“As long as Ramaphosa plays big
brother to an illegal president (Emmerson Mnangagwa) then we (Zimbabweans in
SA) are staying put and not going anywhere,” twittered Kudakwashe Kadenhe
There is no doubt that Ramaphosa,
together with all the other SADC and AU leaders, should have condemned Zimbabwe’s
last elections because Zanu PF rigged. Still, Zimbabweans must admit that it
was none other than our own oppositions leaders who must take the lion’s share
of the blame here.
It is a matter of historic record
that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one
meaningful democratic reform in five years during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Not
even one reform!
SADC leaders fought hard to get MDC
to implement the reforms, but all their warnings were ignored. The regional
leaders made one desperate attempt to have the 2013 elections postponed until
reform are implemented but that too failed.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June
2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the
elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” explained Dr Ibbo
Mandaza, in an interview with Violet Gonda.
“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe
pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the
postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.
“And after that Summit, Morgan
Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate
meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same
evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac
Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to
lose; the elections are done’.”
As we know MDC participated in the
2013 elections with no reforms and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections.
History was to repeat itself in 2018, as it always does with those who refuse
to learn from the past.
What is particularly annoying here is
that MDC leaders know that by participating in these flawed and illegal
elections they are giving the process some credibility and Zanu PF some
legitimacy; as Senator David Coltart has readily admitted.
“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,” confessed Senator
David Coltart in his Book The Struggle
Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.
So, Zimbabweans like Kudakwashe should
not blame outsiders like President Ramaphosa for propping up this illegitimate
Mnangagwa regime when it is none other than MDC leaders who are whitewashing
the Zanu PF dictatorship and undermining efforts to bring about meaningful
democratic change in Zimbabwe.
The solution to Zimbabwe’s political paralysis
and economic meltdown is ending the country’s curse of rigged elections. And
what better way of doing that than declaring “winners” of rigged elections
illegitimate and demanding that the said regime steps down.
We must denounce the corrupt and
incompetent MDC leaders who are giving the illegitimate Zanu PF dictatorship
legitimacy. MDC leaders have been running with the hare and hunting with the
hounds; this must not be allowed to continue.
It is up to us, Zimbabweans, to find
the solutions to the myriad of problems we have created for ourselves and should
not be blaming outsiders our failures and suffering. We must stop seeing the
speck in the outsider’s eye when we cannot see the log in our own eyes!
Scrapping the multi-currency system in favour of the Z$ enable you to increase the salaries of civil servants willy-nilly and that was the main reason you reintroduced the single currency. You did not care that your short-sighted policies have caused inflation and suffering to millions of the people.
ReplyDeleteSo please spare us all your mambo jambo! Zanu PF has always done as it pleased, after all you lot are not accountable to anyone!
The outgoing United Nations Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe, Bishow Parajuli, says the current crackdown targeting opposition demonstrators and activists is “intolerable,” because the country’s constitution allows citizens to protest.
ReplyDeleteThe U.N. envoy expressed concern about the situation, telling reporters that sanctions imposed by some Western countries are not directly responsible for Zimbabwe’s slow economy.
The UN has left down the people of Zimbabwe by turning a blind eye to Zanu PF’s rigged elections; whilst everyone else condemned last year’s elections the UN was silent! Whilst we welcome the UN’s support on this occasion we cannot forget that the UN has also done some really foolish things in the past!
"We urge members of the public not to take heed of retrogressive calls to join or participate in the demonstrations. Government in its entirety is working day in day out to improve the socio-economic situation in the country. Let us all support these efforts for the good of the country and promote peace in all corners of Zimbabwe," said Minister Mathema.
ReplyDeleteI for one do not support MDC’s demos because the demos are calling for the formation of the National Transition Authority (NTA), a new GNU by another name, which will help Chamisa and a few other MDC leaders get back on the gravy-train but do little else.
The NTA will provide a cover for Zanu PF to remain in power when the regime should step down since it is illegitimate. We need a new competent administration appointed to implement the reforms and end the curse of rigged elections.
Still, I believe MDC and its supporters have the right to hold peaceful demonstrations. It is an outrage that Zanu PF should be seeking to silence all dissent by assuming all demos are going to be violent! This is nonsense!