Tsvangirai wants Biti back or is this to panic Mujuru just as he used Locadia to panic Elizabeth into marriage! By W Mukori

Speaking in an interview with the Daily News last week, the former prime minister in the government of national unity said his fallout with Biti and Mangoma was "based more on personal differences as opposed to ideology".

 

What is Mr Tsvangirai talking about! If they ever had any ideology and sense of where they were going then why did they fail to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU? They five years to do it and failed to get even one reform implemented.

 

All Tsvangirai, Mangoma, Biti and the other MDC leaders ever wanted was to get into power and milk the system for as much as they can and if that meant betraying the people who got them into power in the first place then so be it. If being corrupt, incompetent and selling-out are now the new hallmarks of chivalry and honour then God help us.

 

Since the rigged July 2013 elections, which saw many MDC members kicked off the gravy train, they have been fighting tooth and nail to get back on the gravy train. Sadly for them, some of the Zimbabwe electorate has woken up to the dangers of electing corrupt and incompetent leaders who sold-out during the GNU! They learnt an important lesson and one they are determined never to repeat.

 

"I don't bear grudges with anyone. Of course, there are colleagues who walked away citing grievances, but when it comes to the question of the people and their quests for change, freedom and a better life for all, you will find me very co-operative," said Tsvangirai.

 

In other words the reality of lost political credibility with the donors and now with the electorate is finally sinking in; Tsvangirai is so desperate to save his fast sinking political career he will willingly kiss and make up with Biti and Mangoma even as a last ditch attempt to save his career..

 

For the last twelve months Tsvangira has been courting Joice Mujuru to get her to join him into a political coalition. He is blowing reunion kisses to Biti and Mangoma to get Joice to panic and accept his hand just he did with Elizabeth.

 

The carefully stage managed traditional marriage to Locadia had Elizabeth fighting for him like two female pandas on heat and the window of opportunity is closing fast and he is the only male around!

 

Frankly Joice Mujuru is not such a prize catch; she “corrupt, incompetent and lazy” as Grace Mugabe said – Grace may well be wrong about everything she said about Mai Mujuru but on those three points, she was spot on. But Mujuru supporters will, no doubt, remind everyone that Tsvangirai is no prize catch neither since he too is corrupt and incompetent!

 

So this is the classic case of “Is your son so much to look at? The way he looks and the way she sees; it’s a perfect match!”

 

Both Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma have done miserably ever since they broke away from Tsvangirai. The worst thing to happen to the two and all those foolish enough to follow them who had been lucky enough to get a parliamentary or senatorial seat; they all lost their seats.  Tendai Biti had assured then they would never lose their seats; “or my name is Morgan Mugabe” he had said. What a worthless guarantee that has turned out to be!

 

Tsvangirai had parliament recall the break group only to hand over all the elected seats to Zanu PF on a silver platter. It was better that Zanu PF had the seats than MDC Renewal that said volumes about how much Tsvangirai hated the breakaway group!

 

Biti’s attempt to heap all blame for MDC failure to get even one reform implemented on Tsvangirai did not cut much ice with the thinking electorate. The GNU lasted for five years enough time for any other MDC leaders to have done something to ensure the reforms were implemented if they really wanted. Indeed the reading public remembered that it was none other than Tendai Biti himself who had joined his MDC colleagues in praising Mugabe to the high heavens calling the corrupt and murderous tyrant the “unflappable father of the nation”!

 

Tendai Biti has tried to rescue his sinking political fortune by seeking a political marriage with former VP Joice Mujuru, more for her money than anything else. She let him, as with other suitors, know which is her favourite brand of Swiss chocolate; she has enjoyed the chocolates and said nothing on the marriage proposal. Her extended thinking-about time and expensive taste have left big holes in the People Democratic Party and its President, Tendai Biti’s shallow pockets!

 

So both signori Biti and Mangoma may well grab Tsvangirai’s offer of reunion in much the same way a drowning will clutch at straws or the hand of a follow drowning man. If you are going to sink into oblivion it is better doing so in company than alone!

 

Getting Biti and Mangona back in his big tent would be major scalp for Tsvangirai and that is why he will be following this public offer with private talks. For him this is the last throw of the dice; if the prospect of getting Biti in his tent does not panic Joice Mujuru into accepting his coalition offer then nothing else will!

Nkulumane by-election exposes the folly of hoping for free and fair elections without reforms! by W Mukori

“We failed to secure critical reforms before participating in the elections. The whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms, and so in everything that we have been saying we have failed to acknowledge that we also made a mistake,” confessed Samuel Sipape Nkomo soon after him, Tendai Biti and few others had broken away to form the MDC Renewal.

“The whole world?” asked the Zimbabwe Independent reporter, Hebert Moyo. “Who actually advised you against the elections?”

“It is common knowledge that Lindiwe Zulu (President Jacob Zuma’s international relations adviser) advised us. (President ) Zuma also advised us and even the Sadc Heads of State meeting in Maputo (Mozambique) also advised not to participate in the elections without electoral, media and security sector reforms, among others.”

 

We know MDC ignored the warnings and took part in the July 2013 elections which Mugabe went on to blatantly rig.

 

The recent Nkulumane by-election showed just how easy it is for the regime to rig elections and therefore how important it is that we heed the warning not to hold the next elections without first implementing the democratic reforms.

 

It should be noted that Nkulumane was considered an MDC strong hold and the seat was won by an MDC candidate in the July 2013 elections so the level of vote rigging dirty trickery in this constituency would have been significantly lower than in those areas Zanu PF had some support and then used multiple voting to increase it vote. Still the Nkulumane by-election uncovered some interesting points:

 

1. ZEC released the voter roll 8 days before voting day. This still remains a burning issue; the voters roll from the last July 2013 elections has never been released although the law and common sense dictates it should have been realized at least a month before the elections.
    
   Even the African Union (AU) Election Observer Team noted this serious irregularity in its report and recommended the authority must correct this. Clearly Zanu PF chosen to ignore the AU’s recommendation!
    
2. The voters roll ZEC released was electronic with the data in different formats. There is no doubt that the data deliberately scramble to make it impossible to analysed.

 

Zanu PF paid NIKUV, an Israeli firm notorious for helping African tyrants rig elections, a princely sum of US$ 10 million run-up to the 2013 elections. One of NIKUV’s specialities is – you guessed it – scrambling voters roll data.

 

NIKUV has remained in Zimbabwe after the July 2013 rigged elections, no doubt for another princely retention fee, which the regime has religious paid on time. The regime can afford to mess around with failing to pay teachers, doctors, etc.’s wages; all performing very useful public services but has paid NIKUV’s “pound of flesh” for its disservice to the nation in corrupting the voters roll and thus making it easy for Mugabe to rig elections.  

 

1. 807 on the voters roll of 34 118 were migrants from Harare Urban Constituencies alone! Many voters failed to cast their vote on 31^st July 2013 because they name was not in the constituency they expected it to be. Local election observer estimated that nearly one million voters were affected out of over five million valid votes cast in that election. If the July 2013 voters roll was available it would be easy to see how many other voters on the Nkulumane voters roll migrated from other constituencies. The results would show that the local election observers’ nearly a million was very conservative.
    

Conclusion.

 

“Your opponents can have the all the votes you will still go on and “win” if all those counting the votes belong to you,” boasted one South American tyrant. Mugabe does not only own everyone in ZEC, Registrar General’s Office, have unfettered access to one of the world’s best voters roll scrambling companies, NIKUV (for a princely modern day thirty pieces of silver), he has the Police, CIO and all the other State Institution at his command. His command has been simple enough stop regime change at all cost.

 

Mugabe controls every aspect of the electoral process it is nonsense to think the country can have free, fair and credible election.

 

None of the 2008 GPA reforms were implemented during the GNU; Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were both stubborn and foolish to think the July 2013 elections would be free and fair with no reforms implemented. We must now demand the implementation of all the reforms and not make the same foolish mistake MDC made!

Free and fair elections remains a mirage because voters were naive to trust leaders to deliver it! By W Mukori

Democracy is government by the people that is only possible when the people have a meaningful say on who governs. The meaningful say is universally acknowledged as the people expressing their democratic wish through free, fair and credible elections which includes the right to remove one regime and replace it with another.

 

No one can seriously dispute that Zimbabwe is de facto one-party dictatorship. Mugabe and his cabal have publically advocated their no-regime-change ethos and corrupted state institutions like the Police, ZEC, CIO, etc. to abandon their democratic duties of keeping law and order and defending all Zimbabweans’ freedom and human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life. So instead of stamping out Zanu PF’s culture of politically motivated violence, for example, the Police have often turned a blind-eye to Zanu PF thuggery and even played an active part in the thuggery.

 

So if we are serious about ending this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship we must politically empower the people. It is not enough for the people to know the current political system has failed; the people must understand how we got where we are.

 

In 1980 and for the next two decades most people believed Mugabe would deliver mass prosperity. Although Mugabe had already showing his tyrannical streak as seen by the murderous Gukurahundi campaign and his knack for rigging elections; still many people would have given up their political freedoms and rights in return for economic prosperity.

 

By the late 1990s it was clear Mugabe’s mass prosperity was in fact mass poverty. But having lost their political muscle to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF from power through free, fair and credible elections it is not surprising that the nation’s attention has been focused on implementing democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.

 

The best chance ever to end the Mugabe dictatorship was after the tyrant was forced to accept the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms in the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA). It was left to Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement the reforms. After five years in the Government of National Unity (GNU), MDC failed to get even one reform implemented.

 

History has a habit of repeating itself! In the first two decades after independence the people allowed Mugabe to impose a de facto one-party dictatorship because the people were naïve enough to without political power they could still have a competent and prosperous government. Throughout the GNU the people were once again naïve to believe Tsvangirai would delivery free, fair and credible elections.

 

Mugabe is in serious trouble on the economic and political fronts. Three and half decades of mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness have taken a heavy toll on the national economic. When Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections he thought he would rig economic recovery too with his $27 billion ZimAsset plan. He has since failed to get anyone to bankroll the plan resulting is a runaway economic meltdown.

 

The worsening economic situation has not spared even the Zanu PF chefs. The dog-eat-dog infighting in Zanu PF has its origins on the economic meltdown because anyone eased out of power know they will become destitute!

Mugabe has given up hope of reviving the economy but like all tyrant, he is not ready to give up political power. He would want to hang on to the undemocratic institutions so he can, once again rig the next elections. As long as Zanu PF remains in power, the economic meltdown will get worse, not better.

 

Of course the worsening economic situation and Zanu PF imploding presents a wonderful opportunity to pressure Mugabe to accept the implementation of the GPA reforms followed by the holding of free, fair and credible elections. The opportunity will be wasted as happened in 1980 - 2000 and during the GNU if the electorate do not understand what the reforms are for them to demand their implementation.

 

The national economy is in such a mess unemployment has soared to 90% plus; 96% of our people are living on less than $1 per day; there is no clean running water in most cities and towns; etc. Where there is poverty and hunger, disease and death are there also. Of course this is economically, socially and politically unsustainable but it is the people themselves on the coal face of these economic hardships who have to demand change.

 

Last week Mugabe threw a lavish Christmas party for his ruling elite to sweeten them up in the face of the economic hardship. He did not want to make yet another empty promise of creating 2.2 million new jobs. He complimented the masses for their “resilience”!

 

Zimbabwe is not a poor country that cannot afford to give her people a decent standard of living. On the contrary, the country is endowed with some of the best farm lands in the world and used to grow enough food to feed all her people with plenty left over for export. But ever since Mugabe seized the farms to give to his wasteful cronies the millions of our people have relied on imported food aid or else starve.

 

In the day and age when other nations have made the deserts bloom, we are starving in the Garden of Eden; a sad testimony of the corruption and incompetence of our leaders!

 

What our people have yet to understand is the good, competent and democratic governments come from the people exercising their democratic right to a meaningful vote. When this right has been denied it is for the people to demand that it be restored. There is clearly more room to the nation to sink economically so next year Mugabe can once again boast of Zimbabweans’ resilience!

 

We say we want democracy; free and fair elections; an end to corruption and misrule; etc. but as long as we have an electorate that is so naïve and gullible they believe role in this world is to suffer and die in silence to prove their resilience we will never have any meaningful change.

The lack of quality in our national the leaders is a reflection of the lack of quality in the electorate. If you have quality milk you will get cream rising to the top but if you have a jar of sewage then scum will rise to the top!

 

People get the government they deserve; we certainly deserve this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship complete with its coterie of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties! If we want a democratic government then we, the people, must understand the GPA reforms and then demand their implementation with urgency the matter demands.

Musewe still campaigning for Tsvangirai and Mujuru coalition - it is like talking to a brick wall! By Patrick Guramatunhu

Talking to people like Vince Musewe is like talking to a brick wall; whatever you say just bounces of the wall leaving the wall no wiser.

 

“A number of people have argued vociferously about both individuals, that Tsvangirai has failed and that Mujuru has a soiled past. That may be true, but that doesn’t get us out of the Zanu PF problem,” wrote Vince Musewe in his latest article.

 

“For the next election we will need solid plans and numbers. In my opinion, Tsvangirai brings those numbers whether we like it or not, while Mujuru gives us access to the army and intelligence constituency, something that the MDC-T has failed to capture over the years.”

 

Before you get anywhere brother; Tsvangirai is a corrupt, incompetent leader who sold-out during the GNU years. He has the opportunity to implement the GPA reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!

 

 

If we are serious about ending the Zanu PF dictatorship then we must implement all the GPA reforms. Tsvangirai is calling for the alignment of electoral reforms which anyone with half a brain will tell you will never deliver free and fair elections.

 

 

Mai Mujuru is a corrupt, incompetent and lazy leader. She was right at the heart of the Zanu PF dictatorship and yet she has no clue how Mugabe rigged the elections. If Mujuru ever got back into power, her top priority would be to consolidate her own position by replacing Mugabe loyalists with Mujuru loyalists. We will still have a dictatorship be it with a new dictator and new party name.

 

 

Yes, it is true that Tsvangirai never earned the respect of those in the security services but that was his fault. Amount the many reforms in the GPA were reforms designed to end President Mugabe’s undemocratic control of the security sector.

 

 

If the nation had spent the last two and half years demanding the implementation of all the GPA reforms President Mugabe would have got the message by now that the reforms must be implemented. We have wasted this time talking to brick walls, some wittering about NERA whilst other witter about a coalition of twiddle dee and twiddle dumb; neither of which will deliver free, fair and credible elections.

 

 

You acknowledge that Mugabe will never win free, fair and credible elections so why are you not focusing all you energy on demanding the implementation of the GPA reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections? We both know that Tsvangirai and Mujuru will never deliver free and fair elections. Never ever!

 

 

“The problem with us is that we debate too much and do nothing to make change happen. There are a lot of views out there particularly in the diaspora, but in my view, they remain just that — opinions that will not lead to change on the ground. We will have to use what we have for now and its best to gather our energies and resources around an MDC-T and People First partnership,” argued Musewe.

 

 

So you think only your ideas are valid everyone else has “opinions that will not lead to change on the ground”! How patronizing!

 

Both Tsvangirai and Mujuru are corrupt and incompetent leaders with track record to prove; these are historic facts and not a matter “may be true” speculation. How your opinion can ignore historic facts and yet you still think your views are more valid that those of people who accept facts is a measure of your arrogance. The same dictatorial arrogance President Mugabe is renowned; the very thing we want to end!   

 

 

On the contrary, the debate is with brick walls; you have set your mind on Tsvangirai and Mujuru and will not listen to reason. You have grudgingly accepted the two are corrupt and incompetent and yet want to try them once again regardless their past record of failures in the hope that this time they will do better.

 

 

After 35 years of trying the same corrupt and incompetent leaders reason says change the political system to one that will encourage quality leaders to emerge!

 

 

The people of Zimbabwe have been denied their right to a meaningful vote for 35 years now; the next elections must be free, fair and credible. We have the chance to achieve this if only we do not allow ourselves to be side tracked again as happened during the GNU!

Povo got the independence present but minus the free vote and since Mugabe has stolen away even more! By W Mukori

My four year old nephew, nicknamed Bob (did not say it out loud because my sister would have been mad at me) got a battery operated toy car for Christmas. His baby brother got a toy car too but a much cheaper version. Bob was quick to notice that his baby brother was quite content playing with the empty toy box and so the little brother ended up with the two empty toy boxes whilst Bob had the two toy cars.

 

I nicknamed the four year old Bob because he reminded me of a certain Bob I know only the latter is the embodiment of evil hence the reason any parent would be mad to have their child compared to him.

 

When Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 everyone thought they would enjoy freedom, liberty, justice, human rights and human dignity the white colonialists had until then denied them. But before the ordinary people even got to open their independence day gift Robert Mugabe had stolen from their boxes the most valuable item of all – the right to free, fair and credible elections.

 

When the people of Zimbabwe went to cast their vote in 1980 few had any illusions this was about electing leaders they believed are best able to rule the nation. They knew this was about voting to end the civil war; Mugabe had it known that if Zanu PF did not win the party will not accept the results and the civil war would continue.

 

In 1980 Zimbabweans voted “to end the civil war”, said Professor Jonathan Moyo in his book Voting for Democracy. He was a man of the people then but ever since he became a minister he has served the dictator with all his heart and soul.

 

As soon as Mugabe got into power in 1980 he has worked tirelessly to undermine the independence and professionalism of state institutions like the Police and Judiciary to establish and retain his de facto one party dictatorship. The systematic denial of the people’s freedoms and basic rights, including the right to a meaningful democratic vote and even the right to life itself, has now been institutionalized. Mugabe has legalized his taken the pearls and everything of value out of our independence box, keeping them for himself and the ruling elite; whilst the rest of us have to be content with nothing.

 

35 years of absolute power have left Mugabe and his cronies filthy rich; Mugabe is getting as much as $2 billion a year from the looting and plunder in Marange alone. Meanwhile 35 years of misrule have destroyed the nation’s economy many companies have closed forcing unemployment to soar to nauseating heights of 90% plus. The majority of the people now live in abject poverty they cannot afford even one decent meal a day.

 

People can see that the Mugabe regime has failed them and in a healthy democratic country they would have been able to remove the regime and replace it with one more responsive to their needs and aspirations. Zimbabwe is not a democracy, Mugabe has ruthlessly imposed the no-regime-change mantra on the nation and the people have never had the free and democratic vote. Never ever!

 

We are stuck with Mugabe and his corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship. As long as he remains in power, as long as there is no-regime-change, there will be no end to our economic misery.

 

When the nation attained her independence in 1980 povo got the present but without the single most valuable thing, the right to a meaningful vote; Mugabe stole that away beforehand. In the years to follow Mugabe has stolen one thing after another from the people, so that today he has absolute political power and unfettered access to the nation’s assets and resources to loot and plunder as he please. Meanwhile the populous languish in poverty and despair but have no political muscle to stop the criminal waste.

 

For how many more years are Zimbabweans going to pretend the Zimbabwe Mugabe has delivered is the same they dreamt of and wanted?

 

Zimbabweans have yet to realize that it is not in the nature of tyrants to give up power. If the people want their freedom, liberty, justice and human rights independence bestowed on them then they must demand the restoration of their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Without the free vote nothing can be done to end the misrule and criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources.

 

It is one thing for a two year old boy to fail to distinguish the true value of a toy from that of the empty box; it is most disconcerting that a whole nation fails to see the critical importance of the right to a meaningful vote in securing one’s independence, humanity and even the right to life itself.

Mugabe's Unity Accord became his vehicle to impose no regime change reducing us all into minions! By W Mukori

“The observation of the December 22, 1987 Unity Accord is a continuation of Zimbabwe's national aspiration to remain a united people. It is a universally recognised fact that unity breeds harmony, peace and progress in every field of human endeavour,” wrote Saul Ndlovu.

 

The 22 December 1987 Unity Accord between Zanu PF and PF Zapu was not about peace and progress if they were then where is the peace and progress in a country that is being torn apart is political turmoil and chaos and who economy is in total meltdown.

 

The Unity Accord was the fulfilment of Mugabe’s tyrannical dream of creating a de facto one-party dictatorship in outward appearance but in fact a one-man dictatorship. In the Unity Accord Mugabe was named as the first secretary of the united party, a clear indication this was going to be a one-man dictatorship.

 

The December 1987 Unity Accord was preceded by the Gukurahundi massacres in which over 20 000 mainly PF Zapu supporters including unarmed and defenceless civilians were murdered in what every honest analyst will admit was an attempt to destroy PF Zapu as a political entity. Mugabe himself has said again and again during those Gukurahundi days that the regime was fighting those who do not want “unity”. Indeed Mugabe has used the language and applied the same brutal violence since December 1987 against all his political opponents and critics.

 

More than 10 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered since the signing of the Unity Accords; is that peace?

 

The one-man dictatorship Mugabe has created has stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition within Zanu PF itself and in the nation at large in the name of unity. The nation has paid dearly for this stifling political environment because the all-powerful Mugabe has appointed his cronies in every sector of the economy to serve his no regime change agenda above all else allowing mismanagement and corruption to destroy the country politically and economically.

 

The people of Zimbabwe have aware of Mugabe’s failure to deliver economic prosperity which he has promised again and again but have been stuck with the tyrant. Mugabe has stayed in power for 35 years now because he was able to rig elections at will – in the name of unity, of course.

 

For 35 years Mugabe has brainwashed Zimbabweans into believing political unite means giving up their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country; free, fair and credible elections; in support of his no-regime-change mantra. Unite does not mean agreeing with everything a tyrant like Mugabe says and does and being reduced into subservient minions who cannot think anything for themselves, who do not even know when they are being short changed let alone do something about it!

PF(UK) say Mujuru satyed in abusive Zanu PF marriage for our sake - whatever next, Saint Juice Mujuru! by P Guramatunhu

“They generally believe that it is their duty to withstand the abuse in the interest of either maintaining the marriage or being there for the children (ndongarira vana vangu),” said PF (UK).

 

Of all the stupid excuses one can give as to why PF leaders like Joice Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa and all the others have remained in Zanu PF all these years this takes the biscuit! There is overwhelming evidence that people like Mutasa, Bhasiki and many others in People First played a very active role in the political abuses perpetrated by Zanu PF thugs over the years including harassment, beatings, rape and even murder. Mutasa and Bhasiki’s hands are red with the blood of innocent victims they had killed for selfish political gain.

 

Even if people like Mujuru were smart enough not to be anywhere near where the harassment, vote rigging, etc. took place they cannot deny that they knew these things were going on. They were in a position of power and authority to stop them; they did not because they were racking in the huge benefits of these treasonous activity.

 

Mujuru and others were in power for 34 years and with that came the absolute power and exclusive looting rights. Mujuru and many other in PF became multi-millionaires during their Zanu PF days and ever since they booting out of the party they have worked hard to get back into power because they want to continue their lives of absolute power and looting from where they left when they were booted out of Zanu PF!

 

 

Mujuru is a corrupt and incompetent leader and many of those in her PF inner circle have shed the innocent blood of our people; these are stubborn historic facts. Anyone who thinks such individuals are competent to lead the nation are either part of the corrupt and murderous cabal or else they are part of the herd programme to follow blindly with no questions asked any leaders placed before them. The herd of people too lazy to look for competent leaders and so they settle for corrupt and incompetent leaders and will even recycle the same failed leaders over and over again hoping against hope they will transform into the good leaders the nation is dying for.

 

So PF (UK) wants us to believe Joice Mujuru was the mother in an abusive marriage with Mugabe for 34 years she soldiered on for the sake of us the children (ndongarira vana vangu)! Whatever next; claims that Joice Mujuru is a saint! Give me a break! The trouble with the “herd” is they have yet to learn that if they have nothing to say, shut up!

For free and fair elections we need to implement all GPA reforms and stop wasting time of NERA. by Wilbert Mukori

Tsvangirai is presenting National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) as if it was a viable alternative route to ensuring the next elections are free, fair and credible. The truth is NERA will never stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections because instead of dealing with the real big issues behind the vote rigging it pretends they are not there in much the same way a toddle thinks closing its eyes makes everyone disappears . Rigging elections is a serious national problem and we need a serious solution.  

 

To understand why NERA is a false choice one has to go back to Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections, the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), the 2009 to 2013 Government of Nation Unity (GNU) and the July 2013 elections.

 

Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 the country has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections; even the first elections in 1980, although they were held under the British supervision, were not free and fair. The people knew that if Mugabe and Zanu PF fail to win the elections the civil war would continue and so they voted Zanu PF to end the civil war. If anyone has ever doubted the sincerity of Mugabe’s threat then all such doubt evaporated in 2008 when Mugabe showed the whole world the murderous lengths he would do to retain power.

 

Mugabe lost the March 2008 presidential vote to his challenger Morgan Tsvangirai; but he withheld announcing the result for five weeks, when he finally did Tsvangirai’s lead had dwindled to well below the minimum to avoid a run-off. Mugabe pulled all the dirty tricks to ensure he won the run-off.

 

Zimbabwe had always known violence and vote rigging but the 2008 presidential run-off was to see some of the worst ever. Mugabe “declared war!” on the people, as Tsvangirai rightly pointed out, when he launched his operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!). Party operatives backed by the Army, Police and CIO set out to punish the people for having voting for Tsvangirai in the March vote and thus make sure they voted for Mugabe in the run-off. Millions of people were harassed, beaten and/or raped and over 500 were murdered.

 

The wanton violence was so bad that Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the run-off. Mugabe claimed victory to his one-horse race. But no one, not even the SADC and AU election observers known for turning a blind eye to election irregularities, would endorse the election as having been free, fair and credible. Mugabe faced a serious legitimacy issue; there was no way his regime could survive shunned by the whole world including his fellow African neighbours.

 

To regain legitimacy, Mugabe was forced to sign the 2008 GPA in which he agreed that Zimbabwe would implement a raft of democratic reforms and pass a new democratic constitution so that the wanton violence of 2008 and vote rigging of the past elections would not be repeated ever again. The three Zimbabwean political parties in the GNU, Zanu PF and the two MDC factions, were tasked to implement the reforms, write the new constitution and deliver free, fair and credible elections.

 

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends made their first big mistake. Instead of implementing the democratic reforms as stipulated in the 2008 GPA, they allowed themselves to be bribed by Mugabe in retain for them kicking the reforms into the tall grass. Tsvangirai et al concentrated on drafting the new constitution convinced it alone would deliver the free, fair and credible elections.

 

 

 

 

The July 2013 elections were rigged thus proving right those who had warned MDC well before the elections that the March 2013 constitution was a false choice because it would NOT deliver free and fair elections.

 

The democratic reforms agreed in the GPA were designed to end Mugabe’s dictatorial struggle on key institutions like the Police, Judiciary, Public Media, ZEC, etc. which made these institutions behave more like party departments in all but name. The reforms were designed to redefine their core business, ensure their operational independence and to restore the democratic checks and balances between the executive, legislature and judiciary.

 

There was no political will to any of the reforms and so not even one reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU but worse still MDC allowed Mugabe to bamboozle them into accepting a new constitution endorsing Mugabe’s undemocratic powers over the Police, Judiciary, etc. The new constitution was a tyrant’s creed and not the democratic constitution the GPA had asked for. Tsvangirai claim the new constitution was an “MDC child” but truth was that it was Mugabe who “dictated” it, as Paul Mangwana said, the Zanu PF co-chairperson on the committee tasked to write the new constitution.

 

Since the rigged July 2013 elections MDC should have just acknowledged they made a serious mistake by failing to implement the reforms and compounded that by accepting a weak and feeble constitution. The solution is clearly to go back to the GPA and this time get ALL the reforms finally implemented. But in typical corrupt and incompetent MDC style, they are now pushing for, NERA, electoral law reforms design to realign the existing laws to the new constitution which we already know is weak and feeble.

 

Tsvangirai is making a mountain out of mole hill of the fact it is still the Registrar General who is producing the voters roll and not ZEC as required by the new constitution for example. With no reforms implemented it means ZEC, like all the other institutions like the Police, is still firmly in Mugabe’s pocket. Surely the key issue here is getting ZEC out of Mugabe’s pocket, what ZEC is doing whilst it remains in the tyrant’s pocket is a matter of indifference!  

 

In their report in October 2015, Veritas, a local think thank on legal matters, has studied all the electoral laws MDC-T is asking to be realigned with the new constitution and said they are all “inadequate and/or incomplete” to made an difference of the key issue of delivering free, fair and credible elections.

 

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were warned repeatedly throughout the GNU years to implement the GPA reforms because the new constitution alone would not deliver the free and fair elections but they would not listen. Now they are at it again by insisting on NERA although it is clear that would not deliver free elections. Tsvangirai just likes to be seen to be doing something whether or not that is producing the desire goal is clearly irrelevant to him.

 

Mugabe too is guilty of indulging himself in false choices design to give the impression he is doing something to end the country’s worsening economic situation although in reality he is making the situation worse not better. Mugabe thought after rigging the July 2013 nation elections, he could rig the economic recovery. One of the reason why Zimbabwe is in this economic mess is that this Mugabe regime seen a lawless mafia gang with no respect of the law especially property rights. By failing to free and fair elections again and again, Mugabe has provided the proof the reputation is well founded.  

 

Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems are real and the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans now out of work and living in abject poverty and despair are real too. So the need for country to find a way out of this hell hole is real too and urgent.

 

To get out of this economic and political hell Mugabe has landed this nation we need to end this corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF one-party dictatorship which has left the nation stuck with the same corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical leaders these last 35 years. All we have to do is implement all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA and stop wasting time on gimmicks like MDC-T’s NERA.

 

There is one big thing going for the 2008 GPA reforms, neither Mugabe and his Zanu PF party nor Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, the signatories to the GPA, can deny that not even one of the GPA reforms were implemented during the GNU!  We must demand their implementation without further delay!

 

The people of Zimbabwe have waited for the last 35 years for their first chance to cast a free and democratic vote. If there is one thing we own ourselves and posterity to finally get right it to ensure the next elections are indeed free, fair and credible.

 

This nation will not accomplish anything of any meaning or value until we establish a political system able to deliver free, fair and credible election.  For Pete’s sake let us get this right!