Same s***t different day! That really sums up beautifully what Nelson Chamisa’s E-Rally was about!
"We want political reforms and these reforms must have people's consultation. We want credible elections in this country. We don't want a repeat of the past," announced Nelson Chamisa in his hour-long E-Rally address.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders on the promise they will implement the democratic reforms necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The party had its golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
“We sat, ate and did nothing!” Nelson Chamisa admitted, for the first time ever, in an interview with New Zimbabwe last July.
In other words for five years of the 2008 GNU MDC leaders were busy enjoying the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, the generous salaries, US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai they forgot about reforms and credible elections.
SADC leaders tried their best to have the 2013 Zimbabwe elections postpone in a desperate bid to have the reforms implemented.
“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,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza, Director of SAPES, explained to Violet Gonda.
“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 Tsvangirai and company paid no heed to the SADC leaders’ advice. The elections went ahead and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections, as SADC leaders had rightly predicted.
"So, there are no 2023 elections without reforms. We have the capacity to say there are no elections, and they will not be held because we are the people. We want elections with comprehensive electoral and political reforms," boasted Nelson Chamisa yesterday.
Well that is rich! MDC had the opportunity and the full backing of SADC leaders, who were the guarantor of the Global Political Agreement that forced Mugabe to accept the need to implement the reforms, to stop the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented and they wasted it. And now Chamisa wants the nation to believe MDC has “the capacity to stop the 2023 elections going ahead!
In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 GNU, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouting the electoral rules in the upcoming 2013 elections. It was clear the elections would not be free, fair and credible and yet MDC participated in the elections regardless.
“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 elections,” wrote Senator Coltart.
“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.”
In 2014 MDC party Congress resolved they would not participate in any future elections until reforms were implemented. “No reforms! No elections!”
The resolution was soon ditched for the same reason as before – greed.
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” Nelson Chamisa insisted. One of the many feeble excuses to justify why the party was participating in the 2018 elections with no reforms in place.
Stringent measures, my foot! The MDC did not even have the common sense to insist on ZEC producing a verified voters’ roll! No doubt nearer the 2023 elections Nelson Chamisa, regular as clockwork, will announce the party has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!
Mnangagwa is dimwit, there is a mountain of evidence to prove it; still even he is smart enough to know that as long as Zanu PF gives away the few gravy-train seats, bait, MDC and company will participate in the elections no matter how flawed the process. So, why would Zanu PF ever agree to implementing any reforms and reduce its chance of the usual landslide election victories when the opposition will participate guaranteed with no reforms!
Like it or not, MDC and the rest of Zimbabwe’s equally corrupt and incompetent opposition entourage’s continued participation in these rigged elections is giving the process some modicum of “credibility” as Coltart admitted and giving the vote rigging Zanu PF some modicum of legitimacy. If we are serious about ending the curse of rigged elections and bad governance then we must deny Zanu PF the little legitimacy the party is deriving from the opposition’s continued participation in flawed elections by starving MDC and company of our support.
The people of Zimbabwe must finally put their foot down and refuse to participate in any elections until the reforms are in place. It is for us, the people, to refuse to accept MDC’s myriad of feeble excuses to justify why we should participate in the 2023 elections without reforms. We must stop following MDC like sheep to the slaughter!
Indeed, when it comes to reforms MDC leaders have sold-out big time
during the 2008 GNU and since then. They are no longer worthy of the nation’s
trust, support and vote. Deprive MDC of political credibility and you deprive
Zanu PF the veneer of legitimacy the regime has relied on since the 2013
elections!
"So there are no 2023 elections without reforms. We have the capacity to say there are no elections, and they will not be held because we are the people. We want elections with comprehensive electoral and political reforms," he said
ReplyDeleteWe all remember the 2014 MDC party congress resolution "No reform! No elections!" And how, nearer the elections, that was jettisoned. “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” Chamisa insisted.
Chamisa, Biti, Coltart, Khupe, etc., etc. they will all participate in the 2023 elections with not even one token reforms in place we all know that and especially Mnangagwa hence the reason Zanu PF will ignore this threat!
Of course, Chamisa knows that the nation is desperate for free and fair elections and an end to the Zanu PF dictatorship and therefore by calling for free elections he has the nation hooked. He has no intention of ever delivering on that promise. Indeed, he and his MDC friends have sold-out repeatedly on reforms especially by failing to implement even one reform during the 2008 GNU.
We the people of Zimbabwe were not so naïve and gullible then they would know this is just another gimmick! Many have swallowed the hook already!
Abednico Mwembe
ReplyDeleteYou should not talk of others lacking common sense when that is the one thing you have never had! You are supporting Chamisa's call for no 2023 elections without reforms but did he not make the same call before the 2018 elections and went on to participate regardless. Where was the common sense in that.
Chamisa will participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place and you, no doubt, will be solidily behind him as usual!
@ Peter Rance
ReplyDelete“Wilbert Mukori You seem to have figured it all out. If you are so clever why don"t you form your own opposition party and see how yow fare against ZANU PF.”
To argue that we implement the democratic reforms first before holding the next elections is not just logical, it is common sense, and after 40 years of rigged elections, it is the only sane thing to do. Many of our political leaders, from both sides of the political divide, have led us front the front in these utterly meaningless elections not because they are insane, they see the futility of such elections as a democratic process. They have gone ahead with the elections regardless out of greed.
For Zanu PF rigged elections have guaranteed their stay in power and all the influence and loot that absolute power brings; their greed is obvious. MDC and the rest’s greed is not so obvious.
What you have to realise is that Zanu PF has been giving away a few gravy-train seats to maintain the façade that Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy with free and fair elections and thus prevent the embarrassment of another condemned election as in 2008. The opposition politicians know of these bait seats and that is what they are after. They do not care that Zanu PF wins its 2/3 majority by blatantly rigging the elections as long as they win one of the gravy-train seats.
So, if I was to form my own party or join one of the existing 130 of them at the last count and contest elections with no reforms it will not be because I am clever but that I am just as greed as the rest of the herd! I find no pride in running around like a headless chicken!
Change is coming says Chamisa!
ReplyDeleteChamisa's promise for change is about as meaningless as Mugabe's promise of mass economic prosperity, "Gutsa ruzhinji!" MDC has not implemented even one meaningful democratic change in the party's 20 years on the political stage. Even when the party had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 GNU, the party leaders had their snouts in the feeding trough and failed to implement any. How MDC expects an meaningful change to happen when they are undermining efforts to force Zanu PF to reform beggars belief!
“In 2017, US$2.7 billion was stolen directly from the ministry of finance; 2018, US$3.5 billion was stolen directly from the same ministry.
ReplyDelete“Now all gold mines owned by ZMDC have been given to Sakunda Holdings. ZimAlloys, Bindura Nickel Mine, Great Diamond Investment, Africa Resources Private Limited have all been given to Sakunda Pvt Ltd through a company called Landela,” he said.
“So they have redefined State capture. They have redefined corruption, that is the crisis that we are facing as a country and our solutions are very, very simple.
“We have to resolve the political crisis, once we resolve the political crisis, we have to bring sanity in our livelihoods. We have to make sure that we create and resort to a government that can govern our people with love, with concerns, and with solidarity.”
Hit the metal whilst it is still hot, so goes the adage. You, Mr Tendai Biti, and your fellow MDC leaders had five years during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the democratic reforms required to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. You failed to implement even one reform! SADC leaders tried their best to get you lot to implement the reforms but you paid no heed.
You, Biti, of all people should have known about the reforms because you were one of the MDC-T negotiators who produced the Global Political Agreement on which the GNU was based. What excuses do you have for not implementing even one reform!
Ever since the July 2018 elections you have been clamouring for the power sharing arrangement with Zanu PF. All you want is to be Minister of Finance again, you will never implement any reform to end the curse of rigged elections.
You are accusing Mnangagwa of being corrupt and selfish but so are you. You are taking advantage of the simpleton in the MDC supporters who follow blindly otherwise you and your MDC friends would be history by now.
“In 2017, US$2.7 billion was stolen directly from the ministry of finance; 2018, US$3.5 billion was stolen directly from the same ministry.
ReplyDelete“Now all gold mines owned by ZMDC have been given to Sakunda Holdings. ZimAlloys, Bindura Nickel Mine, Great Diamond Investment, Africa Resources Private Limited have all been given to Sakunda Pvt Ltd through a company called Landela,” he said.
“So they have redefined State capture. They have redefined corruption, that is the crisis that we are facing as a country and our solutions are very, very simple.
“We have to resolve the political crisis, once we resolve the political crisis, we have to bring sanity in our livelihoods. We have to make sure that we create and resort to a government that can govern our people with love, with concerns, and with solidarity.”
Hit the metal whilst it is still hot, so goes the adage. You, Mr Tendai Biti, and your fellow MDC leaders had five years during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the democratic reforms required to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. You failed to implement even one reform! SADC leaders tried their best to get you lot to implement the reforms but you paid no heed.
You, Biti, of all people should have known about the reforms because you were one of the MDC-T negotiators who produced the Global Political Agreement on which the GNU was based. What excuses do you have for not implementing even one reform!
Ever since the July 2018 elections you have been clamouring for the power sharing arrangement with Zanu PF. All you want is to be Minister of Finance again, you will never implement any reform to end the curse of rigged elections.
You are accusing Mnangagwa of being corrupt and selfish but so are you. You are taking advantage of the simpleton in the MDC supporters who follow blindly otherwise you and your MDC friends would be history by now.
Mnangagwa, the late Robert Mugabe and Libya's late dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi are three peas out of the same pod they will want to stay in power to the bitter end. The military coup that ousted Mugabe was not so bloody and chaotic but the next coup might well go down the same route as the one in Libya.
ReplyDeleteUntil the day we finally implement the democratic reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections Zimbabwe will remain politically unstable. The violent end of Mnangagwa is certainly on the cards, it is just a matter of when it is coming not if. What a nightmare!
The people of Zimbabwe have a binary mentality, they have accepted Zanu PF as the enemy of the people and MDC as the champions fighting Zanu PF on their behalf. Before independence the people had accepted the white colonial regime as the enemy and Zanu PF as the liberating heroes.
ReplyDeleteOnce pigeon-holed as good then one can do no wrong. It is this inability to separate a situation and evaluated it own its own merit, to judge the case without confusing the mitigating circumstances with the evidence, that has been the nation’s Achilles heel.
It took 20 years or so for most Zimbabweans to accept the political reality that Robert Mugabe and his cronies were corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs.
It was clear even from the first national elections in 1980 that Zanu PF had already ditched the time-honoured commitment to “One man! One vote!” The party wanted a one-party state and set-out to ruthlessly impose it. Even with the mounting evidence of the worsening economic and the Gukurahundi massacre most people still refused to accept that Mugabe and company were anything else other than national heroes par excellence!
It was only in the late 1990s that the penny finally dropped in some people’s minds that Zanu PF was the party of liberation war but liberation heroes yesterday can be today’s ruthless oppressors. And to insist on judging someone on the basis of what they did yesterday and ignoring what they are doing now is, of course, foolish.
By proving someone did carry out an act of heroic self-sacrifice in the past does not prove the individual is incapable of a selfish barbaric act.
There is a mountain of evidence proving beyond all doubt that MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-out who have long given up the undertaking to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections. Chamisa is talking of stopping 2023 elections until there are reforms and yet has not said how he will do that.
The proposed power sharing with Zanu PF will never implement any reforms, he knows that!
Chamisa will participate in the 2023 elections even if not even one reform is implemented, he has done that before and will do it again.
Many Zimbabweans, especially the MDC wildebeest herd, refuse to accept MDC are corrupt, incompetent and sell-out; after 20 years with not even one reform to show for it, the evidence is undeniable. They refuse because they have a binary mentality we not allow them to accept the reality that MDC leaders have failed to deliver the free and fair elections.
The Dr Nkosana Moyo led Alliance for People's Agenda has expressed confidence over the Zimbabweans capability to work for the development of the country if the environment is conducive.
ReplyDelete"Soon after independence we began shunning vocational training for white collar qualifications. We have successfully built universities in every province of the country. Despite all this success has eluded us," APA said.
"Our leaders still look to the white race for solutions. Unbelievable! As Alliance for the People's Agenda we have no doubt as to the abilities of Zimbabweans. The expertise lacking in our traditional political movements is abundant in private citizens. We are confident that given a chance and the right environment Zimbabwe will be delivered into prosperity by Zimbabweans."
Zimbabwe is stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship and all attempts to end the dictatorship have all but failed because the regime has bribed the opposition too. Who would believe that lawyers, doctors, professors, etc., etc. would all be so foolish they would participate in elections in which the authorities have failed to produce something as basic as a voters’ roll. The regime offered the opposition a few gravy-train seats and they were hooked!
Who would ever believe that anyone would be so shallow, thick and slow they do not know what constitute free, fair and credible elections in this day and age! Zimbabwe has 130 political parties at the last count and not even one of the morons had the common sense to demand that ZEC must produce a verified voters’ roll! FCUK ME!
“Given a chance and the right environment Zimbabwe will be delivered into prosperity by Zimbabweans!” To force Zanu PF to step down so we can implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections the nation has to first of all fight-off the corrupt and incompetent opposition opportunists now fighting in Zanu PF’s corner.