"If ED resigns I will give him farm, whisky and women," - as dictator, he has all that and more already! P Guramatunhu

“At the (Lupane East by-election) rally, Mr Chamisa left his supporters holding their mouths in disbelief when he said he had already hatched a retirement plan for President Mnangagwa, with women and alcohol waiting for him should he call it quits,” reported Sunday News.

"I will give him (President) a farm together with (VPs) Chiwenga and Mohadi. I want to say sit and be quiet. I will give you whisky and I'll give you women. Whatever you want I'll give you," Chamisa said.

How naïve!

Ever since Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 Zanu PF has always enjoyed absolute power in every democratic sense of that word in that the party has completely usurped the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life.

In a healthy and functioning democracy those in public office are accountable to the people and the ultimate expression of this democratic accountability is that the people can remove the officials from power. In Zimbabwe Zanu PF has enjoyed absolute power, in the rural areas for example, the party has used traditional leaders and its strangle hold on state resources and machinery to reduce the people into medieval serfs totally beholden to the party. In Zimbabwe it is the tail that wags the dog.

The closest Zanu PF has ever come to losing its iron grip on power was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Following the blatant cheating and wanton violence in the 2008 elections, no one, not even SADC and AU known for turning a blind eye to Zanu PF rigged elections in the past, would ignore the barbarism of that year’s elections and recognise Zanu PF as legitimate government.

In return for political legitimacy SADC forced Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to sign a Global Political Agreement (GPA) to form a Government of National Unity (GNU) with the two MDC factions. The primary task of the GNU was to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and take away its carte blanche powers to rig elections. SA President Thabo Mbeki signed the GPA on behalf of SADC as the guarantor of the agreement.

Sadly, not even one democratic reform was implemented throughout the GNU. Not one!

“The opposition MDC went into the Government of National Unity (GNU) between 2009-2013 without a plan and failed to utilise the opportunity, new party leader Nelson Chamisa has admitted,” reported New Zimbabwe two week ago.

“We got in the inclusive government and just sat there, spent five years in there. We came out without doing anything,” Chamisa admitted.

The consequences of your failing to implement even one meaningful democratic reform was that Zanu PF emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial powers untouched. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2013 and last year’s elections and thus is once again enjoying absolute power. The tail is still wagging the dog.

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess and political paralysis precisely because the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The people have risked life and limb to vote MDC leaders into power on the understanding they would bring about the democratic changes the nation has been dying for and thus end the dictatorship. MDC had many golden opportunities to end the dictatorship; the party leaders sold-out and wasted all the chances. Instead of accepting that MDC has failed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship the party is now coming up with all manner of hare-brained schemes that only a village idiot would.

“I will give Mnangagwa a farm, whisky and women if he resigned!”  Mnangagwa is dumb, his economic and political track record says it all, still he is not that dumb not to know that as long as he remains in office enjoying absolute power he and his fellow Zanu PF cronies will have all the farms, whisky, women and loads and loads of other stuff beside!

The economic situation in Zimbabwe; with unemployment a nauseating 90%, basic services such as supply of clean water and health care all but collapsed, ¾ of our people living on US$30 or less per month, etc.; demands decisive action to implement the reforms and end the dictatorship.

We know Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office. Since last year’s elections were rigged, the country does not have a legitimate government; we must demand that the illegitimate Mnangagwa administration must step down to create the space for the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the reform.