their (white colonialists) purpose was rooted in the philosophy of white supremacy and entitlement to everything, including the bodies of those they falsely believed to be inferior. It was simply to take and colonise and defend, for kith and kin. It was about power. Economic power, political power, military power, and social power.”

The purpose of Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies was to seize political power and to loot the nation’s wealth.

Nelson Mandela has been heavily criticised for failing to give back the land to blacks and end black poverty; the criticism is founded if one considers that these economic realities are true. I would argue that Mandela did not end black poverty but he did the next best thing- he created democratic South Africa in which every black have a voice.

As long as SA remains a healthy and functioning democracy, in which people like Ms Sisulu has the opportunity to express their views and there is open and vigorous debate, the country has the opportunity to address its problems in a rational and systematic way. A luxury a country like Zimbabwe was denied by Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies.

Nelson Mandela’s legacy for SA was to make sure the country had a democracy constitution and strong and independent democratic institutions. The same solid democratic foundation that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others gifted America.

“In our beloved South Africa, a new constitution in 1994 and the rule of law took on a new lofty meaning after the deck had been heavily stacked against the victims of the "rule of law." It was a new dispensation of justice after centuries of a vicious oppression of the indigenous of the land by invaders. But what has this beautiful constitution done for the victims except as a palliative (Panadol)?” argued Ms Sisulu.

“But it seems today we have legitimised wrongdoing under the umbrella of the rule of law. Many years down the line, Africans manage poverty while others manage wealth.”

America started a half free and half slave but the country’s democratic constitution has served them well. SA has started half rich and half poor, one hopes its democratic constitution will serve it well too. As for Zimbabwe we started with no democratic constitution, we are a house without a foundation, are in deep, deep trouble.

Once again, thank you my sister for the thought-provoking article.

Nomusa. 

ANC call for "lifting sanctions" against Cuba, etc. but not Zimbabwe - new awakening extend to rigged elections P Guramatunhu

 "The #January8statement at @MYANC's 110th anniversary by @CyrilRamaphosa called for the unconditional lifting of sanctions against Cuba, solidarity with Palestine and Western Sahara, but was silent on #ZimSanctions: @MYANC/@ZANUPF_Official relations are now in smoke," revealed Professor Jonathan Moyo, the self-exiled former Zanu PF Cabinet Minister, on twitter.

If SA is finally waking up to the reality that Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is not cause by sanctions, as Zanu PF would have everyone believe, but decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that has the country labelled a pariah state. One hopes that SA is also waking up to the reality that Zanu PF has been rigging elections to stay in power.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections “went well”. He was lying, of course. How can an election process that failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll be anything but a farce!

If SA was to refuse to endorse Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections, which Zanu PF is rigging already by denying 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote “until the West imposed sanctions are lifted”, for example. It is a feeble excuse; why should Zimbabweans in the diaspora be denied their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country over a matter in which they had no say. Worse still, why deny the vote to Zimbabweans in SA and other nation that have not imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Considering Mnangagwa “won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million vote or 50.8% of the cast votes. The 3 million diaspora vote is very significant: 3 out of a possible 8 million registered voters or 37% of the electorate. How can the elections be anything else but a farce if one of the contestants is allowed to cherry pick and deny 37% of the electorate the vote!

If SA and one or two other SADC countries were to refuse to endorse Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections as a free and fair process and thus endorse Zanu PF’s legitimacy this will put Zimbabwe back in the situation it was in after the 2008 rigged elections. Zanu PF was forced then to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to restore the individual freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to free, fair and credible elections.

Alas, the 2008 to 2013 GNU comprising of Zanu PF and the two MDC factions led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara failed to implement even one reform in five years. The world can be rest assured no stone will be left unturned to make sure competent men and women are given the task of implementing the reforms this time! 

"Zimbabwe is a failed state aand we must mobilise for action" argued former ZCTU President - no wonder we are stuck W Mukori

 “Zimbabwe is a failed state!” Peter Mutasa, outgoing President of ZCTU to News Day in an interview.

“Our solutions come from clear problem identification. We are now a failed State,” he explained.

“The reasons for State's failure are known. It is dictatorship. Dictatorship has led to political disputes because of violent and disputed electoral processes and results and has led to the subversion of the Constitution and rendered all the constitutional institutions and instruments dysfunctional.

“The first step in resolving the Zimbabwean crisis is, therefore, to end the military dictatorship and transition to democracy. All other solutions are hinged on transitioning from this mode of governance and require Zimbabweans to address this problem.”

Agreed with you 100%!

“Citizens have no option, but to mobilise for collective action and the Constitution grants citizens such political rights. It is not simple, but through civic and political education and exposing the effects of dictatorship, citizens may agree on the necessity of the struggle,” he continued.

Could not disagree with you more! This is the same nonsense of “if we mobilise and take collective action we will not be defeated” recycled and regurgitated from such sources as the MDC leaders!

Yes, Zimbabwe is a failed state!

Yes, the root cause of Zimbabwe being a failed state is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections which has left the country stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship.

But no, the solution to stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections is not “mobilising people to register to vote, voting in numbers and then defending the vote”, as Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends have argued a thousand times. This is one of many similar variations to the opposition’s “winning in rigged elections (WIRE) strategies”.

MDC leaders have tried these WIRE strategies ever since they failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when the nation had its best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.

MDC leaders had the chance to implement the reforms and stop the vote rigging; they failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU. And ever since, they have argued the reforms are not necessary because they have WIRE strategies. All nonsense because we all know what Zanu PF’s voter rigging juggernaut is capable of.  

In the March 2008 elections, SADC leaders had pressured Zanu PF to switch-off its vote rigging juggernaut, for the first time since the country’s independence. Tsvangirai garnered 73% of the votes.

However, when Zanu PF realised that MDC was heading for landslide victory, the party switched the vote rigging juggernaut back on in time to stop ZEC announcing the results. The party then spend the next six weeks “recounting” the 5 million votes and Tsvangirai’s 73% was whittle down to 47%, enough to force a runoff. And during the runoff Zanu PF used wanton violence to punish the voters for rejecting the party in the earlier vote. Mugabe “won” the runoff with a whopping 84%!

Failing to implement even one meaningful reform when they had the chance to do so in one of the most foolish mistakes MDC leaders have ever done. They have only compounded their treasonous betray of failing to implement reforms by insisting in participating in flawed and illegal elections under the pretext of these WIRE strategies.

Zanu PF has blatantly rigged and win the 2013 elections and all these that that have followed. Zanu PF is set to blatantly rig the 2023 elections; all these WIRE strategies are just hot air.

Indeed, by mobilising and participating in these flawed elections, MDC is giving the flawed process credibility and the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy.

In the 2018 elections Nelson Chamisa claimed that he was the winner polling 2.6 million votes to Mnangagwa’s 2.4 million. Chamisa failed to produce the V11 forms, the vote count summary sheet produced by each Polling Station. To be fair to Chamisa, ZEC too failed to produce all the V11 forms, hence the reason why ZEC had three different tallies of the votes which it could not reconcile.

The whole election process could not be trace and verified because ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. There will be no verified voters’ roll in 2023 either, ZEC has done nothing to produce one and, with less than a year and half to go, it is too late to do so now.

So Chamisa will be calling on his supporters to “defend” a result he cannot substantiate or verify!

The sheer stupidity of MDC A’s position is mind boggling: MDC A, against all advice, are the ones insisting in participating in flawed elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF will rig the elections and by participating MDC A is giving Zanu PF legitimacy. The MDC A is then hoping to wrestle power from Zanu PF by staging street protests!

After 42 years of rigged elections and the country in a serious economic and political mess one would think, everyone has finally had enough of trying to win rigged elections and are ready for a more rational solution – implement the democratic reforms and stop anyone rigging the elections.