Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime for the last 40 years and counting. Whilst the people have long discovered that Mnangagwa and before him Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs were dragging the nation into economic poverty, they have not been able to do anything about it because the party rigged the elections.
It is generally agreed that the nation came to a consensus on the need to democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and extending its stay in power in the late 1990s. In 1999, Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their political party and called it a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC); riding on the popular demand for democratic change.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into positions of power and authority on the understanding that once in power the party will deliver the all democratic changes and restore the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote.
Sadly, MDC has failed to implement even one democratic reforms in 20 years, including 5 years in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Not even one reform!
Zanu PF still enjoys the carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections and extend its corrupt and tyrannical rule and thus drag the nation deeper and deeper into the economic and political mess.
The one clear message that has emerge from participating in the 2013 and 2018 elections is not just the futility of participating in rigged elections, Zanu PF always emerged as the victor guaranteed. Elections should give the voters real choices including the ultimate choice to remove the seating government. But most significantly, Zanu PF has been very careful to make sure the opposition participated in numbers and in doing so giving the flawed election process credibility and the result legitimacy.
It will be insane to once again participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place!
“On the 11th of December 2020, Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE) launched a campaign dubbed 2.2 Million Votes for Women from Women. The campaign aims to engage and mobilise 2.2 million women across the country to vote for women candidates in the 2023 elections,” reported New Zimbabwe.
“The campaign comes under a backdrop of perpetual dwindling of the number of women elected and appointed into leadership and decision making positions such as councillors, Members of Parliament (MPs), cabinet ministers or other high level government positions,” reads the WALPE statement.
“Currently, women are severely underrepresented in all leadership positions as evidenced by the fact that they occupy only an estimated 15 percent of leadership positions nationwide which is far below the requirements of sections 17, 56, and 80 of the Zimbabwean Constitution that mandate gender equality in all branches of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary).
This is all sweet, sweet music in Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF cronies’ ears. They have no intention of implementing even one token democratic reform before the 2023 elections and, of course, all news of people participating in the elections without calling for reforms only serve to reassure the party they will once again get away with yet another rigged elections.
Mnangagwa pointed to the 23 candidates contesting the presidential race in the July 2018 elections and the 130 political parties and thousands independent candidates contesting for the 210 parliamentary seats as proof Zimbabwean elections were free, fair and credible.
Of course, Mnangagwa had a point particularly when the opposition candidate participated knowing fully well that ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement!
One of the WALPE’s campaign objective is “to increase the number of women who register and vote in the 2023 elections.”
In the July 2018 elections Zanu PF denied the 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the diaspora an opportunity to register. Whilst in America for the annual September UN GA meeting, just two months after the elections, Mnangagwa said Zimbabweans in the diaspora will vote next time - proof they were denied the vote because the party lacked the political will.
It is now two and half years since Mnangagwa promised the diaspora vote and yet the regime has not even started the discussion as to how this will be done. This is just one more promise, like the promise to hold free, fair and credible elections, he made to silence his critics but with no intention of keeping it.
How will WALPE ensure women in the diaspora register and vote in the 2023 elections?
It is no secrete that Zanu PF have made it very difficult for Zimbabweans in the country to register and then to vote. It is near impossible to trace and verify who voted well there is no verified voters’ roll.
How will WALPE force ZEC to produce a verified voters’ roll?
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Mission final report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
We know why Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A and the rest of the opposition candidates have been participating in the elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections and that doing so gave the process credibility - greed. Zanu PF has been offering the participating opposition a few gravy train seats; an offer they simple could not resist.
Without even one democratic reform in place, Zanu PF will blatantly rig the 2023 elections and all the opposition will do is give the regime legitimacy.
A 2019 WB report said 34% of Zimbabweans were living in extreme poverty, i.e. they could not afford one decent meal a day much less other basic necessities such as education for the children and health care. The corona virus pandemic has pushed the number living in extreme poverty to way above 50%!
The need for the country to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance is more urgent now than it was in the 1990s!
If no reforms are implemented before the 2023 elections, then the elections must be declared null and void. Period! It is totally unacceptable that Zanu PF should be given a chance to once again claim legitimacy by pointing to the number of opposition candidates who participated in the flawed elections.
We must make sure all opposition candidates who participate in the 2023 elections knowing millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied a vote, there is no verified voters’ roll, etc. have no political credibility. We must not allow WALPE, MDC and the rest of the brain-dead walruses in the opposition camp make monkeys out of us ever again!
Govt Pays CIOs USD300 Each While Soldiers, Doctors, Teachers Wallow In Poverty.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe is a Police State in which security has now become the only issue and education and health care have all but collapsed.
@ Mbofana
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has always been involved in leadership, and leadership positions, from a very young age, one of the most influential persons in my life, once advised me: "a great leader surrounds him or herself with those more knowledgeable than him or her, and also those courageous enough to rebuke him or her when he or she goes wrong" - a piece of phenomenal wisdom, that I endeavoured to abide by throughout my life, as it has always proven to be the cornerstone of any of my successful undertakings - on the other hand, ignoring these 'words of life', inevitably led to failure.
Indeed, it is never easy religiously committing to such fundamental principles - predominantly, due to our natural aversion to being criticized, and an unhealthy sense of egoism, that makes many leaders have delusions of grandeur and infallibility, thereby tempting them into surrounding themselves with bootlickers, praise-singers, and hero-worshippers...a catastrophic illusion that has led to their unsurprising downfall.
The best way to describe bootlickers, praise-singers, and hero-worshippers is, "a bunch of parasitic vermin, whose only contribution to a leader is to suck him or her dry, without adding anything of value into his or her leadership”
It must be said the bootlicking has become one of the most profitable careers in Zimbabwe. And in a country where unemployment has soared to nauseating heights of 90%, bootlicking is even a matter of life and death.
The real tragedy here is these brain-dead corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging tyrants and their entourage of bootlickers have ridden roughshod on the ordinary people denying them their freedoms, rights and human dignity. Zimbabwe has become a country for the filthy rich ruling elite few at the expense of the overwhelming majority condemned to hearth breaking abject poverty and despair. And we have let it all happen and are paying dearly for it!
We have allowed bootlickers like Professor Jonathan Moyo, Professor Mthuli Ncube, the opposition sell-outs and not forgetting the murderous tyrants themselves to go unpunished. The challenge is to hold the bootlickers, sell-outs and tyrants to account!
@ Newsday
ReplyDelete“I felt compelled to write to Mnangagwa because I believe he has the power to do it. He has the power to make it happen. He told the world that he is a "listening president". He also said the voice of the people was the voice of God.
“Mnangagwa listen, the voice of God is speaking. Zimbabweans are yearning for a way out of this never-ending agony which is showing no signs of subsiding.”
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who care about absolute power and the unfettered access to the country’s vast wealth. They do not care about the suffering masses.
After 40 years of looting and a life of unparalleled luxury, these Zanu PF thugs are now truly addicted to absolute power and it is naive to keep wittering about Mnangagwa being a “listening president willing or able to do anything to end the human suffering he has brought on the nation.
Zimbabweans must finally accept the political reality, the Zanu PF dictatorship has failed to millions of ordinary people forcing them into a life of abject poverty. We must demand meaningful change and stop wasting time hoping the de facto one-party dictatorship can bring prosperity to the masses.
Mnangagwa and Chamisa found each other to form the 2008 to 2013 GNU and that has brought no change to the nation. Asking the two find each other again will bring no surprise change. We need people with imagination and not individuals with their heads forever buried in the sand!
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