“MDC Alliance vice-chairperson Job Sikhala has said President Emmerson Mnangagwa has proved to be one of the worst authoritarian leaders to ever lead Zimbabwe, an accusation that comes as the nation next month marks the second anniversary of the bloody fuel price protests which were violently quashed by the military,” reported The Standard.
This is just another case of MDC silverback gorilla grandstanding and posturing to get attention and this is all they have done for the last 20 years. Worse still, the posturing is not harmless, MDC are the ones helping to keep Zanu PF in power!
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power for one principle reason - so that the party would bring about the democratic changes, as the party name implied, the nation was been dying for.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the democratic reforms, dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus end the curse of rigged elections. Sadly, they wasted the opportunity and failed to implement even one reform.
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, the very generous salaries and perks, a US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough, even the constant nagging by SADC leaders failed to get Tsvangirai and company to implement even one reform in five years.
“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC diplomat in sheer exasperation.
Ever since GNU, Zanu PF has offered a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happen to be. A honey trap Zanu PF knew MDC leaders would find irresistible, as David Coltart readily confessed in his book.
“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 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.”
Blaming the “failure to agree a coalition” for participating in flawed and illegal 2013 elections was just a feeble excuse. Three of the main MDC factions plus three other parties did form a coalition, the MDC Alliance, before the 2018 elections. The coalition participated in the plebiscite without even a pose for thought although it was certain Zanu PF was rigging the elections.
As before, ZEC failed to produce something as elementary as verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake.
By participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC A gave the process “credibility”, as Coltart said, but, more significantly, it gave legitimacy the vote rigging Zanu PF.
MP Job Sikhala was one of the MDC A winners of the few gravy train seats and his denouncing of Mnangagwa as “one of the worst authoritarian leaders” must be taken with a pitch of salt given he is the one giving the Mnangagwa legitimacy.
Worse still, Sikhala’s posturing is publicity stunt to keep himself in the public eye, he is preparing to participate in the 2023 elections and thus perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship.
MDC leaders are running with the povo hare whilst hunting with the Zanu PF hounds.
Mnangagwa is smart enough to know a political opponent who calls “one of the worst authoritarian leaders” but never implement the reforms is a blessing compared to one who will implement the reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship!
It is the people of Zimbabwe who must wake-up to the political reality that after 20 years of MDC posturing, the nation is still stuck with the Zanu PF dictatorship. Enough of this posturing nonsense; what the nation is dying for is to have the reforms implemented.
If no reforms are implemented then the 2023 elections must be declared null and void. The last thing the nation wants is MDC giving Zanu PF legitimacy! The idea of Zanu PF remaining in power after the 2023 elections is simply unthinkable!
This is just harmless posturing by Sikhala it is the implementation of the democratic reforms that the nation wants, Mnangagwa fears and Sikhala and his MDC friends have dared not even to touch these last 20 years!
ReplyDeleteMDC-T interim leader Thokozani Khupe have suspended Douglas Mwonzora from his secretary-general post for allegedly fiddling with the party voting process to tilt the outcome in his favour.
ReplyDeleteKhupe, together with fellow party politicians Elias Mudzuri and Morgen Komichi, have rejected the internal poll processes while claiming Mwonzora was rigging the election.
However, Mwonzora was adamant his suspension was null and void as he could not be suspended by a fellow candidate.
This extra-ordinary congress was called to settle the leadership issue because Nelson Chamisa had ridden roughshod over the party’s constitution to secure the presidency of the party for himself. And now the extra-ordinary congress itself is failing to resolve the problem because there are accusations and counter accusation of vote rigging and member being firing right, left and centre!
MDC has not only failed to deliver even one democratic change to end the Zanu PF dictatorship the people have been asking for, worse still, the MDC has now morphed into a microcosm of Zanu PF in all but name! MDC will never deliver free, fair and credible elections even if the difficult task of getting the democratic reforms were implemented by others.
All these MDC leaders want is power and they are showing us all that they will stop at nothing - including blatantly rigging the elections - to secure it! Are these the men and women we can trust to rule the country?
"At what stage is the ministry (of Housing) in terms of constructing houses for traditional chiefs so that they can have a decent status in society?" asked Chikwaka.
ReplyDeleteResponding to the question, Housing minister Daniel Garwe said the government had limited resources to build houses for every chief across the country.
"The government has noted that construction of houses for the chiefs is not a sustainable programme. "Chiefs, like every Zimbabwean, look upon the government for their welfare and upkeep, but the government does not have enough resources.
"It is not sustainable due to the fact that today we have Chief Ephraim Chikwaka, we build a house for him and he passes on and another chief takes over who will also want a house constructed for him" said Garwe.
Zanu PF bought a twin cab truck for each and everyone of the chiefs before the 2018 elections or soon thereafter. The chiefs campaigned for the party and help delivery a landslide victory for the party. This happened at a time when many hospitals and schools were and still are in a sorry state of rot and decay after decades of being starved of funds.
Zanu PF ruling elite all live in mansions, look at Mugabe’s Blue Roof sprawling mansion. Chiefs count themselves as part of the ruling elite and therefore expect to be pampered too. There is no doubt the regime will find the money to build the chiefs the houses they are asking for or be it nowhere near the mansions standard of the top dogs!
Unless we implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections then Zanu PF “has won the 2023 elections before even the first ballot is cast”, as Patrick Chinamasa boasted a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is most infuriating that none of the opposition parties and leaders are talking about the need for reforms. In the run-up to the 2018 elections the opposition had the National Election Reform Agenda (NERA), a grouping of a few opposition parties for the purpose of talking about reforms. It was all lip-service as none of the parties were willing to put reforms as a condition for participating in the elections. Still, at least they talked about reforms.
This time the opposition have all but given reforms and free, fair and credible elections as a lost cause. They all know that Zanu PF has to give away a few gravy train seats to entice them to participate and give legitimacy to the result the opposition are fighting each other for these few seats.
Job Sikhala, Tendai Biti, Jacob Ngarivhume and one or two other opposition leaders have been berating Mnangagwa and Zanu PF, making all manner of threats, etc., anything to keep them in the public eye and thus give themselves the edge in the fight over the few gravy train seats.
Mnangagwa is ignoring all calls to implement reforms because he knows that even with no reforms the opposition will participate and give him legitimacy. It is sheer hypocrisy on the part of leaders like Chamisa, Biti, Sikhala, etc. denouncing Mnangagwa as illegitimate when it is their continued participation in these flawed and illegal elections that gives Zanu PF legitimacy.
Not even a team of wild horses will stop Chamisa, Biti, etc. participating in the 2023 elections. What one can do here is expose the lie they are doing so out of public interest; they are doing so out of greed. MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during the GNU for exactly the same reason - greed.
A discredited opposition cannot give Zanu PF legitimacy!
@ Nduna
ReplyDelete“The book by Coltart has been quoted ad nauseam. One is left wondering whether all the people quoting it read it or they just copy and paste from other articles by other contributors.”
Have you read Senator David Coltart’s book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe?
If you have not done so then I will encourage you to do so. It is not a particularly good read as the writer left out many, many questions unanswered. Still, it worth reading as it gives an insight into why MDC has been such a total disaster and hence we are in this mess.
“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,” wrote Coltart. This is nonsense because it was MDC that failed to implement even one reform throughout the GNU and yet Coltart failed to say this in the book.
Still, the quoted paragraphs are certainly important because they are proof the opposition have been participating in these flawed and illegal elections out of greed and that they also know their participation is giving the process credibility. Understanding that is key to understanding why the opposition have lost political credibility and so this is well worth quoting ad nauseam again and again and again ad nauseam!
Political analyst Alexander Rusero said 2020 has been a sad year courtesy of Covid-19, which triggered the incipient decline of democracy in Zimbabwe, self-evident through state-inspired and state-connected abductions of citizens.
ReplyDelete"Sadly it has been a year that witnessed total rupture of the opposition and its decimation as a viable political alternative. The year 2020 and its horrors have given Zanu-PF leverage and strategic positioning way before the 2023 elections, as it apparently remains the only party immune to Covid regulations and state of emergency," Rusero said.
History will say the 2008 to 2013 GNU is the period MDC lost its political relevance. The party had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and change the course of the country’s history. The party leaders were bribed and they completely switched off for five years, they failed to implement even one token reform.
The only reason MDC has continued to enjoy public support from some sections of the population is because the individuals concerned have failed to understand what the GNU was about and thus understand the enmity of MDC’s betrayal.
By failing to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC leaders proved beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Everything they have done since then has only served to confirm what we already knew.
After the blundering during the GNU no one with half a working brain considered MDC “a viable political alternative”. No one!