Saturday 13 May 2017

Dr Moyo "is not stupid" says Nomazulu - in contesting flawed 2018, he is stupid and greedy. N Garikai

My dear sister, Nomazulu, Nkosana Moyo or anyone else for that matter contesting next year’s elections with no reforms in place and expect to beat Zanu PF has nothing to do with the challenger doing his/her homework. It is a measure of their sanity, personal greed and downright treasonous betrayal of the common people.

“For a personality like Nkosana Moyo to say he is contesting for the elections come 2018, I will certainly vote for him. The guy is not stupid! I am sure he made his homework very well. His Physics and Banking background will tell us that he is going for elections with a well thought through strategies we simple people may not know. I will vote you dear Sir: come elections of 2018,” wrote Nomazulu in Bulawayo 24.

“You have been in that government of Zanu PF before. You know all individuals by name and their deeds, how rouge a government of Zanu PF is like: almost half of them are of high criminal minds. You have indeed taken stoke of this and you have done a thorough groundwork how you are going to play out with their criminality when it comes to rigging the elections.”

But that is that not the exactly the point here; understanding that Zanu PF’s vote rigging criminality has gone beyond the pale.

Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections were the watershed elections in the country’s history in that Zanu PF showed the nation and the world at large what the regime would do to retain political power. In the March vote President Mugabe admitted that Tsvangirai had won 73% of the vote. However, he stop ZEC making the public announcement then and ordered them to recount. After six weeks of recounting 5 million votes ZEC announced that Tsvangirai had 47% of the votes.

You do not need a degree in Physics and/or experience as a banker to guess that the six weeks was to go round the country altering the local vote count and destroying the evidence in case there was a court challenge of the declared result. What President Mugabe had demonstrated beyond all doubt was that in Zimbabwe it was not enough to get people to vote for you, he will still win because he controls those who count the votes.

In the presidential run-off that followed, President Mugabe mounted a military style Operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) in which he deployed Zanu PF youth and rogue war veterans like Jabulani Sibanda as the foot-soldiers backed up by the Army, Police and CIO. They were instructed to punish the people for having voted for Tsvangirai in the March vote. And punish they did; millions went into hiding, hundreds of thousands were beaten and/or raped and over 500 were murdered in cold blood.

“Mugabe has declared war on the people!” complained Tsvangirai as he withdraw from the electoral race.

President Mugabe, thanks to his wanton violence and barbarism, overturned Tsvangirai’s 73% vote victory in March to an 84% landslide victory for himself in the July vote!  

Even SADC and AU election observers, known for giving a thumbs-up to some dodgy electoral processes, refused to endorse President Mugabe’s victory. SADC forced President Mugabe into the GNU and to agree on the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of 2008 the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence ever happening again.

Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend who were supposed to implement the reforms, failed to appreciate their true value and critical importance and so failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU. SADC leaders, notably President Ian Khama of Botswana, did their best to encourage MDC to implement the reforms but they were ignored. At the SADC Maputo summit, the regional leaders, literally, begged MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms, as a last-minute effort to force the implementation of the reforms. But once again MDC leaders, paid no heed. Some of the MDC leaders like David Coltart also realised that with no reforms, Zanu PF would rig the vote.

“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 elections,” explained Senator Coltart.

“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, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends contested the 2013 elections knowing fully well that the process was flawed and illegal because they fighting to win the few gravy train seats and the bragging rights of being Zimbabwe’s opposition party. The suckers here are the ordinary Zimbabweans who were foolish enough to believe that the elections would be free, fair and credible and thus deliver the democratic changes the nation has been dying for.

Let us make it very clear here; not even one democratic reform was implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections. Not one!

Tsvangirai and all the other opposition candidates are once again going to contest in the 2018 elections, again, knowing fully well that with no reforms in place the elections will be rigged and in violation of their own “No reform, no election!” party resolution. They are doing so for the same reason – greed, the few gravy train seats!

There is nothing Dr Nkosana Moyo, even with his degrees and wide political experience, can do to stop Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut. He is joining the rat race knowing the political playing field is not even or fair. He is clearly not interested in implementing the reforms and ensuring free and fair elections. He, like all the others in the opposition camp, will be contesting the flawed elections to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is giving away, if not next year then in the next opportune by-election.

Even if Dr Moyo, or anyone else, had a some clever tricks of his own that will help him beat Zanu PF against all the odds; do you think he would implement the democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free and fair? No chance! Whoever wins against the odds would keep the present system because they will know it will help them, as the new incumbent, stay in power.

So, by participating in flawed elections, we are not giving Zanu PF vote rigging legitimacy but are also helping to perpetuate the vote rigging culture.

If we, the people of Zimbabwe, are serious about democratic change; free, fair and credible elections; good governance; etc. then we must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE elections. It is simple insane to let ourselves be led by the nose, like a bull at the market, into one flawed election after another knowing Zanu PF will rig the vote but hoping against hope that the regime will lose the elections.

After 37 years of rigged elections and the country being dragged into this economic hell, we are now the poorest people in Africa and in the world; have we not sobered up enough to finally understand that we need to implement the democratic reforms if we are ever to hold free, fair and credible elections!

“Please lay out your MANIFESTO for all of us to see and be convinced that you mean business. …. I have never doubted your calibre, professionalism and political astuteness,” argued sister Nomazulu.

What is the use of producing the best election manifesto ever if it will never ever see the light of day because Zanu PF will rig the elections and impose itself on the nation. Sister Nomazulu, we can all come up with a thousand and one excuses why we should participate in the 2018 elections with no reforms in place; these will all be excuses for our continued collective insanity. This will not help us get out of the hell-hole we are in but drag us even deeper into the hole.


We must come to our collective sense and do the right and logical thing to get us out of the political paralysis and economic hell-hole – stop messing around and finally implement the democratic reforms!  

3 comments:

  1. "Therefore, Media reforms are just as necessary on the reform agenda. The 2018 elections will be won in the cyberspace. What happened during the American elections and the role of the media is instructive," said Tapiwa Mashakada, deputy secretary general.

    Well done, Mr Mashakada; now what do you think MDC-T should do about it? (It has taken him all these years to get here, for such is the lamentable incompetence of our politicians!)

    And yet MDC-T still continue, full steam ahead, with preparations to contest next year’s elections! Once in a while one or two MDC leaders says something sensible – obvious to many of us but clearly inspirational for the individual. Sadly, even the individual who has had the bolt of inspiration is immediately at a loss as what to do next. There seems to be a complete disconnect not just amongst the leaders themselves but even in the individual – the right hand does not know what the left is doing!

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  2. An AfrAsia Bank report has just said Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa, anyone with a half a brain has to ask how then is it possible that the man who dragged the nation into this nightmare can still be popular? Many Zimbabweans know that Afrobarometer has always had a hidden agenda, to portray Zanu PF as a popular party.

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  3. @ Grace Jones

    I do hear what you are saying but you have to admit that even if we could come up with a germ of challenger to Mugabe they tyrant will still win next year's elections as long as no meaningful reforms have been implemented BEFORE the elections. Indeed, 

    if the challenger, is worth his/her salt they will refuse to contest an election in which they are so handicapped they cannot even get up because of the dead weight they are being forced to carry. 

    There is absolutely no point in even talking about who is to contest against Mugabe until the reforms are implemented. The new democratic system will force open debate and democratic competition quality leaders will emerge. 

    After trying the Zanu PF dictatorship for 37 years with disastrous consequences we can all see; one would have thought the nation will now speak with one united voice in demanding the total dismantling of the dictatorship. It is shocking that so many people will still want to contest flawed elections and hope against hope that Zanu PF will rig the vote but lose the elections. How insane is that!!!!

    Our problem is not just we have insane people, every nation has insane people, but that the insane constitute a sizeable majority! Zimbabwe was one of the richest countries in Africa but in 37 years we have squandered our inheritance like the prodigal son, today we are the poorest nation on earth! 

    A fool and his inheritance and soon parted! A nation of fools and their inheritance are soon parted - just never thought we were that foolish for that to have happen in record time! 

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