After last November’s military coup that ousted Robert Mugabe
the incoming regime of the coup plotters went to town to assure everyone that
the corrupt and tyrannical rule of Mugabe was over. Zimbabwe was a “new and
democratic dispensation”, we were told and to really steal the show the junta
even promised to hold “free, fair and credible elections”.
Promising to hold free, fair and credible elections was easy
honouring that promise has proven a bridge too far!
“Muromo hauzarurwi nerwidzi!” (To those who only have to talk
and not do anything, there is no such thing a flooded river they cannot cross!)
so goes the Shona adage.
"We are happy that you voted for President-elect Mnangagwa,
who will be the President of the country after the court (ConCourt) hearing
tomorrow (yesterday). Nothing is going to change," said VP Chiwenga.
"Some of us no longer want to hear about elections. Elections are behind us."
"Some of us no longer want to hear about elections. Elections are behind us."
There we go, dictating to all what we must think, say and do and
when. Elections “are behind us” and we must all zip our mouths and quietly move
on. After 38 years of dictatorial rule, that is one habit that the November
coup has left untouched!
Well Mr Vice President, the elections were NOT free, fair and
credible, the junta failed to keep its promise, and therefore elections are still
on the national agenda. These elections were not free and fair because there
was no free public media; 2 to 3 millions Zimbabweans in the diaspora (a very
significant number considering 5 million voted in these elections) were denied
a vote; ZEC failed to produce a verified voters roll; rural voters continued to
be treated as serfs, they did not dare vote for anyone else other than Zanu PF;
etc.
For the last 38 years Zanu PF has routinely rigged elections to
stay in power at the cost of making Zimbabwe a de facto one party dictatorship
and a pariah state. The country’s economy has all but collapse because no
investor, local or foreign, wants to do business in a pariah state. We have
many Zimbabweans working outside the country and many running very successful
business there because they even they found it hard to do so in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is of paramount importance and that
will never happen as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by vote
rigging thugs.
After decades of riding roughshod over the people’s basic
freedoms and human rights denying them their right to a meaningful vote and
even the right to life; this must now change.
What is behind us VP Chiwenga is the years of Zanu PF rigging
elections and getting away with it. You and President Mnangagwa promised to
hold free, fair and credible elections; you failed to do so.
The next logical step is for these flawed and illegal elections
to be declared null and void and Zanu PF must step aside to allow the
appointment of an interim administration that will IMPLEMENT the democratic
reforms in preparation for the holding of the country’s first free, fair and
credible elections.
Zimbabweans are sick and tired of corrupt and incompetent thugs
who think they alone are the stockholders of Zimbabwe with a veto over
everything whilst the rest of the populous are stakeholder with a worthless vote.
"Some of us no longer want to hear about elections!” you
say! Well some of us no longer want to hear from thugs whose only claim to
office is through military coups and rigged elections!
After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule, the people of Zimbabwe
now say to you, VP Chiwenga, President Mnangagwa and the rest of you vote
rigging charlatans; “Go. In the name of God, just go! You have stayed your
welcome for any good you have ever done! Be gone and let this great nation rise
from these ruins you brought to live in pride and dignity!”
@ Knowledge Moyo
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to dwell on wealth then you must compare like for like.
"Fact: Nelson Chamisa's watch is worth more than an entire village's wages in certain parts of our country," you said
"Fiction: The MDC could not afford to send agents to all the polling stations."
Well how much are VP Chiwenga's 45 gold watches alone worth? I bet he can pay all the nurses and doctors up and down the country's monthly wages. And yet when the nurses dared to complain about their slave wages he is the one who fired them on the spot! The arrogance of these vote-rigging tyrants is insufferable!
Rogue war veterans like Matemadanda are the ones who kept Mugabe in power for decades by ruthlessly denying the people their democratic right to free, fair and credible elections and even used violence to impose their will. Now they want to do the same by imposing Mnangagwa.
ReplyDeleteIt is a historic fact that the Zanu PF junta promised to hold free and fair elections this year but has failed to keep its promise. If Matemadanda is saying these elections were free, fair and credible then he must say so. He must explain how an election with no free public media, where 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, where ZEC failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll, etc. can ever be judged free and fair.
The years of rogue war veterans like Matemadanda helping Zanu PF to rig elections and getting away with it are behind us. Zanu PF failed to hold free and fair elections and these elections are going to be declared null and void. Zanu PF will be asked to step aside to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the reforms and help the country hold its first ever free, fair and credible elections!
The one thing that has dragged us into this hell-on-earth is our failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. With each year that has gone by the nation has been dragged deeper and deeper into this hell as those in power became more and more arrogant and harden their resolve to hold on to power at all cost.
ReplyDeleteWhen President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections many people said this was one promise he and the junta will never keep. Events have proven the doubters right.
Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess the need for meaningful economic reforms to get people out of the economic hardship they are facing cannot be overstated. Another year much less five years of this economic hell is simply unthinkable yet that will be the reality if the rigged elections are allowed to stand.
Whilst Mugabe, Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and all the Zanu PF leaders have resisted regime change in the past to gratify their insatiable hunger for absolute power, to protect their selfish economic interests and to keep prying eyes from their corrupt, vote rigging and murderous past. Since last year's November coup, President Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and many others in the Zanu PF junta have had one more thing to worry about, the treason charges over their heads arising from the coup. Asking this Zanu PF junta to give up power is the easy part getting them to do it is going to be a lot more difficult.
And yet the junta must give up power, the nation's very survival is now on the line. Zanu PF has had this nation to ransom for the last 38 years, enough is enough!
The harder these Zanu PF thugs try to hang on to power the greater the force to remove them they will be asking upon themselves and thus the higher the price they will pay.
@ Elvis Chinguwa
ReplyDelete"Wilbert Mukori MDC had the evidence and chose not to submit it, you can't perpetually cry theoretical rigging. Yesterday was the day to show the world about the rigging and mdc failed dismally," you said.
"You now want the Con-court to do the digging for evidence for you when you are the accuser and you spent the better part of the week telling all and sundry that you have overwhelming evidence? Come on guys, you are a disappointment!"
Ever since Tendai Biti first announced that Chamisa had won the election by 61% but was coy about backing his claim by any figures many people have doubted MDC's claim and competence. The fact that MDC submitted their documents without the supporting V11 forms from which their claim was based only goes to show just how breathtakingly incompetent MDC lawyers were.
MDC lawyers wanted the Con-Court to declare Chamisa the win and yet nowhere in their submission did show a recalculated result showing Chamisa with more votes than Mnangagwa and that the total was above the 50% plus threshold. All this case has shown is that Chamisa's claim of having a strong case and having A-Team of lawyers was all nonsense!
These elections should never have taken place, not without first implementing the democratic reforms. Yes President Mnangagwa and his junta have once again taken full advantage of the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders to rig the elections and stay in power.
Still, just because Chamisa and his MDC friends are corrupt and incompetent that is no excuse for Zanu PF to rig elections. President Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before, has a legal obligation to the people of Zimbabwe to up hold their basic and fundamental right to free, fair and credible elections. These elections were not free, fair and credible and they must therefore be declared null and void regardless of what the Con-Court says!
Elvis Chinguwa
ReplyDeleteYou should be careful not to confuse what the Con-Court was looking at - the MDC claim that ZEC cook the result of the presidential race, everything else was right!
These elections were not free, fair and credible because there was no free public media, 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote (a very significant figure given 5 millions voted), ZEC failed to produce a verified voters' roll, etc. The Con-Court never looked into any of these matters!
The Con-Court's decision did not surprise anyone especially after listen to Chamisa' s lawyers, one did not need to be a lawyer to see the MDC cases was a weak one.
ReplyDeleteHistory will say that Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance, as the main opposition in these elections, had participated in these elections against advice not to without first implementing the reforms, out of greed. They were after the few gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF would give away to entice the opposition to participate.
"MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" Chamisa had claimed. We now know that he was lying, it was a feeble excuse to justify why MDC was participating with no reforms.
“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,” David Coltart, MDC Senator and cabinet member during the GNU, admitted 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.”
By participating in this year's elections MDC leaders had once again given these flawed and illegal elections credibility and forfeited the nation another chance to get the reforms implemented and thus end this political charade of rigged elections!
The declaration by the Con-Court confirming President Mnangagwa as dully elected president is the final act in these flawed elections confirming the grime reality of another five years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship! All made possible by MDC leaders' greed!