Thursday 5 January 2017

Ngwenya, those contesting elections with no reforms are "myopic and naive" By Nomusa Garikai

"The proposal of an NTA (National Transition Authority) is myopic and naïve, because it assumes Mugabe can ‘volunteer' to step down. Mugabe will only give up power by being forced to resign, dying, falling ill, through assassination or being voted out. NTA is child's play and we have no time for games, please,” said Rejoice Ngwenya.

Let me say from the word go that anyone, anyone at all, who assumes that Mugabe will volunteer to step down or to implement meaningful democratic reforms is indeed “myopic and naïve”.

Rejoice tells us, he and his select team of coalition opposition parties will vote President Mugabe out of office. This beggars the question; why has the opposition not done so all these last 37 years, given he is not myopic and naïve and not one to waste time on child’s play?

"Mugabe uses ZEC to turn a blind eye to vote buying. He uses ZBC/ZTV for propaganda, as well as The Herald, Manica Post and Chronicle. Mugabe prints as many ballot papers as he wants and ‘deploys' them to as many polling stations as he wants,” admitted Ngwenya.

Top marks Rejoice, you clearly KNOW how Zanu PF has been rigging elections but you have only partially answered the question above. The follow up question, is what fool prove measures have been put into place to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections as the regime has done so many, many times in the past?

In the Bulawayo 24 article, Ngwenya went into great detail on how he would select the opposition coalition partners but was as silent as a grave on the all important point of ensuring the elections are free, fair and credible.

After the rigged July 2013 elections, Morgan Tsvangirai said MDC would force the Zanu PF regime to implement the democratic reforms – it is interesting to note the Rejoice, as far as I know, never dismissed this as myopic and naïve – and that his party would boycott all future elections until the reforms are implemented. The people of Zimbabwe are used to MDC grandstanding and posturing and this time was no different. MDC are going to contest the next elections even though not even one reform was implemented!

We are caught in a catch-22 situation here; we need free and fair elections to remove Mugabe from office but as long as he is in office we will never have free and fair elections because he will never ever implement democratic reforms to stop him rigging elections.

People like Rejoice Ngwenya who dismiss the NTA as rubbish do so because they have never appreciated the difficult of transiting from an autocratic dictatorship to a functional democracy. The primary function of 2008 GPA and the GNU were to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship and ensure the 2013 elections were free, fair and credible. The very fact that the July 2013 elections were rigged means the GNU was a failure.

People who say Zimbabwe does not need another GNU do not understand what its primary task was and/or why it failed to deliver.

If we want free, fair and credible elections then we need to implement the reforms to stop vote rigging.

Yes, it would be myopic and naïve to assume the Zanu PF regime will willingly step down because it is not in the DNA of a dictatorship to do so. Mugabe and Zanu PF must be pressured to accept that the present political system is politically and economically unsustainable and must be changed. Mugabe was pressured to sign the 2008 GPA; he can be pressured to do so again.

We have to force the dictatorial regime to step aside to allow some other body, the GNU in 2008, the NTA or some such other body, to implement the democratic reforms because we cannot trust Zanu PF to reform itself out of power.

Since the 2013 elections the Zimbabwe economy is in worse state now that then. Unemployment, for example, has soared to 90% plus; the regime has failed to get anyone to bankroll its US$ 27 billion ZimAsset economic recovery plan and so the economy has failed to create even one new job out of the 2.2 million new jobs the regime had promised.

On the political front the dog-eat-dog fighting for power – fuelled by the economic meltdown, the cake is shrinking whilst the appetites are soaring - in Zanu PF resulted in the party splitting down the middle in 2014 as then VP Joice Mujuru and 150 other senior party members were booted out of the party. But before the dust had settled two new factions emerged and the in-fighting has been vicious.

And yet despite all the economic hardships and political turmoil the one bright star in President Mugabe’s sky is his vote rigging machinery, it is solid as ever. Thanks to the chaos and confusion in the opposition camp and to the billions of dollars he is looting from Marange and Chiadzwa.

Rejoice Ngwenya complained of President Mugabe buying votes, well the country’s economic meltdown will work to the tyrant’s advantage because whilst the electorate and his political opponents are destitute he is loaded with diamond cash!

Last month, at the Zanu PF conference, President Mugabe dismissed the opposition’s electoral challenge in contempt. And why not, he knows that as long as no democratic reforms are implemented, he will rig the elections!


No, my brother Rejoice Ngwenya, it is you who, by contesting the elections without implementing the reforms, is being myopic and naïve. What could be more naïve than taking part in an election knowing the opponent will cheat and long beyond you are cheated!

12 comments:

  1. It is unforgivable that Zanu PF has destroyed the country's economic infrastructure to the point where millions of people are living without something as basic as clean running water. It is equally unforgivable that we have allowed Mugabe and Zanu PF to do this; many of us have never lifted even a finger to register our concern at the regime's corrupt and tyrannical rule!

    I agree Zimbabwe has been sitting on a ticking health time-bomb. We will be lucky if the current typhoid outbreak kill a few people, the chaotic state of our economy and health service has exposed millions of our people to hunger and diseases.

    People get the government they deserve; after 37 years, we certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship complete with it entourage of corrupt and useless opposition parties!

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  2. We are our own worst enemy; people like Tsvangirai and Ngwenya have never believed that Zimbabwe could have implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU and thus held free and fair elections in 2013. The defeatist attitude is so deeply engraved that Tsvangirai did not even bother to try implement even one reform. Not even the repeated pestering by SADC leaders for MDC to implement the reforms had any effect on him or anyone else in his party. 

    It is now three years since the rigged July 2013 elections and one would think that both Tsvangirai and Ngwenya have had enough time to reflect on the lost GNU opportunity to deliver free and fair elections. Time and reason have had no effect; they still believe there was nothing that anyone could have done to implement even one reform. 

    If one cannot convince Tsvangirai and Ngwenya of how the reforms could have been implemented during the GNU, when it was clearly infinitely easier to do so than it was after the rigged 2013 elections, it is pointless to think one could convince them reforms could be implemented now. 

    It is ironic that the people stopping us having free and fair elections now is not Mugabe and his cronies but Tsvangirai and his foolish opposition party members; they are convinced the system cannot be changed they are fighting tooth and nail to stop all those who say otherwise from changing it. Tsvangirai failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU he is throwing the spanner in the works just to stop anyone else implementing even one reform and thus prove it can be done. 

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    1. You are right! Someone is arguing that we should contest the coming elections and hope that Zanu PF "blunders in rigging the elections"! There is just no end to some people's foolishness!

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  3. @ Tjingababili

    Mugabe did not want to sign the GPA and share power during the GNU but he was forced to do so. After the wanton violence and blatant vote rigging of the July 2008 presidential run-off not even SADC or AU would endorse the result as the democratic wish of the people. Mugabe was forced to agree to go into the GNU and implement the democratic reforms or SADC, AU and the whole international community will not recognise as Zanu PF regime as legitimate. 

    It was Tsvangirai and MDC's fault, not Mugabe or SADC's fault, that not even one reform was implemented during the GNU. If you cannot get your head round this historic fact it is your fault and, more significantly, it does not change the historic fact one bit!

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  4. @Ijaha le Mhlahlandlela

    Morgan Tsvangirai won 73% of the vote in the March 2008 elections and ZEC was instructed to recount the vote and after six weeks of recounting 5 million ZEC declared that Tsvangirai had won 47%. In the 2013 elections Mugabe did not repeat the 2008 vote rigging mistakes, he was a lot more subtle and wiser. He corrupted the voters’ roll so that nearly one million voters were denied the right to vote, he bussed Zanu PF youth from one polling station to the next, etc.

    Vote rigging is very expensive business, he paid NIKUV US$10 million to corrupt the voters roll, bought each Zanu PF candidate a new car plus $10 000 spending money, etc. He must have spent $4 billion, at least, to rig the July 2013 elections. Fortunately for him, there plenty more cash from where he got the $4 billion!

    A year ago, Mugabe confessed that $15 billions of diamond revenue was “swindled”. Now a year later, no one has been arrested and not even one dollar recovered. A few months ago, Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa told parliament that government is receiving revenue from one out of the expected six million carat diamond produced in Marange. In other words, the swindling Mugabe admitted is still going on.

    “The (economic) failure by Zanu PF is there for all to see,” you said. Well that is true, it is no secret that government has been failing to pay civil servant wages let alone anything else.

    Still, do not make the common mistake of thinking that Mugabe is broke too. He is loaded! Last month alone, Mugabe took delivery of 350 new vehicles, costing $10 million, “to be used by the party officials to prepare for the 2018 elections”. A week later he paid $4 million for Zanu PF party conference. He and his family and entourage then flew out of the country for his usual one month long annual holiday – price tag $ 20 million, at least!
    Albert Einstein defined of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

    God knows how many times Mugabe has rigged Zanu PF party and national elections already in these last 37 years and yet time there are still some people who still insist we do not need to implement even one reform and they will contest the elections hoping he will NOT rig. No doubt they want to prove that Albert Einstein was wrong; Mugabe, out of the generosity of his corrupt and murderous heart will not rig the 2018 elections!

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    1. I think we got our independence when we were not yet ready for self-government. Even after 37 years of blundering from pillar to post we are still not ready for self-government. We do not even know what we need to do to ensure free, fair and credible elections, for Pete's sake!

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  5. Former Vice President Joice Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) outfit’s political weight will be put to test in two weeks’ time when her party participates in the Bikita West by-election.

    - See more at: http://nehandaradio.com/2017/01/06/big-test-mujuru-zpf/#sthash.eLIqOlgf.dpuf

    The Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut has not rolled, complete with the NIKUV  corrupted voters roll, the bussed voters, etc.; if she cannot win now then she will not win come 2018. 

    Zanu PF that for its own legitimacy the party has to allow the opposition to win some seats, in the 2013 elections the opposition got 38% of the seats, these are what the opposition will be fighting over!

    Rigging elections cost a lot of money as we all saw in 2013. Mugabe paid NIKUV US$10 million to corrupt the voters' roll, he bought a new vehicle for each Zanu PF parliamentary and senatorial candidate plus paid them $10 000 spend money each, etc.; all in all, he must have spent $4 billions, at least. 

    Fortunately for Mugabe, the wholesale plunder in Marange is still going on and he and his cronies continues to pocket billions of dollars. Last month he took delivery of 350 new vehicles, costing US$ 10 million, to be used by party officials in preparing for the 2018 elections. He paid $4 million for the party conference. He, his family and the usual entourage then flew to the Far East for his one-month long holiday and Grace's shopping spree – cost; $20 million plus. 

    Whilst the government is failing to pay civil servant wages let alone buy medicines and other necessities; Mugabe is loaded.

    Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

    God knows how many times Mugabe has rigged Zanu PF party and national elections in last 37 years and yet there are still some people who still insist in contesting elections, with not even one reform implemented. They are hoping that the tyrant, out of the generosity of his corrupt and murderous heart, he will not rig the elections!

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  6. In a New Year's message, Zim Papers columnist Nathaniel Manheru has attacked the most prominent members of the Zimbabwean opposition saying that they are blind and set to lose in the upcoming elections. Well Manheru is right!

    Sometimes even a fool speaks the truth, especially when it obvious even a fool can see it. President Mugabe has been rigging elections for donkey years, nothing has been done to stop him rigging the next elections, he has a truck load of looted diamond money to bankroll the most expensive vote rigging scheme he can dream off and the opposition have no clue what is happening and he has cheated both Tsvangirai and Mujuru in the past.

    There is absolutely nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections, nothing. Even the most naïve opposition are refusing to say the elections will be free, fair and credible because they know that will be going too far especially when they know they will be the ones admitting the elections were rigged.

    After a life time of peddling lies and propaganda, Manheru is enjoying telling some home truth showing just how naïve and inapt the opposition is whose only response is to hide behind their little fingers!

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  7. @Ijaha

    "In (March) 2008 Morgan won the presidential elections; nothing had been moved in terms of election reforms," you said.

    You are wrong my friend because a lot had been done before that elections to force Zanu PF to allow counting to be done at each polling station, which is why Tsvangirai got 73% of the vote. But clearly the system was not water tight because Zanu PF ordered a recount that lasted six weeks ending with Tsvangirai's share of the vote dropping to 47%!

    Zanu PF's vote rigging schemes have improved considerable as we saw in the 2013 elections and so too has the party's financial ability to fund a really sophisticated vote rigging scheme.

    If you think the 2018 elections will be held under the same rules as the March 2008 rules, then dream on!

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  8. @Yithilabo

    I agree! We must fight Zanu PF for the implementation of all the democratic reforms BEFORE the next elections.

    We must also fight the opposition parties who are misleading our people and giving them false hope that forming a coalition alone is enough to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections!

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  9. Tsvangirai has already proven beyond doubt that he is corrupt and incompetent how anyone would still consider him leadership material only goes to show how naive and gullible they are. We are in this mess because we had some of the most incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical leaders running the nation's affairs elected and kept in power by a naive and gullible electorate.

    If we are ever to get out of this mess, we will need a complete overhaul of the system replacing the corrupt leaders with those with common sense, at least and not just remove one or two corrupt ones, here and there. We will never do this as long as we have an electorate that is so helpless they will still follow a corrupt leader even when they have a mountain of evidence proving how useless he or she is.

    "His Excellence President Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai will eventually lead a New Democratic Free Zimbabwe. Never again shall Zimbabwe be ruled by an almost 100 year old clueless thuggish sick sadist," Shumba posted on his popular Facebook wall.

    Shumba is just one example of the said naïve and gullible electorate because Tsvangirai has already proven that he is corrupt and incompetent and yet still consider him presidential material. We are in this mess because Tsvangirai failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU. He sold-out to get his $4 million Highlands mansion! What else does he have to do to open Shumba’s eyes.

    We are not going to get out of this mess by posting wishful thinking FaceBook post but getting the reforms implemented so we have free, fair and credible elections!

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  10. The MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai who attended the inauguration of the new Ghana President Nana Akufo Addo later met the new leader in private after the inauguration.

    Ghana must have invited Tsvangirai to tick-off President Mugabe; a great move. Still President Addo would soon learn that Tsvangirai is “a flawed and indecisive character” as former USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, discovered. A read of Tsvangirai’s history will show he is one of the most corrupt and incompetent Africans that have ever walked this earth!

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