“It is Zanu PF itself that has become a super-spreader of perfidy and unbridled falsehoods as exemplified by its statements alleging growth in the country’s economy and the cheap allegation that victims of State-sanctioned abductions are faking their own abductions,” wrote Luke Tamborinyoka in Zimeye.
“The regime has now simply run amok. No one is safe as Mnangagwa’s government takes perfect cover under the lockdown to repress citizens and to engage in a vain but violent attempt to decimate the people’s project called the MDC Alliance.”
There is no denying that Zanu PF “has become a super-spreader of perfidy and unbridled falsehoods as exemplified by its statements alleging growth in the country’s economy, etc., etc.” But it that an excuse for you to compete with Zanu PF in trading falsehood of your own.
Nelson Chamisa’s seizure of power following Tsvangirai’s death was against the MDC-T constitution and common sense and decency and his greed has comeback to haunt Chamisa and the party. Yes Zanu PF has taken full advantage of the chaos born by Chamisa’s ill-advised palace-coup but to suggest Zanu PF is responsible for MDC’s implosion is nonsense.
The reason why the nation cannot hold Zanu PF to democratic account of the economic meltdown, the political oppression, the blundering incompetence in the handling of the corona virus, etc. is because Zanu PF has a super majority in parliament.
Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections to get the presidency and his parliamentary majority. By participating in the elections MDC A and the rest of the opposition opportunists gave the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy. And worst of all Chamisa et al knew they were giving the illegal regime legitimacy.
“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 (2013) elections,” wrote Senator Coltart in his book The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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.”
The three main MDC factions plus three other political parties did form a coalition, MDC Alliance, before the 2018 elections and still they participated in that year’s plebiscite for the same reason in the 2013 elections - greed.
“MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the (2018) elections!” boasted Chamisa. It was all “perfidy and unbridled falsehoods” as we know.
Zanu PF has all but ignored all calls for democratic reforms, Mnangagwa is super confident all the MDC factions will participate in the 2023 elections with not even one token reform in place. The opposition’s greed for the few gravy train to entice them to participate in flawed and illegal elections got the better of them in past it will do so again.
Lest we forget, the MDC leaders should have implemented the democratic reforms when they had the chance during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
It has been easier to get hen’s teeth than to get MDC leaders to admit the sold-out big time during the GNU. The odd occasion they have said anything about the GNU years, it has been to blame SADC or Zanu PF for the GNU’s failure to dismantle the dictatorship.
“Streetifying the people’s anger is now more of an imperative than it was a few months ago when Zimbabweans exhorted each other to peacefully and constitutionally express themselves in July 2020. It is now urgent, given the exigency of the moment, for citizens to streetify their genuine grievances in line with the dictates of the Constitution,” argued Luke Tamborinyoka.
The most important thing for Zimbabweans to know here is that MDC leaders will not only implement any reforms, they are quite content to let Zanu PF rig elections and stay in power as long as they get a share of the spoils of power.
So without implementing the reforms we are stuck with this Zanu PF regime.
Street protests are useful in pressuring Zanu PF to implement but without someone to implement the reforms the opportunity will be wasted just like so many other similar opportunities.
We need to replace the MDC leaders with the competent and focused men and women we can trusted to implement the reforms - MDC leaders have proven they are not to the task. To stage any street protests in the hope that MDC leaders will implement the reforms will be tantamount to going into war with the same misfiring and therefore utterly useless gun.
After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule Zimbabweans must now fight for democratic change, the restoration of their freedoms, human rights and, indeed, their very survival and not just to vent their anger and frustration.
@ Tendai Dumbutshena
ReplyDeleteAt this crucial moment pregnant with opportunities to peacefully end the Zanu-PF regime's reign, the monumental incompetence, naivety and timidity of the MDC leadership allowed Mugabe to regroup and outwit his opponents whose ineptitude must have shocked the old wily fox.
The AU resolution said two things. First, the election run-off of the presidential election was illegitimate. Second, that the two parties must form an inclusive government to create conditions that ensure a free and fair election.
The raison d'etre of the inclusive government was to enact reforms that would create an even electoral playing field. Yes the normal business had to continue but it was a transitional government with a core mandate to end Zimbabwe's perennial problem of violent and rigged elections.
Again when they became part of that government the MDC slept on the job. a source who attended Sadc meetings on Zimbabwe during this critical period told me how he was shocked by the MDC's weak contributions on the issue of reforms required for free and fair elections.
President Jacob Zuma's two envoys to Zimbabwe, Charles Nqakula and Lindiwe Zulu were reportedly shocked by the lukewarm engagement of the MDC in these discussions. No wonder Mugabe called Zulu a "street woman" when in another forum she called for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. It is as if he was angry with her for telling the MDC to wake up.
While the MDC was distracted by trinkets and petty privileges, Zanu-PF plotted to ensure that there was no repetition of 2008. The inevitable outcome was the electoral massacre of the MDC in 2013. The MDC's protestations about rigging were hollow because it was complicit in the failure of the unity government to enact the necessary reforms.
The cumulative effect of the MDC's blunders over the years killed the party as an effective challenger to Zanu-PF. There is a tendency among many Zimbabweans to lionise the late Morgan Tsvangirai as a great leader. Some suggest that if he were still alive the shambles in the party today would not have happened. This is clearly false. Tsvangirai was a weak and flawed leader.
So a level of seriousness is required from those who offer themselves to be leaders of this struggle. Individuals who place a premium on the comforts of middle-class suburban life and high social status are not equipped to confront the regime in Harare.
They opted for safety not confrontation. They failed to heed the words of Benjamin Franklin that "those who give up liberty for a little temporary safety neither deserve liberty nor safety."
Thank you very much Tendai!
By forcing MDC leaders to take a hard look of themselves in the mirror you have also forced many Zimbabweans out there to take a hard look at themselves.
MDC leaders have proven beyond all doubt these last 20 years to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent and yet many Zimbabweans have continue to follow these village idiots blindly like sheep to the slaughter. The greatest impediment in our struggle for freedom, liberty and a life with dignity has been the Zimbabwean populous ourselves.
Democracy demands an informed, diligent and active electorate not a naive and gullible one! One has only to look at the mess Zimbabwe is in to see immediately that Benjamin Franklin was right. God we have paid dearly for our folly in allowing ourselves to be ruled by these corrupt and murderous thugs for all these decades complete with their entourage of opposition village idiots!
@ Mudhle
ReplyDelete“Reforms are at the mercy of the ruling party my brother, people can sing about reforms but they won’t come so cheap as such. Jonso once said it clearly that the party will never reform itself out of power and people are failing to understand that. Yes we need reforms but they don’t come cheap.”
You have failed to understand what Tendai explained so well. The GNU was not about what Zanu PF wanted but rather what was agreed in the Global Political Agreement. It was not Mugabe of Zanu PF that stopped MDC leaders implement even one meaningful reform, it was because MDC leaders themselves took their eyes off the ball!
Your default position is to blame look for others to blame for MDC’s failures and no rational arguments can penetrate those whose brain is atrophied into fat!
@ Mudhie
Delete“We heard you very well my brother Wilbert, but what we are saying is that, these guys are diehards, they don't listen or follow rules that don't favour them. It was agreed fine but they don't even have an iota to follow that what was agreed. The good example is the constitution in general, its not for a particular party but some guys are busy crafting new laws and bills and in some cases applying the old acts.
“I am sure you you remember Mugabe telling Mangwana and Mhonzora something like this though no longer sure of the exact statement vasazvirova matundundu nechi constitution... In other words Mugabe was saying we chose want we want. I am sure you remember the constitution was supposed to bar Mugabe from contesting the next election but the Committee ended up panel beating it to allow him to. We still have a mountain to climb before we see meaningful reforms reforms being implemented.”
MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years and you want us to believe that it was because Mugabe “didn’t listen of follow rules”. Well SADC was the guarantor of the Global Political Agreement, the rules during the GNU, how many times did MDC complain that Zanu PF was breaking the rules? Not even once!
Indeed, if anything it was SADC leaders who complained to MDC leaders that they must implement the reforms.
“President Jacob Zuma's two envoys to Zimbabwe, Charles Nqakula and Lindiwe Zulu were reportedly shocked by the lukewarm engagement of the MDC in these discussions. No wonder Mugabe called Zulu a "street woman" when in another forum she called for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. It is as if he was angry with her for telling the MDC to wake up,” stated Tendai above.
If is a historic fact that MDC leaders sold out big time during the 2008 to 2013 GNU - proof they are corrupt and incompetent and not fit to govern. You can deny it as you wish, but that is a fact!
Zimbabwe is looking for a way out of this mess and as long as the country continues to follow leaders who have already proven to be corrupt, incompetent and sell-out we will remain stuck where we are.
Ever since MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU they have all but given up implementing the reforms as the way to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. They have decided to participate in the flawed and illegal elections so they remain the country’s opposition party and hope the worsening economic situation will force the people to rebel against the Zanu PF regime; when that happens they will be ready to takeover as the governing party.
ReplyDeleteIf the MDC leaders had not sold-out during the GNU and implemented the reforms we would not be still be stuck with this corrupt and vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship.
By participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC leaders are giving the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy the regime does not deserve and at us the ordinary people’s expense. Instead of change coming from implementing the reforms now we have to rely on some violent act like street protests or military coup and all because MDC leaders lack the political discipline resist the scraps offered to participate in flawed elections.
To remain relevant MDC leaders are competing with each other over headline grabbing stunts. Luke Tamborinyoka is hoping his Luke -ing the Beast in the eye column will keep him in the public eye ready for the 2023 election. He participated in the 2018 elections and lost to Zanu PF and hopes to do better in 2023.
The truth is Zimbabwe can ill afford to have these meaningless and flawed elections simply to gratify the opportunists opposition leaders! The next elections must be free, fair and credible; if not then the people must indeed come out into the streets and demand that reforms are implemented.
@ Matthew
ReplyDelete“The MDC here is Clearly up to the tusk, but the writer seems to have a sole right to point out to the citizens which party is right for Zimbabweans,Excuse us please, just do us a favour by Telling Zimbabweans which corner a you fighting from and for Who?,rather than saying MDC A did this MDC A did that.We Zimbabweans under MDC A banner will carry on fighting for what we think we are being deprived of by of by ZANU regime.Thank you.”
If MDC A are up to the task then please tell us why they have failed to bring about even one democratic change in 20 years, including 5 years in the GNU, and yet claim to be the party of “democratic change”!
Mark my words, MDC A and the rest in the opposition are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections with not even one reform in place. How anyone can see that as progress beggars belief!
It is not only President Donald Trump who has brain-dead and fanatical supporters. Indeed, this is a very common disease in a country like Zimbabwe where freedom of expression and healthy debate is considered a luxury by both the corrupt and tyrannical ruling party and its equally corrupt and useless opposition parties!
@ Prisca Ncube
ReplyDelete“Can you come up Mukori, with a new political party and a formidable political manifesto that shall attract voters to your side. We are tired of the same rhetoric. Much as your message made sense yester year , but to hummer it day-in-day out will usher resentment than what you intend to put across.”
What is the point of producing a formidable political manifesto if you will not have the opportunity to sell it to the electorate because Zimbabwe does not have freedom of expression and the country’s public media is in the hands of those whose top priority is to stifle debate and democratic competition. Even if the formidable manifesto was given fair airing, how many Zimbabweans out there will understand its true value?
MDC leaders have proven beyond all reasonable doubt that they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent especially by failing to implement even one meaningful reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. And yet the MDC still continues, to this day, to enjoy a lot of support because many Zimbabweans out there have no clue what the GNU was about and much less that MDC sold-out.
If these people have failed to understand what the GNU was about, even now with all the benefit of hindsight; what makes you believe they will understand a formidable political manifesto?
It is said when Benjamin Franklin was asked by the public what kind of government had he and the other founding fathers of the United States of America had produced. He answered, “A Republic, if you can hold on to it!” Of course, he was right!
It does not matter how good those in leadership position might be, if the people are a naive and gullible lot, as is the case in Zimbabwe, you will never have a healthy and functioning democracy.
You can give Zimbabweans a democratic constitution complete with all the checks and balance; give them in the morning and by noon you will have a tyrant in State House!
The democratic reforms I have been hammering day-in day-out are not only to create a strong democratic constitution and institutions but most important of all to enable the ordinary people to be educated on their role in a healthy democracy.
The ordinary people may not understand all the complexities of your formidable manifesto but they must at least have an inkling of what it is about!
The reason why many people are not interested in the reforms much less how they are to be implemented is because they hate having to put the effort to learn. They want easy solutions with the least amount of effort on their part. Convincing them that self-reform is the first and toughest reform that must be implemented is also the number one and toughest task those calling for reforms face!
Zimbabwe had 130 political parties in the last elections and that did not make even the slightest bit of difference - proof it is not the lack of new parties that is holding back the nation.