Harare protesters called for "change" - without understand what changes, there will be no change P Guramatunhu

The nation heaved a huge sigh of relief when it was reported that the Zanu PF regime had given the green light for the MDC demos to go ahead. This morning it was clear the Police were deployed determined to stop the protest. The change of heart was not surprising, this is a government is fear of any public dissent because it knows the public have very good reasons to be angry.

As long as Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown continues so too will the public protests. It is the economic hardships that are fuelling the people’s anger. And as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs the economic meltdown will only get worse. No one wants to do business with thugs!

Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and should step down. The only reason the party is still in power, a year after the rigged election, is because the opposition sold-out. MDC sold-out by participating in flawed and illegal elections and thus giving the process some credibility and since the elections the MDC has been negotiating to grant Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power.

These MDC demonstrations are dabbed “Free Zimbabwe march”, the party knows that the National Transition Authority (NTA) it is calling for will never get even one reform implemented. The NTA will secure cabinet posts for Nelson Chamisa and a few other MDC leaders and that is all they are after.

MDC failed to implement even one democratic reform during the last GNU. “We got in the inclusive government and just sat there, spent five years in there. We came out without doing anything,” said Nelson Chamisa in a rare and candid admission.

In the NTA MDC leaders will be taking up from where they left off at the end of the 2008 GNU. They will “sit, eat and do nothing!”

There were protestors in the streets of Harare and they were met and beaten by the riot Police although there was no evidence of any violent behaviour on the protestors’ part. This is just the usual heavy-handed reaction of the regime determined to ruthlessly silence all dissent from all quarters.

The common theme on the protestors’ lips was their economic hardship and the need for change. Their greatest weakness is that they have never stopped to defined what that change must be because if they had done so they would have realised by now that MDC has failed to deliver any meaningful change 20 years after the people risked life and limb to elect the party into power. If the protestors knew what happened during the last GNU they would also understand why the NTA will never bring about change.

It is ironic that it is none other than the MDC that has done the most to keep Zanu PF remain in power this last decade and a half. And in turn, it is none other than the country’s naïve and gullible public who have supported the MDC leaders regardless of the latter’s track record of incompetence, corruption and down-right selling out!

As much as Zimbabwe needs meaningful political change, the implementation of the democratic reforms, to end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state; it is hard to see how this can ever happen. Like it or not Zanu PF and MDC are in a cosy political relationship in which the former is allowed MDC to win a few gravy train seats in return for participating in Zanu PF rigged elections.

Unless the Zimbabwe electorate wake up to this reality there is no reason why both MDC and Zanu PF would ever want to upset the apple cart. Judging from the number of people who marched in support for Mnangagwa’s coup two years ago and the protestors in Harare today in support of Chamisa’s NTA the electorate is still just as naïve and gullible as ever.

There will be no democratic reforms implemented; no free, fair and credible elections and no meaningful economic recovery in Zimbabwe in the near future. The people of Zimbabwe have yet to understand what constitute free, fair and credible elections and only then will they demand the democratic reforms and make sure they are successfully implemented. Up to now they have been calling for change but without a clue what those changes are. None!

If Zimbabweans are serious about changing Zimbabwe and ending this cosy Zanu PF and MDC partnership in crime they must first understand they must move beyond the empty slogans of “Change!” and supporting corrupt leaders’ selfish agenda if they want a healthy and functioning democratic Zimbabwe.