Monday 12 June 2017

Mai Mujuru, there is nothing new or "strategic" about contesting flawed elections - it is the crass of stupidity. W Mukori

“You can lead a horse to the river but you cannot make it drive.” So, goes the common proverb. People are like an animal, you can present them with a golden opportunity, but you cannot force the individual to take advantage of it. There are some opportunities not to be missed and doing so is insane. Sadly, our world if full of insane individuals and here is one.

"That is not an option (boycotting). As a party, we are in these talks for a coalition to work on how best we can have the electoral field levelled, but boycotting is not our strategy," said Mai Mujuru.

She was responding to reports that some opposition parties are considering boycotting the elections in the face of Zanu PF’s stubborn refusal to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.

"I know there are some, especially the youth, who might feel the need to boycott by not voting, or registering to vote in next year's elections. That's very wrong. There is no need to boycott elections. For whose benefit? For the benefit of those that have hurt everybody?" she said.

"Our approach is to ensure we have a level electoral ground, to have a free and fair election next year, but already, we have seen signs that show the elections will not be free, signs that rigging is already taking place.”

This is where the insanity kicks in: she accepts the need for free and fair elections; she accepts that the opposition have been asking for reforms and, last but most important of all, she accepts Zanu PF has not given an inch and is already rigging the vote. For her to maintain that her party will still contest the elections regardless of how flawed the process happens to be flies in the face of logic!

Zimbabwe experience some of its worse blatant vote rigging in 2008 when ZEC was asked to cook the result to change Tsvangirai’s 73% vote to 47% after six weeks of recounting. And in the presidential run-off that followed, the country witnessed some of the worst wanton violence. SADC proposed a raft of political reforms which the GNU was tasked to implement to ensure the political nightmare of the 2008 will never be repeated ever again.

When it was clear that not even one reform had been implemented, SADC leaders tried to force through the reforms and advised Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to boycott the July 2013 elections.

“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’.

Sadly, MDC leaders, for their own selfish reasons, paid no heed as David Coltart pointed out.

“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,” admitted David Coltart in his recent 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.”

After the GNU years Mugabe know that the MDC leaders were corrupt to the core; he had bribed them to forget the reforms and they did.  He knew that as long as the opposition were offered a few gravy train seats they will contest the elections regardless how flawed the electoral process happened to be. And that is exactly what happened. Those few gravy train seats are even more irresistible to Mai Mujuru and her former Zanu PF friends, than they are to MDC leaders, after their 34 years of unparalleled luxury on the gravy train.

In the 2013 elections, Zimbabwe was spared a repeat of the wanton violence of 2008 but only because Zanu PF was able to bankroll a very expensive vote rigging scheme thanks to the billions the party is looting from Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds. The price the nation has paid for the rigged election was being stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical regime for another five years.

Zimbabwe is in serious economic trouble as the country’s soaring unemployment rate of 90% shows. Zimbabweans are now the poorest people in Africa, according to an AfrAsia Bank report. The country cannot afford yet another rid elections and another five more years of Zanu PF misrule.

So, the pressure for making sure next year’s elections are free, fair and credible is not just political – the people have the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. It is economic too – the country’s tragic human suffering brought on by the economic meltdown will only end if there is meaningful political change; because meaningful economic recovery is only possible if there is meaningful political change.

There is a distinct possibility that Zanu PF will set up the wanton violence especially now that Joice Mujuru and her supporters, who are former Zanu PF thugs themselves, are itching for a fight.

“You can’t expect us to reform ourselves out of power.” Was Professor Jonathan Moyo, Zanu PF cabinet minister and politburo member’s blunt dismissal to demands to implement democratic reforms. As if it is not bad enough that Zanu PF is blatantly denying the ordinary people the freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections; the regime has chutzpah to now claim the tyrannical oppression as if it was its God given divan right!

Mai Mujuru was booted out of Zanu PF nearly three years ago but she is still as cold heart as ever. Her resolve to contest next year’s elections regardless how flawed the process and damn the consequences is proof that she does not care about the povo, all she cares about is power! She will readily walk over hundreds, even thousands, of victims of Zanu PF’s culture of political violence just to get her old gravy train seat back. All she cares about is securing political power and damn the consequences!

SADC leaders were right in edging MDC leaders to boycott the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented. The country gain absolutely nothing by MDC’s participation instead we paid dearly for MDC’s folly in that we were stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime another five years. And we forfeited the chance implement the reforms.

SADC leaders’ advice to MDC to boycott the elections until reforms are in place was valid in 2013 and is even more valid for the 2018 elections. It was foolish to contest the 2013 elections but to do so again in 2018 is the crass of insanity! It would be totally irresponsible to let Mai Mujuru drag the whole nation into yet another election madness just because she cannot contain her insatiable greed for power.


Free, fair and credible elections is the foundation of good and competent government. Zimbabwe is dying because of the 37 years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The only way the country can end the dictatorship in by implemented the reforms the sooner this is done the better. The reforms must be implemented BEFORE the elections. We know many in the opposition camp would prefer to contest the flawed elections just to win the few seats Zanu PF gives away. Ladies and gentlemen, you will all have to wait until the reforms are implemented. Yes, you too, Mai Mujuru, will have to wait!

11 comments:

  1. The facts of the matter here are as follows:

    1) Zimbabwe has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections dating back to the first elections to usher independence in 1980 that have not been contested. The 2008 elections were the worst in terms of vote rigging and use of blatant and widespread violence.

    2) Everyone has a God given right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and there is no denying that country’s economic meltdown and brutal oppression are the by-product of the de facto dictatorship and that the nation cannot address the economic and political problems without first ending the dictatorship itself.

    3) Elections are like a football game, the game must be played according to the set rules which all the players, officials, supporters, etc. know and observe otherwise there is no point playing. The raft of democratic reforms proposed by SADC are meant to restore the ground rules so make sure elections are indeed free, fair and credible. It is in the interest of all Zimbabwe who truly care about the rights of others and the public good that our elections are free, fair and credible.

    4) It is totally unacceptable that Zanu PF created the dictatorship in the first place and is resisting the reform to end it as if the regime has a right to deny others their freedoms and rights.

    5) Those in the opposition who have continued to contest these flawed elections are doing so for the selfish reason of getting the crumbs Zanu PF throws out. There is no doubt that by contesting the flawed elections they are helping perpetuate.

    Just as Zanu PF has no right to resist implementing the reforms to gratify their insatiable greed for power and loot. But so too with Mai Mujuru and all those in the opposition camp; they have no right to contest a flawed election that denies others their rights for selfish gain.

    By contesting flawed elections, the opposition are selling-out the populous for the gravy train scraps! No nation in its right mind can ever allow sell-outs in its midst!

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  2. There are those who have very little to offer and so their play the race, tribe, gender, etc. card! Joice Mujuru has proven beyond doubt that she is corrupt and incompetent that is enough to say she is not suitable to hold high office. Those promoting her now for no other reason than that she is a woman have completely lost the plot.

    We know Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga has herself too proven beyond doubt that she is corrupt and incompetent and has the knack to use foul language to draw attention to herself. That she should be one of those seeking to divide the nation on gender for her own selfish political advancement is no surprise. It is not going to be easy for the voices of reason to be heard over her shrill nengure (drongo) cries!

    People like Mujuru and Mushonga have played their part in landing us in this mess and now they are doing their best to keep us there. We must do our best to keep our focus; we want quality leaders regardless their race, gender, tribe, etc.

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  3. “The fact of the matter is that the MDC is a united political party under the able and visionary leadership of President Morgan Tsvangirai,” said Obert Gutu.

    Thank you very much my brother, you had me giggling. Tsvangirai an “able and visionary” leader! What a laugh!

    Yeah, thanks to the “able and visionary” Tsvangirai who failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years of the GNU, dragged us into a flawed 2013 elections and is now trying to do the same thing again in next year.

    Even you, Gutu, one of Tsvangirai’s minion acolytes, cannot deny that not even one reform was implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections. So why is the “able and visionary” Tsvangirai abandoning the “No reform, no election!” party resolution?

    Do not tell me that even a minion like you, Gutu, believe all that nonsense by the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai, the real one as contrast to your make-believe, that the BVR system will stop Zanu PF rigging next year’s election?

    This is no laughing matter Gutu; Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged election and all those who drag the nation into the flawed elections will pay for all the wasted opportunities, damage and human misery the rigged elections bring! We are in this mess because MDC sold-out during the GNU; you lot got away with it then but you are not going to get away with it now; it is pay-back time!

    We now Tsvangirai got the $4 million Highlands mansion because he kicked all reforms into the tall grass. Where is the “able and visionary” leadership in that!!!!!

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  4. The most important lesson MDC should have learnt in the 2008 election is that it is not enough to have people risking life and limp voting for you in droves when someone else can order a recounting turning your 73% into a 47%. And in the run-off your supporters are beaten, raped and over 500 murdered to punish them for having voted for MDC and then frog marched to vote for Mugabe.

    After the events of 2008 you would have thought that MDC leaders would be pushing to implement the democratic reform. Instead it was SADC leaders who were pushing MDC to implement the reforms and, needless to say, MDC ignored them! Once again it is MDC who are as keen as mustard to contest the elections even though not even one reform has been implemented and contrary to their own "No reform, no election!" resolution!

    Contesting another flawed election is sheer madness!

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  5. In a Police State rife with corruption like Zimbabwe it is hard to distinguish the real market from the black market as the two merge and separate like a kaleidoscope. It is no secret that the ruling elite were the principle players in the black market, they created it and then put on a big song and dance of how they are doing to punish those involved. Yes they nets will catch something but only the small fish, the nets are in fact designed to reduce the competition and exaggerate the risk factor and thus increase the profit margin!

    The fat cats made a killing out of Zimbabwe's runaway hyperinflation. The fat cats got the foreign currency at the official exchange rate and then sold the money in the black market at the black market exchange rate. Same thing with bank loans; they got the money in foreign currency but repaid in Z$ at the official exchange rate!

    Whenever there are bigger winners there are always big losers and many, many of the latter to everyone fat cat! Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa according to a AfrAsia Bank report and the genesis of most people's poverty can be traced back to the country's hyperinflation years!

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  6. These NERA people are trying hard to convince the nation that next year's elections can be free, fair and credible by such simple acts as voter education, voter mobilisation, etc. This is total nonsense. The blatant vote rigging of 2013, 2008, etc. will never be solved by these simple measures.

    We need to implement the substantive democratic reforms designed to stop Nikuv corrupting the voters' roll, force the Police to arrest those disturbing the peace regardless of their party loyalty, etc. We should not be contesting the elections with no reforms in place.

    It is sheer madness to contest next year's elections on the back of a NERA voter education programme we everyone knows this will not stop Zanu PF rigging the vote!

    Who is funding these NERA people? This is a typical Zanu PF ploy to keep the naive opposition occupied with the trivial matters and forget the real big issues - reforms!

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  7. "In his keynote address at the at Mkoba stadium in Gweru on Saturday, June 10,2017, President Tsvangirai made it abundantly clear that the MDC has a zero tolerance policy on corruption," wrote Obert Chaurura Gutu.

    Chaurura, munachenjera kubvotomuka masikati machena! (Chaurura, please do not tell blatant lies!)

    If MDC had a zero policy on corruption then why has the party done nothing to punish the corrupt leaders who sold-out during the GNU. MDC supporters have been called “mindless wildebeest” for their stupid habit of following leaders blindly no questions asked. But even the wildebeest herd must have coped on by now that their leaders failed to implement even one democratic change. MDC leaders are among some of the richest individuals in the country. Morgan Tsvangirai is still living in the $4 million Highlands mansions that even he has failed to give a rational reason why this is so when he has long stopped being Prime Minister.

    Of course, the mansion was a bribe because it was soon after he got it that MDC leaders stopped doing or saying anything of value to the populous than was in any way critical of President Mugabe. The reforms, which the tyrant did not want implemented, were completely forgotten.

    Or is it that MDC has a zero tolerance on corruption only when the drag net catch the small fish. We are in this economic and political mess today because MDC leaders, the big fish, sold-out, the zero tolerance to corruption national drag net has caught them and there is no getting away!

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  8. @D12

    Anyone seeking to contest Zimbabwe's elections with no democratic reforms in place have per se ruled themselves out as competent to hold public office. Zanu PF's vote rigging ability is well known and there is nothing new to be learned by contesting elections. SADC have already said do not contest the elections until the reforms are implemented because they too have seen for themselves the ruthlessness of the Zanu PF vote rigging machine.

    There is one of three reasons or some combination thereof why anybody in the opposition camp will continue to contest elections they know will be rigged:

    1) They are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away to entice the opposition to contest. By contesting the opposition give the rigged elections some modicum of credibility which is why Zanu PF gives away these seats.

    2) There are opposition politicians who are so desperate to get a seat on the gravy train they will stop at nothing. Many of them like Tsvangirai and Mujuru know they have such a hopeless political track record as corrupt and incompetent they will never win a free, fair and credible election. Mai Mujuru was grilled by the British media a few months ago, for example, she will never agree to media reforms to ensure the Zimbabwe media is free and independent hence the reason why she is paying lip service to demands for democratic reforms.

    3) They are contesting the elections with no reforms in place in the hope that they will win and inherit the dictatorship with all its dictatorial powers intact. They will become the new dictator, carry out the necessary changes so the system serve them as well as it is serving Zanu PF and, for someone like Mai Mujuru, she can pick up the looting from where she left it when she was booted out of Zanu PF.

    Anyone who thinks that if Tsvangirai or Mujuru win next year they will implement all the reforms to ensure future elections are free, fair and credible is naïve! The dictatorship favours the incumbent regime and that is why the government of the day cannot be trusted to implement the reforms. Reforms must be implement before elections.

    Whom would I recommend for the office of president? My answer to that is let us implement the democratic reforms and open-up our political system to open and honest debate and democratic competition and the system will very quickly and efficiently separate the wholesome grain from the chuff and the rotten grain, the good, the bad and the ugly!

    The present political system that has stifled all debate and made politics are dirty game; it is not surprising that the political stage is dominated by corrupt and incompetent tyrants and sell-outs aided by mindless thugs. Zimbabwe’s present political system is a sewage pod, it is no wonder that the scum of the nation are leaders. A democratic system will allow the quality leaders, the crème de la crème, to rise. All we need to do is implement the democratic reforms, all of them, and the nation will finally be on track of peace, justice and economic prosperity for all.

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  9. Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa according to a recent AfrAsia Bank report. Of course, there is nothing but shame in this especially when we should be one of the richest nation in Africa.

    When the country gained her independence in 1980 we could have easily become the South Korea Of Africa – a free, just, democratic and prosperous nation. Instead we have become the North Korea of Africa – a Police State in which most of its people live in poverty and fear and ruled by a belligerent, corrupt and murder tyrant always looking to pick a fight wherever he goes!

    We are the poorest nation economically but since our economic condition is contrary to the nation’s vast national wealth and potential; ours is a self-inflicted wound; our material poverty is a by-product of our intellectual deficiency. We are the poorest nation in Africa because for the last 37 years we have blundered from pillar to post from day to day, month to month and year to year.

    One area we have blundered again and again and again is elections; for 37 years we have yet to hold free, fair and credible elections. Ever since Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies got into power in 1980 they have set out to abuse their position and power to deny the common man his freedoms, human rights and humanity to create a de facto one party state to secure and retain absolute political power for themselves at all cost.

    We the people, should have stood up to Mugabe’s dictatorial tendencies in the early 1980s when it was clear what he was up to. We did not. With each passing day, the dictatorship became even more deeply entrenched and therefore difficult to dislodge. Still there have been numerous golden opportunities to end the dictatorship and, sadly, we have wasted them all.

    Today we have another golden opportunity to demand the implementation of democratic reforms, designed to dismantle the dictatorship and sort out the problem of bad governance behind all our economic and human rights violation problems. Here is our chance to do something right after all these years of blundering from pillar to post. Here is our chance to end this rat race. It will be very foolish to let ourselves to be dragging into yet another flawed election by the likes of Tsvangirai or Mujuru – individuals who have already proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent!

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  10. What nonsense are you talking about Nick! The one thing Zanu PF has never done is hold free, fair and credible elections.

    Of all the nearly 50 years Mugabe has been top dog who has ever voted him Zanu PF first secretary in a free, fair and credible elections. He has always corrupted the process so that his name is always the only one in the hat and instead of an election it is a coronation. He has also corrupted the process so that it is him who appoints the VPs, politburo members, cabinet members, security chiefs, judges, etc., etc. By making sure he is the one who appoints all these people he is ensuring they are all at his mercy – he can fire them at will. The man is a control freak.

    Zanu PF members have learnt from Mugabe and they will all be employment their own dirty tricks in the party’s primary elections. As for the national elections themselves, Zanu PF has never ever held free, fair and credible elections. Never!

    It is a great pity that Morgan Tsvangirai and company failed to get even one democratic reform implemented during the GNU. SADC leaders were right to advise MDC not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place, sadly MDC paid no heed.

    Anyone in the opposition contesting next year’s election with no reforms in place is the crass of stupidity. We know why the likes of Tsvangirai and Mujuru are determined to contest next year’s elections regardless the certainty Zanu PF will rig the vote. Greed!

    Zanu PF has learnt sine the 2008 elections that as long as the party allows the opposition win a few seats they will contest the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process. We know just how desperate Tsvangirai and Mujuru are to get back on the gravy train, they are after those scraps.

    “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,” admitted David Coltart in his book. 

    “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.”

    Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged elections and another five years of the economic meltdown that has made us the poorest people in Africa. We must have the reforms implemented before the elections and stop the sell-out opposition politicians going after the scraps from contesting and Zanu PF will not have its election credibility and thus forced to accept reforms.

    It is a great pity that MDC failed to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU still we now demand their implementation BEFORE the elections! Reforms are unfinished GNU business that we must finish without further undo!

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  11. There were so many ministers and deputy ministers during the GNU they were tripping over each other because their roles were overlapping; many of them had nothing to do really. One would have thought with all this time to kill they would get the reforms implemented in doubt quick time.

    Mugabe had created all these super numeral ministries just to get as many MDC leaders as he could into the first class of his gravy train. The tyrant knew the fancy job title, the ministerial car, generous salary and allowance, etc. would tickle them silly – and it did. Even those MDC leaders with the gift of the gab talked about everything else under the sun but never said a word about reforms. Of course, they all knew that reforms was the one thing Mugabe did not want to hear and he was paying them well to shut up!

    However, it cannot be that Mai Holland is still tongue-tied on the subject of reforms, now that she is no longer in the GNU and in active politics. She, like many other in the MDC like Morgan Tsvangirai, did not have a clue what the reforms were about throughout the GNU years and even now she still has no clue.

    No wonder the bribe to get MDC leaders to kick reforms was so effective; these MDC leaders would not have known where to start with implementing the reforms and the bribe made doubly sure reforms were deleted out of their minds for all time! The dumb during the GNU were dumber after the GNU.

    Sekai Holland is convinced the grand coalition is the answer. It does not matter many times one explain to her that Tsvangirai lost the 2013 election to Mugabe’s 62%, a coalition candidate would have given Tsvangirai 38%; she still thinks Tsvangirai would have won. It is easy to see why MDC never appreciated the need to implement reforms in 2013 and thus still do today.

    We have a task and a half stopping MDC dragging the nation into yet another flawed elections on the basis of a foolish notion like a grand coalition being enough to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote!

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