As much as Zimbabwe’s opposition would like to pretend Zimbabwe is on the same political trajectory of peaceful free, fair and credible elections as Zambia; the reality on the ground tells it own story.
"On 22 August close to 30 villagers were forced to convene at Nyamuyaruka Business Centre, Ward 10 in Mudzi North. It is alleged that Zanu-PF activists Portia Chijaka and John Sarafunga forced villagers to convene before forcing them to contribute money to assist local war veterans and war collaborators. Villagers with no cash were told that they could support the process through providing maize grain and groundnuts," reported Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP).
“Vendors were told that only Zanu-PF supporters would be allowed to sell their wares at the Murewa vegetable market."
In Chegutu district, artisanal miners, “makorokoza", have realigned themselves with the ruling party Zanu PF and are now terrorising residents.
Ever since the country’s independence in 1980, rural areas have remained Zanu PF strongholds not because the people in the rural areas have prospered in any way. Indeed, the rural people are at the bottom of the economic packing order and therefore have suffered the consequences of the country’s economic melt down the hardest.
Zanu PF’s continue political hold on the rural populous is derived from the party’s total control and domination of ever facade of human life in the rural areas. The party operatives have but reduced the rural people into medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing landlords - Zanu PF operatives. The villagers are frog marched to attend Zanu PF rallies and, when the time comes, to vote for the party. They do not dare do otherwise!
"Matabeleland South province, in Silozwana village, Matobo North, a Zanu-PF activist identified as Martin Sibindi allegedly intimidated villagers telling them that they shall be monitored if they vote for the MDC Alliance,” continued the ZPP report.
"It is said that Sibindi made these remarks during a community meeting as he was encouraging people to register to vote. It is reported that Sibindi warned that a mechanism had been drawn up to monitor and punish those that might vote for other MDC Alliance and other parties.”
This was not an empty threat as Zanu PF has devised various ways of knowing whom the individual voted for. In the 2008 elections, for example, there were 2 000 Polling Stations or 10 Polling Stations in each constituency. Each Polling Station had the same constituency voters’ roll so the voters could cast their vote in anyone of the 10 Polling Stations.
Zanu PF, without consulting anyone else, has since increased the number of Polling station to over 11 000 in 2018 or 50 Polling Station per constituency. This time there was a Polling Station specific voters’ roll and so only those of the roll could vote. With 500 or so on the voters’ roll it was much easier to guess how each one of them would have voted, especial in a rural community setting where there are few strangers.
How can the elections be free, fair and credible when the majority of the rural voters, 50% plus of the voters, are hostages to one contestant, Zanu PF?
Zanu PF has many other ways of ensuring electoral advantage such as denying the Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. There are 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora, a considerable number given Mnangagwa won the 2018 presidential race with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast votes.
Mnangagwa promised the Zimbabweans in the diaspora will have the vote in 2023. Zanu PF has since announced the diasporans will not have the vote “as long as the sanctions imposed by the West on some Zanu PF leaders remain”. Why ordinary Zimbabweans should be denied their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country over something they had no say over beggars belief!
At least 2 million of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in SADC countries or some other countries that have not imposed sanctions on the Zanu PF leaders. Why are these Zimbabweans being denied the vote too?
How can the elections be legal, free, fair and credible in when 3 million Zimbabweans out of a potential 8 million voters are being blatantly denied the vote?
President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia was elected last month with 60% of the popular vote. In 2008 Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 73% of the popular vote, by the late Robert Mugabe’s Freudian slip, and still that was not good enough to secure him the presidency.
After 41 years of rigged elections it is clear as day that Zimbabwe will never ever hold free, fair and credible elections without first implement the democratic reforms designed to take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to hold the rural voters to ransom, deny whatever segment of the electorate the vote, etc.
There is a simple reason why Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends are ignoring the overwhelming evidence the 2023 elections will not be free, fair and credible and remain resolutely determined to participate in the elections. It is the same simple reason why Chamisa and the 21 others contested the 2018 presidential rat race. The same simple reason Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The simple reason in all above is greed.
Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office during the GNU and they forgot about implementing the democratic reforms. Mnangagwa is dangling the offer of a few gravy train seats, a cut of the annual Political Party Finance Act payout, generous perks to the presidential candidates who join POLAD and ambassadorship to those opposition politicians who have proven particularly affable to the Zanu PF dictatorship.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked property, livelihood, life and limb in the fight to end white colonial oppression and exploitation only to be betrayed by Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies. Zanu PF has denied the people their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life.
Zanu PF has murdered over 35 000 innocent Zimbabweans since independence in 1980 for the sole purpose of establishing and retaining the de facto one party dictatorship that has remained to this day.
The people of Zimbabwe have once again risked it all, personal comfort and even life, in the fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. There have been many golden opportunities to end the dictatorship but MDC leaders have wasted them all because they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders are the one keeping Zanu PF in power by participating in flawed elections and thus giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
Zimbabwe has been drifting deeper and deeper into this man-made hell-on-earth for the last 41 years. As long as the country remains a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs; there is no hope of stopping the rot. We have been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime because it rigged elections and denied us, the people, a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Nothing of any substance or meaning can ever be accomplished until we cure cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Nothing!
It is most disconcerting that the MDC leaders, the men and women nation had risked all to elect into power for the express purpose of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship, are the ones helping to perpetuate it!
Both Zanu PF and MDC are equally determined that the 2023 elections must go ahead regardless of the overwhelming evidence Zanu PF is rigging the elections. There is little we can do to stop the elections going ahead. What we can do is making sure the elections are seen for what they are a farce and thus dismissed as null and void.
The 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections, we must the opportunity created by the 2023 to produce a legitimate government to appoint a GNU that will implement the reforms.
"Guided by our President's symbolic gestures in endorsing the will of the people in Zambia, it would be remiss for anyone to think that Zanu-PF has an unexpressed sense of resentment about the outcome of Zambia's recent plebiscite.
ReplyDelete"It must be underscored that Zanu-PF is a pro-democracy adherent party.
“Zanu PF is a prodemocracy adherent party!” No one can say Dr Obert Mpofu does not have a sense of humour, very cynical but that is the best you will ever get from Zanu PF!
Yes Dr Mpofu who can ever forget Mnangagwa’s “heroic” take over of the March 2008 elections and the barbaric violence that followed, all done in the interest of democracy and rule of law.
Mnangagwa and company were at it again in November 2017 this time to rescue democracy from one of their own Robert Mugabe on his behalf they had committed such heinous crimes as the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre to establish the de facto one party dictatorship.
The people of Zimbabwe certainly know how much Zanu PF and Mnangagwa care about “the will of the people” - as long as it does not get in the way of Zanu PF’s iron resolve to retain absolute power at all cost!
@ Godfrey Nyarota
ReplyDelete“As a good percentage of Harare's social media community exploded in anger following the reintroduction last Tuesday, by Local Government minister July Moyo, of the former Rhodesia Railways coaches, now camouflaged by the much despised livery of Zupco, the bus company, I reminisced about the good old days of travel by train.
Back in the early 1960s, when I was a young primary school learner (they called us students then) at St Faith's Mission, Madetere, 12 miles east of Rusape, the highlight of my life was the train journey between Rusape and Nyazura or Rusape and Salisbury, now Harare, depending on where I wished to spend by school holiday.”
It is no surprise the ZUPCO trains were launched with the usual Zanu PF fan fare and avalanche of publicity, NRZ’s other activities were cancelled just to give the impression this is a very viable solution. The whole thing will fizzle out as the reality of chronic shortage of loco, coaches, personnel, etc. return.
Every thing is Zimbabwe is more about appearances and no substance; kiya kiya!
Nation often get what they deserve, we in Zimbabwe certainly deserve the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of equally corrupt incompetent and utterly useless opposition. Except for a tiny few, too few to make a difference, most Zimbabweans have either done nothing to stop the Zanu PF misrule, preferring to go along to get along, or joining the Zanu PF bandwagon.
Even now with the whole nation’s infrastructure in advanced stages of rot and decay instead of coming to their sense and demand good governance many are wringing their hands in despair with some fighting tooth and nail for position to join in the looting!
@ Ken Mufuka
ReplyDelete“Mugabe was the con-artist par excellence. He is still highly regarded in Harlem, New York by our black brothers who revere him for his diatriabes against white people.
Even that too was only a charade. He surrounded himself with the powerful white friends like Billy Rautenbach and Nick Van Hoogstraten. Andrew Norman says in his book that when Mugabe wanted several Mig-Jet fighters from Russia in 2002, he called on Nick Van Hoogstraten to advance them the sum of GBP20 million for each jet (page 136)
As he betrayed his former colleagues, one by one, so he betrayed the country. He preferred to ruin the country, rather than give up power. The laws of divine retribution have it that all those who aided and abetted him, died in bitter poverty, which he deliberately induced on them or as in the case of Solomon Mujuru, under suspicious circumstances.
Do I need to repeat what everybody knows? Nkala sacrificed the love of his own tribe for the love of Mugabe. Edgar Tekere nominated Mugabe for leadership of Zanu. He was denied his parliamentary pension, lived his last days in bitterness and penury. Dydimus Mutasa, once a "stalwart" Mugabeist, now lives the life of a dhumukwa.
To Mugabe the interests of Zimbabwe never rose above those of his own. Nor was he capable of loving anybody except himself. To call him a hero is to fail to learn the misdeeds of the past.”
Whilst I agree that Mugabe was “a con-artist par excellence” still it must be said he was surrounded by some of the biggest dimwits in human history. How else can one explain how it was possible that Mugabe con Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends for five years into doing nothing about implementing the democratic reforms which would have ended Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers to the benefit of MDC and the nation at large.
Margaret Dongo dismissed Zanu PF minister, MPs and all the other party bigwigs as “vakadzi vaMugabe” (Mugabe’s concubines) to underline how they had all to the last man and woman grovelled to the dictate of Mugabe. No self respecting man would ever self-denigrate to do many of the dirty Mnangagwa did for Robert Mugabe.
Mnangagwa and his cronies were saved by the coup otherwise Mugabe was going to do to them what he had done to everyone else - use them and then contemptuously discard them like used toilet paper! In a way it was a military coup was a fitting end for Mugabe himself!
The people of Zimbabwe have to know that they cannot have the cake and eat it too. We have been warned without first implementing the democratic reforms, Zanu PF will rig the elections. We cannot pretend we do not know the elections are flawed and illegal.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, SADC's crafted Global Political Agreement and forced Robert Mugabe to commit to the implementation of a raft of political designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had five years in the GNU but failed to get even one reform implemented. SADC leaders even tried to get MDC leaders to boycott the 2013 elections until reforms were implemented and their warning was ignored.
So MDC leaders have participated in the 2013, 2018 and now 2023 elections fully well Zanu PF will rig the elections and the MDC leaders for their claiming they have devised various ways to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections or overwhelm the Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans. Of course, the international community have no choice but to accept, in this case, the decision of the opposition politicians as the decision of the nation at large.
The international community has however dismissed with contempt the MDC's claim after the elections that Zanu PF rigged the elections. Of course, it is a foolish claim because it was none other than MDC who had first failed to implement the reforms and then insisted in participating when advised not to.
For the 2023 elections it is important that Zimbabweans take a firm stand and denounce the 2023 elections going ahead without reforms. There must be clear blue waters between those participating in the flawed elections and those who believe doing so is insane. By participating you give legitimacy to the process and results and to claimed Zanu PF rigged after the event is but an attempt to withhold legitimacy when it is too late!
A BBC Panorama investigation has found evidence that suggests one of Britain's biggest companies paid a bribe to the former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
ReplyDeleteDocuments show British American Tobacco (BAT) was involved in negotiations to pay between $300,000 and $500,000 to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in 2013.
The memo said: "With this donation, they could then go back to the President" to try to get the problem sorted out.
"The amount of the donation would have to be in the region of between USD300,000 to USD500,000 to Zanu PF," it said.
The documents do not show whether the bribe was in the end paid, but Panorama has spoken to three sources who have confirmed that BAT was aware of the terms of the deal on offer.
Within days of the deal being offered, all three directors were free.
BAT declined to answer Panorama's questions about the Zimbabwe payments, but it did not deny paying a bribe to Robert Mugabe.
It is against UK law for a British company to pay bribes, no matter where the payment takes place.
The wider network.
Zanu PF has always managed to raise billions of dollars from illegal sources, particularly from the wholesale looting taking place in the country, the looters have donated generously fearful that a regime change would put them out of business. The party has then used the war-chest to bankroll its vote rigging juggernaut.
The idea there can ever be free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe is absurd; not without implementing the democratic reforms designed to cut the umbilical cord that have turned state institutions like ZEC, Police, Judiciary, Army, etc. into Zanu PF department in all but name and to end the the endemic corruption and wholesale looting that has is funding Zanu PF and undermining rule of law.
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was the nearest the nation has ever come to implementing the reforms but sadly Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were not up to the task. Zanu PF emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial powers untouched but this time very wary never to allow itself to slip into a similar situation ever again.
Zanu PF has allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats to entice them to participate in the flawed and illegal elections to give the party legitimacy. The bribe has worked like magic; in the 2018 elections there were 23 presidential candidates.
Mnangagwa has since created POLAD, a grouping gathering all the presidential candidates, showering the participants with generous perks and has even been appointing affable opposition politicians is patronage positions including ambassadorships. He knows the opposition in participate in the 2023 elections in droves regardless of all the evidence of Zanu PF rigging the election.
Short of the threat to their own lives, Chamisa and company will be participating in the 2023 elections; he is desperate to remain Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader!
CIVIL servants must be patient with the Government which is committed to improving their conditions of service in line with the prevailing economic environment, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima has said. He said Government will increase civil servants' salaries guided by stabilisation of the economy which will take a bit of time to achieve due to fiscal limitations.
ReplyDeleteProf Mavima's call comes after the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education revealed that some teachers, who make up the bulk of civil servants, were not reporting for duty citing incapacitation. In an interview yesterday, he said the review of salaries will be a continuous process through quarterly meetings of the National Joint Negotiation Council (NJNC).
The government has failed to revive the country’s economic and it is struggling to pay its current financial commitments without increasing them. As the economic melt down has got worse and worse the government has tried to make sure those high up on the food chain are happy and this has meant there was even less left for those at the bottom; teachers and nurses and low rank security services workers are right at the bottom - they will never ever be paid a living wage, not as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state!
@ Tofara Shandu
ReplyDelete“A generational consensus under MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa's able leadership will take the nation to a higher level of political consciousness. It must culminate in a huge and crushing victory over Zanu-PF as people claim their liberty.
We must not allow Zanu-PF to own our independence.”
This is the kind of propaganda one would expect to come from Zanu PF HQ! There is overwhelming evidence that Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections just as the party has done in the past. The party has to count this with information designed to convinced the naive and gullible that Zanu PF is on the ropes and the opposition is set for a stunning victory.
The truth it is Nelson Chamisa who is on the ropes; MDC A was united for the 2018 elections compared to the sorry state the party is in today. As far as Chamisa and company are concerned the 2023 elections are not about challenging Zanu PF and Mnangagwa for power but fighting off Mwonzora and company over the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is giving away as bait. Chamisa will be gloriously happy if he emerged as the biggest opposition party.
No doubt Tofara will have the usual “Zanu PF stole the election” excuse for Chamisa’s defeat as if he/she has never ever realised that Zanu PF has been rigging elections all these last four decades!
Of course, it is insane to keep participating in flawed elections only to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. There are millions of ordinary Zimbabweans out there who are desperate for change and so desperate they are for all intent and purpose insane!