“Head
of the European Union (EU) delegation in Zimbabwe, Timo Olkkonen, has said
Zimbabwe deserves a viable and people-driven opposition to effectively keep the
government under check,” reported News Day.
“Speaking
on HSTV's FreeTalk on Thursday, Olkkonen said for democracy to prevail in
Zimbabwe, a viable opposition must be able to stand up and challenge the Zanu
PF government when it deviates from the norm.”
No
one can dispute the importance of a competent, viable and people-driven opposition
for a healthy and functioning democracy. Zimbabwe is not and was never ever a
healthy and functioning democracy because it has never had a competent and
people driven opposition party. Never.
Therefore,
the suggestion especially from the EU who should know better that, before the
recall of MDC A MPs and senators following the March 2020 Supreme Court March ruling,
Zimbabwe had a viable and competent opposition is foolish, to say the least.
"I
would not want to go into partisan politics and comment on that. People's
representatives are lacking, which is the case now when the people have been
recalled but there is need for a remedy and there will be need for elections,
for people to express their will and that is why we hope that the situation
will be addressed," said Olkkonen.
If
there is one thing the people have yarned for it is the opportunity to express
their democratic wish in free, fair and credible elections. The 240 strong EU Election
Observer Mission dismissed the 2018 Zimbabwe elections as a farce.
“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. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive
use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election
period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election
campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to
meet international standards,” stated the EU Mission report.
One
reason why it was impossible to trace and verify anything is because ZEC failed
to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common-sense
requirement.
Why MDC
A and the rest of the opposition were participating in an election process everyone
could see was flawed and illegal, especially when everybody else was piling
pressure of Zanu PF to implement reforms to ensure the elections were free and
fair?
David
Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General, answered that question in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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
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.”
Four
of the main MDC factions and three other opposition parties did form a
coalition just before the 2018 elections and still there was no talk of boycotting
the elections even when ZEC had once again failed to produce a verified voters’
roll!
What must
be noted here is that by participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC
A is not only giving the process credibility, as Coltart readily acknowledged above,
but, most important of all, is giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
So Zanu
PF has the power to rig the election to secure the presidency, 2/3 majority,
legitimacy and, by limiting the size of the opposition, is guaranteed a weak and
feeble opposition. And as long as MDC A keep participating and giving the vote
rigging Zanu PF legitimacy we are stuck with this totally dysfunctional
political system.
“Olkkonen
also warned that the proposed Patriotic Bill meant to criminalise, among other
things, private citizens' engagement with foreign countries, would further
strain relations between Harare and the EU,” continued the News Day report.
Zimbabwe’s
July 2018 elections “failed to meet international standards”, this is an
undisputed historic fact, and it therefore follows that such a flawed and
illegal election process could not produce a viable and people-driven MDC A opposition.
If the EU is saying that the flawed July 2018 elections produced a viable and
competent MDC A opposition then the same elections must have produced a viable
and people-driven ruling party too. The EU must therefore stop this double talk
and re-engage with the Mnangagwa government!
Zimbabwe’s
stuck in this economic and political mess because the country has failed to
hold free, fair and credible elections. We need to pile the pressure on Zanu PF
to implement the democratic reforms, the pre-requisite for free, fair and
credible election and good governance.
We
also need to send a clear message to the MDC A that their continued
participation in flawed and illegal elections is undermining all our efforts to
get the reforms implemented by giving Zanu PF legitimacy. Of course, the MDC A leaders
sold-out in participating in flawed July 2018 elections and it is nonsense to
call such sell-outs a viable and people-driven opposition.
If
MDC A participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place, they will be
selling out, yet again. Period!
By Taruberekera Masara, in Pretoria | Democratic space in Zimbabwe is suffocating and facing a painful death. The second Republic is seemingly determined to diminish the country into a one party dictatorship. This is particularly disastrous to the youths. They are not favoured by the policies and the politics of the day. This obtaining is a direct result of our apathy and lethargy to confront the elephant in the room head-on
ReplyDeleteStatistics from Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (2018) suggest that out of 5.69 million registered voters, only 44% constitute youth between the ages of (18-34). The figures shows how disengaged the youths are on issues that determines their lives and their future. Such stats speaks audibly on how we got to this circus that is throwing our future into disarray. We need to tap from the generational and demographic dividend that favours us.
For my generation (youths), our future is quite bleak. We may not have a pension, there are going to be no jobs, no houses for me and my friends to buy, we are going to rent for the rest of our lives. There’s is rampant corruption in the housing sector. There’s no security of investment. These are the direct results of our apathy.
This is the kind of narrative that Zanu PF agents would love to propagate. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll and so any statistics on the number of voters, age, etc. is meaningless. The whole election process was not transparent, could not verify or trace anything and, no doubt, many of Zanu PF’s winning votes are not real people. And yet the nation is told again and again if the opposition mobilised and guarded the vote; they will win.
How many times have the opposition supporters tried to register to vote and had were forced to jump so many obstacles and more often than not forced to give up?
Have we really given up the fight for implementing the reforms and having free and fair elections and hence the reason we are we now focusing on those idiotic strategies to win rigged elections?
Why are we not focusing on making sure the election process is clean and every citizen is able to exercise their right to a meaningful vote!
ZANU PF’s Chitepo School of Ideology is conducting party orientation workshops targeting traditional chiefs as the ruling party moves to oil up its election machinery ahead of 2023.
ReplyDeleteThe controversial orientation exercise also targets chief executives, heads of government departments and town secretaries of local authorities ostensibly to train them on revolutionary ethos and values.
We all know that the constitution clearly states that traditional leaders must be apolitical and we also know that Zanu PF does not give a damn about what the law says; traditional leaders have become Zanu PF political commissars or they will lose their position.
MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Ever since the party has been participating in flawed and illegal elections on the basis the party can devise strategies to win rigged elections.
Zimbabweans must now work up to the political reality that we not going to win rigged elections and that this is just a foolish notion by a corrupt and incompetent opposition. We must go back to the original plan of bring about democratic changes by implement the democratic reforms first if we are going to ever have free, fair and credible elections.
SADC leaders called for the 2013 elections to be postponed to allowed for the reforms to be implemented. That was an excellent suggestion and we must revert back to it now!
Just because MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented these last 21 years does not meaning no one else can.
@ Chiduku
ReplyDeleteTHE opposition's capacity and chance to defeat Zanu-PF in the 2023 elections is being threatened by squabbles in what should be an alternative. The most urgent thing is for the opposition to put its house in order and fight in one corner.
While MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa fared exceptionally well in the 2018 elections considering that party founder Morgan Tsvangirai had died a few month before elections, it is my hope that the opposition should develop the 2023 momentum from that solid foundation.
With the ruling Zanu-PF party in sixes and sevens, 2023 presented a good opportunity for Zimbabwe to fix her toxic policies, especially with a united opposition.
What are you talking about; the MDC A was united in the 2018 elections and still failed to win! This is a mirage and we are done chasing mirages!
“Convince MDC and their naïve and gullible supporters that the party is on the verge of winning rigged elections. Why waste time talking about reforms is you are on the verge of winning!” This has been Zanu PF’s most consistent propaganda message ever since the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
“Nelson Chamisa fared exceptionally well in the 2018 elections,” you say. Yeah right! Zanu PF won the 2/3 majority in parliament and there was never any doubt Mnangagwa would win the presidency or be it with a narrow margin to suggest it was a close race.
There was no verified voters’ roll, the whole election process was not transparent and not just the vote count as Chamisa claimed. There was no way Zanu PF was ever going to let MDC A win an election in which they had countless ways of rigging the vote.
After 41 years of rigged elections Zimbabweans must finally wake-up to the sheer folly of having tolerated the nonsense of rigged elections all these years. The people must demand the implementation of the reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections and accept nothing else.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess precisely because the country has failed to hold free and fair elections and thus get rid of the curse of bad governance. We must and will deal with this problem now! If the 2023 elections go ahead with no democratic reforms in place them the plebiscite must be declared null and void. Period!
THE huge mansion that former president Robert Mugabe's daughter Bona and son-in-law Simba Mutsahuni have been struggling to complete since the longtime ruler was unceremoniously removed from power through a coup in 2017 is sitting on land that was corruptly acquired.
ReplyDeleteConstruction of the mansion, initially pegged at US$39 million, was moving fast prior to Mugabe's removal from power and continued albeit at a reduced pace until Mugabe's death in September 2019.
Following Mugabe's death, work has been moving at a snail's pace, with insiders revealing that the budget has been cut from US$39 million to US$20 million after the couple decided to forego some stylish decorations, security measures and other specifications.
After The NewsHawks last month revealed that the Mutsahunis were struggling to complete the mansion, The Herald revealed that after being acquired by Chombo, the land was eventually sold to the Mutsahunis for a paltry US$2 300.
Real estate agents are selling a 20ha piece of land in Helensvale for up to US$7.2 million.
The land was acquired through Chordac Investments, whose two directors are listed in the Companies' Registry office as being Bona and Simbarashe Mutsahuni (also known as Chikore).
Chombo's name does not appear on Chordac Investments' CR14 Form, although his close ally Nelson Mhandu, who was a deputy director in the ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, was one of the founding directors along with Natsai Jaiwa, who was a principal administration officer in the ministry during Chombo's tenure, The Herald investigation found.
Mhandu and Jaiwa however resigned as directors of the company on 11 November 2015, leaving Bona and Simba as the directors.
Is it any wonder that Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have been blatantly rigging elections, often resorting to the use of wanton violence just to be absolutely sure of victory, to stay in power. They greed for power and looted wealth has become insatiable.
"However, disruptions caused by the pandemic will continue to weigh on economic activity in Zimbabwe, limiting employment growth and improvements in living standards," the World Bank said.
ReplyDelete"The pandemic and its impacts disrupted livelihoods, especially in urban areas, and added 1.3 million to the extreme poor. Estimates suggest the number of extreme poor reached 7.9 million in 2020-almost 49% of the population."
In 2020, Zimbabwe's gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have contracted by 8% for a second year in a row as Covid-19 halted economic recovery. Operating restrictions led to depressed manufacturing, non-mineral exports, hospitality, trade, and transport sectors.
Sales of manufacturing companies and service firms in July 2020 were about half the sales of 2019.
Supply-side shocks subsided after easing of mobility restrictions, but domestic demand was weak in an environment of triple-digit inflation, high unemployment and income losses.
"Demand for imports increased as several years of drought necessitated increased imports of maize and electricity while the pandemic presented new demands for lab equipment and medical supplies. The current account was in surplus, due to high remittances inflows and trade surplus," the World Bank said.
The government's aspiration to attain upper middle-income status by 2030 will require the authorities to strengthen governance; ensure greater transparency and accountability; and increase public financing and investments focused on critical sectors, the multilateral lender said.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are determined to win the 2023 elections and they know if the elections were free and fair there is no way the 49% now living in extreme poverty will vote for the party. The party has since mobilised the war veterans and the party’s youth militia, the green bombers, who were the regime’s foot-soldiers in the 2008 “Operation Mavhotera papi!” (operation Who did you vote for!) The party used barbaric wanton violence to punish the people for rejecting Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March 2008 vote.
Tsvangirai got 73% of the votes in the March vote, according to Mugabe’s Freudian slip, and in the run-off Mugabe won 84% of the votes.
The party is cocksure its tried and tested foot soldiers will force the majority of the Zimbabweans, including the 49% living in poverty to vote for Zanu PF. The party is preparing to deploy its foot soldiers to have their dirty work done and dusted well ahead of the arrival of the election observers.
There really is no point in allowing the next elections to go ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. No one should have to risk life and limb to exercise their right to a meaningful vote.
@ Self Harm
ReplyDeleteLest we forget, Zanu PF has been rigging elections for donkey years and in 1995 when Margaret Dongo challenge the Harare South election results it turned out people who were not on the voters' roll and ever dead ones had voted for Zanu PF! So all this talk of stupid people who vote for Zanu PF is itself nonsense!
@ Tawanda Majoni
ReplyDeleteA lot is at stake there because people are angry with the sitting government and are bound to get really, really naughty with the ballots.
And you are bound to have many of them out in the streets, threatening the Zanu-PF hold on power.
So, there is need to get the youth militia out in full force, teaching people how to be patriotic.
But there is another trend that you need to worry about.
The Varakashi.
This is a growing brigade of sewer rats that the ruling party is deploying mainly through the internet to harass, intimidate and persecute innocent civilians, the political opposition, civil society, human rights defenders and a cocktail of other perceived enemies.
You are right, there is a lot at stake for both Zanu PF and the ordinary people in the 2023 elections.
The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown basic services like public health care and education have collapse and 49% of the population are living in extreme poverty, according to a recent WB report. The people blame Zanu PF for the country’s economic hardships and they will be more determined that ever to remove the regime from office. And, as we all know, Mnangagwa and his cronies are not going to give up power, they would rather see the whole country reduced to ashes and ruins than see anyone else ruling it!
Zanu PF has already started recruiting and training the war veterans, the green bombers and these sewer rats. And the party will be deploying them soon, so they can do their dirty work and be done and dusted well ahead of the arrival of election observers.
The nation should not allow itself to be lured into believing the opposition can win rigged elections, this is a trap. The act of participating in these flawed elections gives the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. The MDC A and rest in the opposition know this and have been participating in the elections regardless because they were after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as bait.
Ordinary Zimbabweans must refuse to participate in the elections until the reforms, including reforms to ban and punish the violent activities of the war veterans, green bombers and sewer rats, are implemented.
It is nonsense that the nation has no choice but to accept whatever election condition Zanu PF wants. We do not have to accept flawed, illegal and violent elections that is why we must demand reforms ahead of elections.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken delivery of an US$18 million helicopter in the middle of a major economic slump and growing poverty, ZimLive reported.
ReplyDeleteA Russian Antonov AN-124 - the world's third heaviest gross weight production cargo aircraft - flew into Harare on Thursday, April 15, and disgorged a brand-new chopper which the Zanu-PF leader plans to use during his re-election campaign ahead of elections in 2023.
The country is relying on donated vaccines ostensibly because Zimbabwe is a poor country. And yet here we are, splashing US$18 million on a helicopter!