"Zimbabwe is a one-party state," boast VP Mohadi - true, and is rigging these elections P Guaramatunhu

Addressing a poorly-attended campaign rally in Chiredzi, Mohadi said: "Zim in essence, is a one-party State. Yes, we have other parties, but even when the moon is rising, the jackals bark, but will they stop the moon from shining?"

Zimbabwe IS and has been a de facto one-party dictatorship for the last 38 years ruthlessly imposed on the nation by Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs ever since the party got into power in 1980. Zanu PF has stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition within the party and at national level hence the reason why there are no quality leaders in Zanu PF itself and in the opposition. One needed to be a thug to survive in this stifling political environment and so our political stage is crowded with corrupt and incompetent village idiots like Morgan Tsvangirai and Nelson Chamisa, at best, and murderous thugs like Robert Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa.

"Some are promising airports everywhere and spaghetti roads. As Zanu-PF, we are not promising you heaven on earth, but something that we can deliver. People need food and bread and butter issues. We have never failed on our promises and working together with you, we will deliver," Mohadi said.

Well, there is the jackal howling at the rising moon! If Zanu PF has “never failed” to deliver on its promise of “Gutsva ruzhinji” (Mass prosperity!) as Mugabe never seemed to tire of saying in the first 20 years of our independence. Then why has unemployment soared to 90%? Why are ¾ of our people living on US$1.00 or less a day? VP Mohandi has just returned from SA, he went there for medical treatment as do many of the ruling elite because the country’s own health service has all but collapsed.

President Mnangagwa and his post November 2017 junta talk of “new era”, “new democratic dispensation”, etc.; this is all nonsense. They are duping the naïve and gullible into believing that the coup was about “removing the criminal elements in Zanu PF who had captured the state” and transforming the party from the dictatorship into a democratic party. The coup was about removing Mugabe but for Mnangagwa and his Lacoste group of thugs to takeover. The Zanu PF dictatorship has remained untouched.

The shrewd and savvy foreign investors, whom President Mnangagwa targeted with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call, were not fooled. The flood of investors the regime was cocksure was coming soon after the coup has never happened because investors can see that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and murderous thugs.

If anyone had any doubt that Zanu PF was still a dictatorship, the junta’s refusal to implement democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections has removed all residual doubts!

The elections are going ahead and yet there is no free public media. The voter registration was started late and registered 5.3 million instead of the 7 million thus denying nearly 25% the vote. Worse still, the late voter registration, had made it impossible for ZEC to produce a verified voters’ roll. Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the vote in the past but with no verified voters’ roll, it was impossible to prove anything! It is clear that Zanu PF is rigging this year’s elections too!

SADC leaders, among many others, have advised the MDC not to contest these flawed elections without first implementing the reforms. The only reason Nelson Chamisa and company have refused to listen is greed, as former MDC Senator David Coltart admitted in his recent book.

 “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,” 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.”

The MDC factions have since formed the MDC Alliance but that has not stopped the contesting this year’s elections although no reforms were implemented since the July 2013 rigged elections. The MDC leaders are now running with the hare and hunting with the hounds; they have completely lost political direction and credibility!

The only way to finally end the Zanu PF one-party dictatorship is by implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed at the onset of 2008 GNU. The international community elections observers, particularly SADC, can help Zimbabwe get out of this seemingly intractable political quagmire by declaring these flawed elections null and void and thus force the nation to revisit and, finally, implement the reforms.