“If you sleep curled up like a foetus, you will always turn a bad dream into a nightmare!” my late mother, may her soul rest in peace, would patiently explain.
“If you sleep with your legs stretched out, you can run away from the danger of a bad dream. When you are in the foetus position, you will feel confined, trapped and helpless; hence the nightmare!”
Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, 43 years ago, the country has stead but relentless path of economic, social and political decline. Self inflicted because it is all man-made. Four decades of this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship have left the nation in economic ruins. A bad dream, you might say.
What has turned the bad dream into a nightmare is that Zanu PF has carte blanche powers to rig elections and so we are stuck with the regime!
It too twenty years for the nation to realised as long as Zanu PF retained the carte blanche powers to rig elections the regime will remain in power and the rot will continue. The solution was to implement the democratic reforms designed to give back the people their freedoms and rights including the power to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
The people have risked life and limb from the tyrannical Zanu PF to elect MDC/CCC leaders into power on the understanding they would implement the democratic reforms the nation was dying for, literally.
Alas! After 23 years MDC/CCC leaders have not implemented even one token reform, even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Worse still MDC/CCC have completely abandoned the need to implement reforms and are now participating in the flawed elections under the guess the party has “winning in rigged elections” strategies.
“PROBLEM
The prices of essentials goods are increasing at an alarming rate …….
SOLUTION
Did you know that by registering to vote and participating in the upcoming elections, you have the power to change this dire situation?
Register to vote!”
Proclaimed one of the CCC posters!
Talk of being trapped, of being stuck. We are trapped. We are stuck!
We are being told for the umpteenth time that registering to vote is a solution and yet we already known that it is not.
Chamisa and company announced mass voter registration, mass voting and protecting the vote as their flagship 2023 elections strategy. Their target was to register 6 million new voters.
ZEC announced that only 1/4 million people had registered as of 30 May 2022. So CCC only managed to register 4% of their own 6 million target in the last four years and we are to believe they will a lot better in the fifth year. The whole strategy of mass voter registration, etc. is DEAD in the water.
Even if the voter registration exercise was a great success, Zanu PF thugs still managed to impose themselves after the March 2008 vote when Tsvangirai had garnered 73% of the votes.
The 2008 elections were a water shed in that Zanu PF showed its carte blanche vote rigging powers.
Of course, Nelson Chamisa and company know that, without reforms, the people of Zimbabwe will never ever have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. MDC/CCC are playing their party in helping Zanu PF deny the people their right by selling out on reforms and by participating in the flawed process to give Zanu PF legitimacy. They are doing it for a share of the spoils of power.
CCC are chaining out these posters promoting voter registration and other “winning in rigged election” strategies, knowing fully well that none of them work. The are a cover to hide the real reasons why the party is hell bent on participating - greed and breath-taking incompetence.
So ours is a double whammy, we are not only stuck with Zanu PF but stuck with MDC/CCC too. The nation risked everything to elect Chamisa and company to implement reforms to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Not even one token reform was implement and worst of all CCC are now giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship.
Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections. CCC are participating to give the regime legitimacy out of greed. We are going round and round in circles. After 43 years of independence and we are failing to do something as basic as produce a verified voters’ roll and hold free elections.
Talk of a nightmare, we Zimbabweans must be curled up, so much so we have our heads on our knees; not even Quasimodo, Hunchback of Notre-Dame, could bend double that far; hence the reason we are having the mother of all nightmares. We are well and truly trapped. We are well and truly stuck!
It’s the whole question of the role of the family in society. I am a Christian and in my reading of the Bible, I think it makes it clear from the very beginning, that the nuclear family – a husband and wife and their children, is not a human concept, it is a part of creation and is a fundamental relationship, “a man will leave his parents and will marry a woman and they shall become one flesh”. Its more than a contract, it’s a binding lifelong covenant. It is in every way the foundation of a stable and progressive society.
ReplyDeleteI am surprise you did not extend the importance of family to government in a stable society. Zimbabwe is a failed state because we have selfish leaders and the ripple effect is many family have broken down as a result of failure at a national level!
SA is cosying up to Russia and China is a desperate effort to hang on to power and we should not be surprise to see ANC disregard the rule of law to consolidate its hold on power. The party's decision to "stop regime change in Zimbabwe" is one example of this disregard of the law. ANC know that Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and yet will grant the regime legitimacy regardless!
ReplyDeleteZanu PF has always mounted its voter registration the last minute before the elections. These people know they are registering to vote although they are already registered. On voting day they will vote where they live and then be bused to the new area to vote using their voter registration slips.
ReplyDeleteOf course, CCC leaders know Zanu PF is rigging these elections but ignore it because they are after the few gravy train seats the regime is offering to entice the opposition to participate. David Coltart has admitted to both Zanu PF rigging and the opposition’s greed, he must have agonised over the confession.
“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 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.”
It is tragic that many ordinary Zimbabweans refuse to see the blatant rigging and the futility of participating in a flawed election process to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate their own suffering. Even after 43 years of rigged elections the penny has not dropped!
After 43 years of rigged elections Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged elections and 5 more years of this corrupt Zanu PF dictatorship. Stop this insanity by stopping participating in a flawed election to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
ReplyDeleteFor most of us, no one is forcing us to participate in these flawed elections so why are YOU participating!
https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-230575.html
@ Benjamin
ReplyDelete“Withdrawal from these elections is the only true solution to our problems. It is unfortunate that it is not what CCC and followers want to hear because of greed and selfish desires. Sad.”
The real tragedy here is that the ordinary Zimbabweans has again and again been conned into doing what Zanu PF and/or MDC/CCC want. The people have risked all to elect MDC/CCC leaders into power on the understanding the party will bring about democratic changes. But because the people themselves had no idea what these changes are much less how they will be brought about, MDC leaders bargained reforms for gravy train seats!
Nelson Chamisa and company are hell bent on participating in the flawed elections because they will win the few of the gravy train seats and the good life that brings. Povo have absolutely nothing to gain from participating and yet they have been conned into participating again and again. Only a village idiot would participate in a flawed election believing they will win rigged elections when they can choose free, fair and credible elections.
@ Nyathi
ReplyDelete“President Emmerson Mnangagwa almost succeeded in fooling everyone with his pretence that he had suddenly become a born-again democrat after the coup that toppled strongman Robert Mugabe six years ago.
Mnangagwa, who was ever present in Mugabe's governments for the 37 years that the autocrat ruled the country, even promised long-suffering Zimbabweans a "new kind of democracy" as he returned from brief exile in South Africa in the days leading to the military putsch.
He promised to roll back some of the draconian laws that were used by his vanquished mentor to hang on to power for three decades, which were modelled along the lines of colonial legal instruments such as the notorious Public Order and Security Act (Posa).
For some time he did act the part as his new administration repealed the obnoxious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Posa, among other laws that were used so effectively by the Mugabe regime to clamp down on freedom of speech, assembly and association.”
The truth is there was absolutely nothing that Mnangagwa had done to suggest the November 2017 was his Road to Damascus transformative moment. Nothing! We are a very naive and gullible people and always end up reading what is not even there just because that is what we wanted.
The November 2017 military coup was about removing the dictator, Robert Mugabe, and a few around him from office and to replace him with another Zanu PF thug, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as top dog. Other than the musical chairs at the top the Zanu PF dictatorship was not touched.
We, the people had been claiming for democratic change, and Mnangagwa promised us a new democratic dispensation, he only had to say it and we believed him. Mnangagwa had been Mugabe’s henchman for 37 years, proof there was not a drop of democratic blood in him. The coup itself was not what a democrat would ever do! And yet we embraced him as a democrat on his word, a seasoned and ruthless thug!
Chamisa launched CCC in a copy cat move and how quickly the people forgot he was in the MDC the last 22 years, including 5 in GNU, and had failed to implement even one democratic reform.
Mnangagwa and Chamisa have rebranded and, although they continued in their evil ways, they have been embraced by the people and all their past failures airbrushed clean. Only naive people would think a cobra that has shed its old coat is harmless!
@ Vinthoughts
ReplyDelete“THE recent fiasco surrounding General Notice 635 of 2023 has exposed a far-reaching crisis of competence, transparency, and accountability within our public information management system. As concerned citizens, we must delve deeper into the implications of this incident, which not only raises questions about the integrity of government's decision-making process but also points to diversionary tactics at play.
The premise upon which the President has rescinded the General Notice strains credulity and generates even more questions than answers. The notion that such a document could be gazetted in the President's name without his knowledge and authority, and in full awareness of its nullity, is difficult to accept at face value. Gazetting legal instruments is not a mere event; it is a process steeped in legal and political protocols. Regardless of one's political persuasion, this incident is deeply troubling and demands thorough examination.
It appears highly likely that the President, succumbing to public pressure, has concocted an unconvincing narrative to justify the withdrawal of the document. Similarly, the government spokesperson's actions raise serious doubts about the credibility of the administration's response. The possibility that the government, facing significant public pushback and embarrassment, chose to quietly withdraw the document to evade further scrutiny, is alarming. It implies an attempted circumvention of proper public consultation and due process.”
What I found surprising is that people were surprise this happened. Indeed, the attempt to deny people information on the procurement of goods and services by some public institutions is not the worst thing this regime has done.
The Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has revealing gold smuggling and money laundering at an industrial scale and how corruption has permeated into every nook and cranny in society right up to Mnangagwa himself. The buffoon is the one appointing and controlling these gold smugglers from State House!
Right now the regime is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections; rehearsing the frogmarching of rural voters, squandering billions of dollars to bribe officials, ignoring calls for reforms and demands for verified voters’ roll, etc. If Zanu PF is allowed to get away with yet another rigged elections the looting will continue even public access to the procurement details still granted.
Making sure Zanu PF does not rig the 2023 elections and get away with it is the most pressing issue right now. People must wake up and smell the coffee!
Between now and the end of 2024 in Africa, no fewer than 22 national elections are scheduled, nine of them in Sadc nations. Later this year are Zimbabwe sometime in July/August and the DRC in December. Sadc country elections in 2024 include Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.
ReplyDeleteSimilar regional groups have been formed elsewhere in Africa. Most face varying degrees of political challenges nationally, imposed by official electoral management bodies, often dominated by the partisan interests of incumbent regimes.
As a Zimbabwean I would honestly say that there is not even one civic organisation in Zimbabwe worthy of the name. Zanu PF has blatantly rigged elections for the last 43 years and not even one of the country's civic organisations has ever spoken the truth to power. Not one!
There is overwhelming evidence already to show that Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections and participating in the flawed elections will only give legitimacy to vote rigging Zanu PF. So why are these civic organisation keen as mustard to participate?
We do not need another report telling us the elections were rigged. What we need is to stand firm in our demand reforms before elections!
The United States envoy to South Africa said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa, in a possible breach of Pretoria's declared neutrality in the Ukraine conflict.
ReplyDeleteThe rand and South Africa's 2030 government bond extended losses after the U.S. statement as currency traders said they were worried that South Africa could now face Western sanctions.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa did not confirm or deny the shipment took place but said his government was looking into the matter, when an opposition leader asked him about the issue in parliament.
The U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, told local journalists in a briefing earlier on Thursday that Washington was confident a Russian vessel had uploaded weapons and ammunition from South Africa in December.
"Amongst the things we noted were the docking of the Russian cargo ship Lady R in Simon's Town between Dec. 6 and Dec. 8, 2022, which we are confident uploaded weapons, ammunitions … as it made its way back to Russia," Brigety said.
"Arming of Russia by South Africa with the vessel… is fundamentally unacceptable," Brigety said, adding that senior U.S. officials had "profound concerns" about South Africa not respecting its professed policy of non-alignment and neutrality with regard to Russia's war.
ANC made a party resolution last year that they would not allow regime change in Zimbabwe following the 2023 elections. SADC has granted vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and hence the reason why Zanu PF has itching for a fight with the West so it can use that as the excuse for denying the West clearance observe the country's election. Zanu PF wants African countries and its eastern friends only to observe the elections.
ANC is propping up Zanu PF because the party is seeking a political sick kick the same way Russia has Belarus and before the war Ukraine. This is something Zimbabweans must resist. It is not for South Africa to decide whether or not there is regime change in Zimbabwe, that is the prerogative of Zimbabweans alone!
Corruption in Zimbabwe has become a runaway train and it is fuelling the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut and poverty and hopelessness amongst povo. We can end corruption by first ending the curse vote rigging and bad governance.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYr4_HjpMxU