Alex Magaisa was the late Morgan Tsvangirai’s
chief adviser in the last 11 months of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. History will judge
the GNU was a wasted golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms
that would have rescued Zimbabwe from the clatches of the Zanu PF dictatorship
and set it on the path to economic prosperity and political stability. MDC
failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. The spotlight also
shines bright on Tsvangirai’s over paid chief adviser, Magaisa, accomplished!
Magaisa has earned a reputation as someone who
will talk until the cows come home on trivial matters, which would explain why
his stint as Tsvangirai’s adviser was a waste of time and money! He is at it
again.
“NOW that Nelson Chamisa, the MDC Alliance
presidential candidate has filed a petition challenging the validity of the
recent election, attention has turned to what happens next. This article
outlines the process as provided for under the Constitution and highlights
issues that are likely to arise. It goes without saying that this case presents
a stern test for the Zimbabwean judiciary, with its decision likely to impact
heavily on the future of the nation,” he writes, in a piece “Chamisa Election
Petition What Happens Next”.
This is just nonsense for four reasons:
1) By agreeing to go into these elections without something as
basic as a clean and verified voters’ roll Chamisa and his MDC friends have
made it easy for Zanu PF to rig these elections and get away with it. There are
reports that at least 10 polling stations had more than 100% voter turnout,
with one or two having over 200%, for example. This is in an elections in which
at least 1 million (same as 2013) voters were denied the vote, which is 20% of
the 4.8 million cast votes, because they were not in the polling station voters
roll. So a voter turnout of more than 80% is highly suspect and yet that was the
official national average. Of course, the elections were rigged but with no
verified voters’ roll, the smoking gun, most of the vote rigging evidence will
be impossible to prove in a Court of law.
2) Whatever MDC’s lawyers have uncovered as vote rigging
evidence will be but the ears of the hippo the rest of the ugly beast will
remain hidden under the muddy waters, thanks to the opposition camp’s stupidity
to agreeing to go into these elections with no democratic reforms in place.
3) Eight months ago this Zanu PF junta staged a military coup to
wrestle power from Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe Judiciary, in its infinite
wisdom, judge that the coup was legal. Today the same junta is before the same
judges accuse of less charge of rigging the elections, in which all the state
machinery has been mobilised to bury the evidence. If it is legal for the junta
to commit high treason it will be an outrage to punish the junta for rigging
the elections, especially when rigging elections has been going on for the last
38 years!
4) Last but most important of all, even if the ConCourt judges
were to rebel against their Zanu PF junta masters, and declared Nelson Chamisa
president; what will that accomplish. Zimbabwe is in this economic mess and
political paralysis because the country has been stuck with a corrupt and
tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 38 years. Still I cannot see a government
with Nelson Chamisa as president with a Zanu PF 2/3 majority parliament doing
any better. It will be the most dysfunctional Zimbabwe government ever!
After months of
frustrating Chamisa at every turn, just to prove MDC Alliance is incapable of
doing anything right the Zanu PF control parliament will impeach Chamisa and
force fresh elections. The Zanu PF control parliament would want the elections
held in exactly the same conditions as these elections, in which the party has
carte blanche powers to rig the process.
In short therefore,
declaring Chamisa the winner will not bring about any economic recovery much
less political reform. We will still be stuck in the rut we are stuck in right
now.
People like Alex Magaisa are time-wasters at
best, wasting the nation’s time on trivial matters; or are a green-bomber curse
to the nation, dragging the nation from disaster to the next, from one BS to
the next. Zimbabwe would have held free, fair and credible elections in 2013 if
MDC had implemented the democratic reforms. What was the point of giving
Tsvangirai a no expense spared adviser if he could not even advise him to do
the obvious thing!
The greatest challenge for this nation today is
how to get the democratic reforms implemented, this is the holy grail, only
then can the country hope to finally hold its first ever free, fair and
credible elections, the pre-requisite for competent and accountable government.
Only someone with a green-bomb mentality, always wasting time on BS, would be
preoccupied with piecing together a total dysfunctional government!
Magaisa you are obsessed about trivial matters and it is little wonder MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented during the GNU. You were Tsvangirai's over paid chief adviser. Even if Chamisa was to win his court case what good will it be to the people of Zimbabwe.
ReplyDeletePresident Chamisa + 2/3 Zanu PF parliament = most dysfunctional gvt ever!
Authorities here have arrested two more MDC Alliance party members bringing to 31, the number of people arrested for allegedly participating in protests staged in Harare early this month over delays in announcing the results of harmonised elections.
ReplyDeleteThe continued arrest is to cow down the people who are bound to protest the country‘s worsening economic meltdown that is round the corner. By rigging the elections Zanu PF has just confirmed Zimbabwe is still a pariah state and no one wants to invest in a pariah state.
“I am so humbled by your messages of support, solidarity and encouragement to fix the national question and election stalemate. I am so moved by the prayers and supportive mood,” said Chamisa.
ReplyDeleteListen you idiot; you were warned not to take part in these flawed and illegal elections without first implementing the democratic reforms but you refused to listen. Now you want all those millions of ordinary people who will have to endure another five years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship to suffer because of your greed and incompetence!
“MDC has stringent measure to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” you insisted. Well now you must deliver because this time you are not going to be left off the hook that easily!
The fifth point I would add to your list:
ReplyDelete5) By agreeing to take part in these elections with no reforms in place the opposition, not just MDC but all the other opposition candidates, have given credibility to this flawed, illegal and otherwise illegitimate process.
We know why the opposition have tripped over each other to participate in these elections knowing fully well Zanu PF will rig the vote - they knew Zanu PF will give away a few gravy train seats to those helping to give the process credibility. So it is not so much ignorance and stupidity that is driving the opposition but something more sinister - greed.
It is the same greed that has turned Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs into wolves devouring their own fellow Zimbabweans.
There are sell-outs and then there are those who will sell their own mother for a price and be proud they had a mother to sell. Zimbabwe's warped political system has been allowed to run so long with those playing this devilish game being rewarded with $4 million mansion, farms, 45 gold watches and loads and loads of other stuff, Zimbabwe has a whole army of individuals queuing for an opportunity to sell their own mother, father, wife, child and their own soul!
What Zimbabwe needs is an interim administration appointed solely to implement the reforms and clean the country's perverted and self-serving autocratic system of government. It is naive to expect anyone of the corrupt and incompetent sell-outs from both sides of the political to implement any meaningful democratic reforms when they know, with the baggage, they will never be elected back into office! Never ever!
@ Pharel Mbuds
ReplyDelete"If Chamisa is declared president, he is likely to use executive powers to clean up the system, before guiding Zimbabwe to a clean undisputed election," you say.
We are talking about a real world here and not some Alice in Wonderland Utopia. Your President Chamisa will never accomplish anything of substance for two reasons:
1) Chamisa has already proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. He was a senior MDC leader in the GNU that failed to get even one meaningful reform implemented. He will just be a willing puppet in the hands of a few ruthless Zanu PF thugs who will offer him protection as long as them continue to pull the strings.
2) But even if the presidential chain of office transformed him into a visionary and wise man, wiser than King Solomon himself, he will still have to deal with the Zanu PF juggernaut. In the real world Zanu PF does not only have 2/3 majority in parliament, it has the same in the Senate, all state institutions such as the Police, Army, ZEC, Judiciary, Public Media, Parastatals, etc. are all staffed by Zanu PF loyalists. Every one of these men and women will know that "cleaning up the system" means getting rid of them. Do you serious expect them to sit back and let Chamisa sweep them out! Wake up and smell the humus!
There was never any real chance of a good and competent government emerging out of this flawed and illegal elections process because by allowing undemocratic individuals or events to influence the process you are, per se, contaminating the product. Add a single drop of sewage to a glass of milk and you have a glass-full of sewage especially if the sewage drop was alive with the bacterium Vibrio cholera!
What Zimbabwe needs is to implement the democratic reforms, clean the deck and have a clean fresh start and not waste time, money and human lives trying to make the dictatorship work!
@ King Hang
ReplyDelete"You have some valid points here Mukori, but the problem is that MDC were in a catch 22. I personally think it is better to fight them from inside rather than outside. The other problem is ZANU PF will never agree to anything that will weaken their grip on power," you said.
Well that is not true, Mugabe and Zanu PF agreed to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms in 2008 when the party lost its legitimacy following the blatant cheating and wanton violence in that year's elections. The only reason not even one reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU is because MDC leaders sold-out.
"MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU they forgot why they were there!" one SADC leader told The Independent soon after the rigged 2013 elections.
Many Zimbabweans are refusing to accept that MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and that they sold-out during the GNU, even now with all the benefit of hindsight. This is foolish because no amount of denying a historic fact will change it but, worse still, this has allowed Zimbabweans to continue to follow these MDC village idiots like sheep to the slaughter. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
@ King Hang
ReplyDelete"I am not sure how the parliament works in Zim, if Chamisa becomes President can he veto whatever the parliament passes? Can he appoint supreme court judges and ZEC chaiperson without the approval from the parliament?" you argue.
"If he can do that, then becoming President will give him a shortcut to implementing changes without having to go through parliament."
Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution gave excessive power to the president to hire and fire ministers, judges, all the top brass in the security services, university vice chancellors, etc., etc. His appointees in turn then hired and fired whoever Mugabe asked them to hire and fire and so on. Appointments and promotions are made on proven loyalty to the dictator, the president. So the Zanu PF dictatorship is a big spider's web of interconnected weds with the grandee spider, the top dog, sitting at the centre controlling everything that is going on.
When Mnangagwa booted Mugabe out of office last November, although he has been a senior member of the dictatorship for 50 years and very close to the dictator Mugabe, he still struggled to control the web. It is no secret that the Police and CIO owed their allegiance to Mugabe and the G40 faction and so after the coup the likes of Police Commissioner Chihuri and many other in Police had no choice but to resign or were summarily fired.
On the whole, Mnangagwa has had it easy because most of these Zanu PF thugs will give their loyalty to whoever is at the centre as long as they feel their own position is secure.
President Nelson Chamisa will be seen as a usurper there to dismantle the dictatorship and therefore threatening everyone dependent on the Zanu PF dictatorship. The whole system will work together to make Zimbabwe ungovernable. With all the good will in the world, Chamisa not accomplish anything of substance.
The best course of action is to declare these flawed elections null and void and appoint an interim administration to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship.
@ Tatira Zwinoira
ReplyDelete"Many people talk about the plundering and the looting, human rights abuses that took place under Mugabe's rule. He was not alone in that. While the regime talks about Zimbabwe being open for business, this is the same group of people that systematically destroyed Zimbabwe's economy over nearly 40 years," Jeffrey Smith said.
"Mnangagwa (President Emmerson Mnangagwa) in particular and his allies have enriched themselves for decades by seizing farms, mines, businesses, losing reportedly $15 billion in missing diamond revenue. So the notion that somehow, these people are suddenly reformers or overnight democrats who can engineer a recovery I think is a farce of grand proportions."
I believe the whole world would have forgiven Mnangagwa and his junta's transgression during the Mugabe years if the junta had embraced democratic values and delivered free, fair and credible elections. Sadly the call of the wild was too strong, they reverted to their old dirty habits of rigging elections and thus confirming the Zanu PF dictatorship was alive and thriving or be it under a new top dog, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Anyone who still expect the much talked and hoped for flood of foreign investors is day-dreaming. Investors do not do business in pariah states where regime change is by military coup, violent civil unrest or worse.
With all hope of bring about any meaningful economic recovery gone, I really do not see how this junta can hang on to power for much longer. Sadly, Mnangagwa and his junta are not smart enough to know when they have lost and the game is up; they will try to hang on to power and like Gaddafi be haunted out of office leaving a trail of death and destruction.
@ Matembuka
ReplyDeleteThis is just an self-indulgence academic exercise, there is nothing to be gain from it all. The best outcome for Chamisa and his supporters would be Chamisa being declared president. Do you really think Chamisa can accomplish anything with a parliament, senate, civil service, judiciary, etc., etc. that is Zanu PF through and through? Wake up and smell the humus!