Monday 10 October 2016

Panicking opposition call on SADC "to manage" next elections - to what end and purpose. By W Mukori

As the 2018 elections approach a few opposition leaders are finally waking up to the reality that with not even democratic reform implemented, Zanu PF will once again blatantly rig the elections as happened in July 2013. Elton Mangoma, president of one of the many MDC factions, is the latest leader to hit the panic button.

Mangoma called on SADC to take over the running of the next elections because he did not have any confidence in ZEC, “an appendage of Zanu PF” as he called it.  

Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown, as exemplified by the nauseating 90% unemployment rate and the state’s failure to pay civil servant wages on the one hand and on the other hand the all-out looting in which $15 billion are swindled and no one is ever arrested. The economic situation is set to get worse.

As long as Zanu PF remains in power it is impossible to see how there can be any meaningful economic recovery given it is the regime’s decades of misrule that is fueling the economic meltdown. The party itself cannot change abandon its political patronage system behind the misrule because it will lose it’s iron grip on power if it did. Meanwhile the nation cannot remove Zanu PF from power because the party has for the last 36 years routinely rigged the elections.

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has taken the nation right up to the edge of the precipice, there have been countless street protests by ordinary Zimbabweans crying for an end to their economic suffering and hopelessness. If nothing is done to revive the economy, there will be more street protests and worse dragging the nation over the edge.

Zimbabwe’s worsening economic situation has had an adverse effect of the economic performance of the whole SADC region. It is for this reason that former UN Secretary General’s Group of Elders has advised SADC leaders to do something to stop Zimbabwe sliding into the abyss.

President Ian Khama of Botswana, Namibia’s President Hage Geingob and former Nigerian President, General Olusegun Obasanjo are some of the African leaders who have become aware of the serious threat Mugabe and Zanu PF continued rule is posing to the stability of Zimbabwe and the region. They have all told Mugabe is no uncertain terms that he must go!

Whilst SADC leaders like President Khama would want to see the back of Mugabe the big question is how to accomplish that goal particular when they know they cannot count on Zimbabwe’s opposition parties as partners in the drive to bring about democratic change in Zimbabwe. SADC leaders will still be smarting from MDC’s betrayal of SADC leaders during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.  

SADC took the momentous decision to interfere in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs in 2008 following one of the most barbaric elections in modern human history in which Mugabe blatantly rig the vote and used wanton violence to force the electorate to vote for him. To ensure the barbarism of 2008 would never be repeated ever again, SADC tasked the GNU to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s octopus hold on not just ZEC but all the other state institutions like the Police, Judiciary, Public Media, etc.

SADC leaders did their best to get MDC leaders to implement the democratic reforms but their warning was ignored. At the end of the GNU not even one reform was implemented. Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections, as we know.

Of course SADC leaders were disappointed that MDC leaders including Mangoma, Biti, Ncube and Tsvangirai, had proven to be so breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent during the GNU. But worse still, that these MDC leaders have still learned nothing from their blundering incompetence the GNU years.

"The voter's roll in Zimbabwe has been used as a tool for excluding citizens from voting and therefore a systematic rigging tool by Zanu PF using ZEC" said the panicking Mangoma.

"This is why both the voter's roll and ZEC must not be used in the forthcoming elections.

"ZEC should be fully disbanded, both commissioners and staff - general election to be managed by United Nations (UN), Africa Union (AU) and SADC".

Only a blundering village idiot like Elton Mangoma would still be this naïve, having learnt nothing from the GNU and the past, as to believe the rejection of the voters roll and ZEC alone will be enough to delivery free, fair and credible elections. We need to implement all the democratic reforms as agreed in the 2008 GPA; SADC leaders know that and so should any opposition leader worth his/her salt.

SADC leaders like President Ian Khama of Botswana understand the growing economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe and the desperate need for political reform. They would have delivered free, fair and credible elections in 2013 if they had had competent local political partners in Zimbabwe to work with during the GNU. SADC will help us get out of this mess but not without competent local partners to work with.


It is for the people of Zimbabwe to elect competent political leaders with some modicum of some common sense instead of recycling the same corrupt and incompetent ones like Tsvangirai, Mujuru, Mangoma, etc. By continuing to support corrupt and incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai and Mujuru, with a well-documented track record as being corrupt and incompetent, Zimbabweans are sending a clear message that they are not yet serious about wanting democratic change and good governance!

3 comments:

  1. There is total confusion in the opposition camp, I have yet to hear even one opposition leader explain what reforms they would want to be carried out even in one area. Even those opposition parties that have joined the MDC-T camp in signing to NERA, they will not tell you what these electoral reforms are. SADC leaders will be nuts to even want to work with this lot!

    Violet Gonda asked Joice Mujuru whether or not Zim PF will still contest the next elections given Zanu PF has already made it clear that it will not implement any reforms. She confirmed ZimPF will still contest the elections.

    Mujuru kept wittering about the need for people to register to vote as if that will cure all Zanu PF's vote rigging shenanigans. She was at the very heart of the Zanu PF regime for 34 years and yet she still has no clue what President Mugabe was doing. None!

    I could not agree with you more Wilbert, we really need to have elect competent leaders if we ever to get out of this hell President Mugabe has dragged us into. People like Mujuru and Tsvangirai will never deliver any meaningful democratic change; how can they deliver something they do not have a clue what it is!

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  2. The issue of having competent opposition leaders remains the biggest stumble block in our search for democratic change. The ordinary people's failure to see leaders like Tsvangirai and Mai Mujuru for the corrupt and incompetent individuals they are has meant the nation trying to move on with these failed leaders leading the way. How can some one who is blind lead the way? No wonder SADC leaders have refused to work with Zimbabwe's opposition leaders, they know a blind person when they see one!

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  3. Zanu PF is determined to go ahead with 2018 elections with not even one reform implemented. Zanu PF paid agents like Makarau will make a big farce about voter registration , ballot papers, etc. whilst doing nothing about the real important matter to ensure free and fair elections.

    Meanwhile the opposition parties have given up all hope of getting any reforms implemented; not that they knew what reforms they wanted implemented.

    The best hope of getting the reforms implemented was during the GNU after that it would have needed the people themselves to demand their implementation. Sadly the great majority of Zimbabweans out there still do not have a clue what reforms are required.

    The saving grace for the nation is the the economic meltdown is the one relentless advesary Zanu PF cannot fool. By rigging the next elections Zanu PF will be confirming something everyone already knows only too well - that this is a party that has no respect for the rule of law. The would be local and foreign investors and donors have all shied away from spending a single dollar in Zimbabwe because of their fear of Zimbabwe as a lawless nation.

    Zanu PF can rig the next elections but it will NOT rig economic recover and at the end of the day it is the economy that will force the regime to accept democratic reforms and rule of law! The corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship is economically unsustainable just as the economic meltdown is socially and politically unsustainable.


    Regime change is now a ripe mango it is just a matter of time before it falls down.

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