"Fellow citizens, be strong" edges Chamisa - but why forfeit free for uphill battle of violent elections W Mukori

“VIOLENCE IN MATOBO, INSIZA & CHIRUMANZU ..Zpf panicking, desperate & violent because they are not supported in villages, in rural areas. Thuggery is not politics. Violence is not civilized campaigning. Their violence will increase. Fellow Citizens, be strong. Change is in the air!” twittered Nelson Chamisa.

This is midsummer madness! Instead of the increasing cases of violence forcing Chamisa to rethink the madness of participating in these elections without first implementing the reform, it is energizing him to do the opposite.

Zanu PF whittled down Morgan Tsvangirai’s 73% votes in the March 2008 elections to 47%, enough to force the runoff. During the runoff the party used wanton violence to punish the people for having rejected Zanu PF and Mugabe in the earlier vote. The violence was so bad over 500 people were murdered hundreds of thousands were beaten and/or raped and millions were internally displaced.

Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the race and Mugabe went on to “win” the one-horse race with 84% on the votes.

Is Chamisa suggesting that Mugabe won the 2008 runoff because the people were not strong? What did he want them to do?

Chamisa had his motorcade stoned and rallies disrupted by Zanu PF thugs. He has turned tail and escaped back to the safety of his low-density home. What is at issue here is the political violence is a regular occurrence to the ordinary Zimbabwean living in the high-density suburbs and rural areas and they have nowhere to go to escape it.

Fighting back the Zanu PF thugs is not an option since the Zanu PF captured Police, judiciary, etc. have always favored Zanu PF at the expense of justice.

Is Chamisa asking Zimbabweans to be strong and have even more people beaten raped and murdered. Over 40 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered by Zanu PF in politically motivated violence since independence. He has been calling for street protests knowing fully well the Zanu PF regime has always used violence to end street protests.

What is really infuriate about Chamisa and his CCC friends is that they had many opportunities to implement the democratic reforms taking away Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to rig elections and use wanton violence and they wasted them. They have been participating in these flawed elections even when they themselves realized it was foolish to do so.

“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,” confessed David 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.”

David Coltart was one of MDC ministers in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one reform in five years. He is the Treasurer General in the Chamisa led CCC, rebranded MDC. CCC is participating in these b2023 elections knowing fully well that doing so will give Zanu PF legitimacy for the same reason MDC failed to implement reforms – greed.

Zanu PF is rigging these elections and, given the regime’s vast experience in rigging plus the ability to supplement the rigging with wanton violence, it near impossible for Zanu PF to lose the elections. Zanu PF is playing with a dice with 6s on all six side, if they want a 6 they will throw a 6!

The only time there has been political change in Zimbabwe was as a result of the November 2017 military coup. It was a Zanu PF in-house coup and it replace one dictator with another. Another military coup and/or bloody street protests may deliver the next change, which will be compromised democracy, at best. Violent revolutions very rarely produce a stable democracy.

What is infuriating here is that MDC/CCC have not only forfeited the chance to delivery democratic change by failing to implement reforms but are the ones keeping the Zanu PF regime in power by participating in flawed election out of greed to give the regime legitimacy. And to hide their greed they are blaming the decades of failure to deliver change on citizens’ lack of courage in confronting Zanu PF wanton violence!

The real tragic here is that the ordinary Zimbabweans have not cussed, even with the benefit of hindsight, that MDC/CCC leaders have failed to implement even one reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU. These people don’t even realize they are forfeiting the right to have reforms implemented and free and fair elections by participating in these flawed elections. They don’t know they are being asked to concede high ground to the enemy for they to fight uphill!

“Fellow citizens, be strong. Change is in the air!” Yeah right! Was that why MDC has failed to implement even one reform in 22 years forcing people to fight the uphill battle of rigged and violent elections!