“Over the weekend, members of Zanu PF
terrorised some teachers in Mutoko district, forcing them to register as part
of the five million voters for Zanu PF. In some cases, Zanu PF had all the
details of the teachers, they just visited to confirm. In Kagande, teachers
were forced to attend a rally,” reported Zimeye, quoting Amalgamated Rural
Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) twit.
“A total of 31 trs reported through our
hotline. Our rapid response team is in Mutoko assessing the safety of some trs
who refused to attend the Kagande meeting & those who refused to register
as ZANU PF voters for 2023.”
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
president Takavafira Zhou has also reported of village heads and School
Development Committee members evicting teachers from school accommodation who
are on strike over the ongoing wage dispute with government.
Zanu PF’s coercive power is well documented
especially in the rural areas where the party has reduced to people into
nothing but medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF operatives and
proxies.
President Mnangagwa has himself launched
the mobilisation of the War Veterans and the opening of the Border Gazi camps
to train the party’s youth militia, the green bombers. These two were the party’s
foot-soldiers in the watershed 2008 elections when the party used wanton
violence to overturn Tsvangirai’s 73% in the March vote, according to Mugabe’s
own Freudian slip or parapraxis, to a 84% for Mugabe in the run-off.
The war veterans and the green bombers
were the infantry whose strength is in numbers but could not do much beyond
harassing, beatings, rape and the destruction of property. The foot-soldiers
were backed by the well-equipped and ruthless big brothers; the Soldiers,
Police, CIO and Prison Service personal deployed by the Joint Operations
Command (JOC); they did the heavy-duty work of kidnapping and killing. Over 500
innocent Zimbabweans were murdered in the three months run-off period.
JOC, a Junta comprising the top brass in
the security services plus a select few from Zanu PF and headed by Robert
Mugabe (before he was booted out in the November 2017 coup) and with Mnangagwa as
his deputy. It was JOC that planned the military style 2008 wanton violence,
Operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) and deployed the personal to
execute the plan.
JOC has been the real power behind Zanu
PF’s long stay in power, the power behind the throne. The party and government rewarded
the JOC members by granting them generous salaries and perks, they were first to
be allocated farms and other privileges notably the licence to loot diamonds in
Marange and Chiadzwa. JOC members are the heart and soul of Zimbabwe’s filthy
rich oligarchs
The biggest mistake Robert Mugabe, the
otherwise artful Dodger of Zimbabwe politics, made to align himself with the Generation
40 (G40) Zanu PF faction. Grace Mugabe, the G40 leader, stated the obvious when
she accused the JOC members of being greedy and holding the nation to ransom.
It was clear that G40 was going to force many of the JOC members to retire from
the security services and thus end their political influence. Robert Mugabe had
done the preparatory work by passing a law stipulating the retirement age of
all civil servants, civilians and those in the security services! Many of the
JOC members were well past their retirement age
Mugabe and his G40 had crossed swords with
JOC and the later’s response was the November 2017 the military coup, “Operation
Restore Legacy”, as the coup plotters called it. Mugabe was booted out of
office and G40 ringleaders were either killed, are in and out of prison or are
in exile.
Operation Restore Legacy just like
Operation Mavhotera papi before it were clear and unambiguous statements of
fact: JOC and JOC alone will decide who rules Zimbabwe. Operation Mavhotera
papi was about JOC denying the ordinary Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the
governance of the country by denying them free, fair and credible elections.
JOC wanted Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF to rule and punished the people for daring
to vote for Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC.
Operation Restore Legacy was about
reminded those in the Zanu PF government, that it was JOC that put them there!
In the upcoming 2023 elections, JOC is
backing President Mnangagwa and Zanu PF and will not brook anything short of a
landslide electoral victory for their horse.
JOC has the plans of Operation Mavhotera
papi mark 2, ready. How much of blatant cheating and wanton violence will be
used depends on the situation on the ground. Soldiers, Police, etc. will be deployed
if there are more reports of teachers or anyone defying Zanu PF orders.
“Nothing will be left to chance!” boasted
President Mnangagwa, a few weeks ago when he announced the mobilisation of the war
veterans and the green bombers.
Zimbabwe will never ever hold free, fair
and credible elections as long as Zanu PF and the shadowy Junta, JOC, continues
to enjoy dictatorial powers including the carte blanche powers to rig elections.
Zimbabwe had its best ever opportunity to
implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship
during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Robert Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC
friends, entrusted with the task of implementing the reforms, and, with their
snouts in the feeding trough, they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not
even one!
Ever since the GNU debacle, Zanu PF has
allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats to entice them to
participate in the election regardless how flawed and illegal the process. By
participating the opposition have given the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and
thus taking the sting out of the Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans.
“Our rapid response team is in Mutoko
assessing the safety of some trs who refused to attend the Kagande meeting
& those who refused to register as ZANU PF voters for 2023!” Anyone who has
witnessed the sheer brutality and barbarism of the 2008 Operation Mavhotera
papi knows that bravado of these teachers will disappear like morning mist as the
Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut goes through its gears.
Of course, it folly of the teachers or
anyone to defy Zanu PF and JOC just as it is folly of the opposition to
participate in the flawed elections and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
The teachers as is the rest of the ordinary Zimbabweans are paying dearly for
the opposition’s blatant betrayal in failing to implement the reforms and for
the opposition’s greed in participating in flawed elections giving the vote
rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
Moreover, Leader Maimane said, “in order to effectively #ResistDictatorship Zimbabwe must allow for #DiasporaVoting and cede voting abroad rights to all its citizens. We do that here in South Africa”. All SADC states must support this! That is how we will have a free and fair election in Zimbabwe. If we ignore threats to the fundamental voters’ rights in Zimbabwe, it will become our cancerous local malady to perpetuate authoritarianism. As part of our #ReformAgenda, diaspora vote remains our priority not forgetting other comprehensive political and electoral reforms needed before 2023 harmonised elections. It now imperative for these foreign matters to be confronted more forcefully and proactively.
ReplyDeleteTo wind it up, MDC Alliance Namibia salutes One South Africa Movement( OSA) Leader Mmusi Maimane for the solidarity with social democrats in Zimbabwe who are victims of a shrinking democratic space, arbitrary arrests, abductions, illegal convictions, long pre-trial detentions and harassment from the desperate regime. We are inspired by his clarion call for the fulfilment of the ideals of Constitutional Democracy.
All this talk of putting reforms at the top of the national agenda and claiming that diaspora vote is none negotiable is all hot air. How many times have we heard MDC leaders and supporters heard these things and only for them to participate in the elections with no reforms and no diaspora vote.
Zanu PF leaders know that MDC leaders will participate in the flawed and illegal elections no matter how flawed the process got as long as they are assured of winning a few gravy train seats!
I totally agree, all these acts of defiance by the teachers will evaporate with the morning mist in the African sunshine once the Zanu PF vote rigging machinery gets going. In any case, Zanu PF has always had many other ways of denying the vote to all those it does not trust to vote for the party. Most of these teachers will be posted as election officials to Polling Station other than the ones they are registered to vote, for example.
ReplyDeleteBoth Zanu PF and MDC A have said they want to capture 5 million or so rural votes in the 2023 elections. It is almost certain Zanu PF will meet its set target because it has many coercive levers. It is very common to hear of some rural areas being declared "no go areas" for the opposition.
Chamisa and company know they do not have the same coercive powers and Zanu PF will rig the vote as usual. MDC A, as with the rest in the opposition, know Zanu PF will rig the election to secure the usual 2/3 or so majority plus the presidency. They are after the 1/3 or so of the gravy train seats plus a cut of the annual Political Party Finance Act payout Zanu PF gives away as bait.
The claim that MDC A is targeting to win 5 million votes in 2023 is just a selling gimmick to justify why the party keeps participating in flawed and illegal elections. MDC A's mantra is the party has devised strategies to Win In Rigged Elections (WIRE)!
With WIRE strategies Chamisa and company do not have to explain why they failed to implement the reforms during the GNU; who needs reforms if you can win rigged elections. The party has lost all the elections in the past and, without failure, complained of Zanu PF rigging the elections. The party has always conveniently forgot that it was cocksure of winning the rigged elections. And five years later the party comes up with new foolproof WIRE strategies as we can already see, Zanu PF is set for another landslide victory!
Of course, it is insane to believe in these WIRE strategies especially after 41 years of rigged elections; the tragedy is there are many naive and gullible people out there who believe and will participate in the flawed and illegal elections only to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. We are caught in a trap of our own making called stupidity!
@ Bar-Fly
ReplyDeleteThere are some battles worth fighting they are other that are not worth the candle. To ask the rural teacher to take on the Zanu PF war veterans and green bombers is asking too much. My advice to the rural teacher is to attend the Zanu PF rallies and do as you are told, Zanu PF has the rural peasants by the scuff of the neck and a few teachers' deficiency will never change that reality.
If we are serious about end the nightmare of the Zanu PF dictatorship we must be smart. The rural teachers like the rest of the rural population have no choice but to participate in the 2023 elections flawed and illegal as they are. It is the Zimbabweans in the urban centre who can be defiant and challenge both Zanu PF and MDC to justify why the nation is being dragged into elections we can see are being rigged.
This is just nonsense! MDC A was warned not to participate in the July 2018 elections without first implementing the reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging and Mahere and company would not listen. By participating MDC A gave the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and the regime has used its given powers to do mischief. It is nonsense that those who gave Zanu PF the power should now pretend they did not give away the power.
ReplyDeleteMahere, just like everyone in MDC A and the rest of the opposition camp, is gearing to participate in the 2023 elections, flawed, illegal and all, and the above pontificating is her campaigning for votes. The real challenge is for the nation to refuse to be dragged into yet another meaningless election.