In her first interview since the registering of
her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party, Joice Mujuru fails to impress! She told
the British Sunday Times that she did not see any rigging in the 2013 elections,
much to the disappointment of everyone but especially the opposition.
"I never saw the rigging… I am sure it was a very small clique that was doing it," said Mujuru.
When it comes to rigging the elections, I think
Mai Mujuru is telling the truth; she saw nothing, heard nothing and said nothing.
We should not forget that Mugabe accused her
and her husband of operation “Bhora musango” in 2008. The Mujurus instructed
their supporters to vote for the Zanu PF parliamentary candidates but instead
of voting for the presidential party candidate, Mugabe, they were instructed to
vote for Tsvangirai. It is hardly surprising then that Mugabe and his Joint Operation
Command, the real power house in Zimbabwe, would have kept Mujuru in the dark
as to their 2013 vote rigging plans.
"I do hope it is a diplomatic response
meant to evade liability because their key value to opposition politics is not
to show that they were dull and everything happened around them," said
Jacob Mafume of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).
"They have to state categorically that they knew there was rigging; how it was done and, more importantly, that they know how to stop it. There is no value if they were also innocent beneficiaries because they will simply become victims now."
Diplomatic response, you wish! As for being a victim of Mugabe vote rigging
she does not have to wait for the next national elections, she has already had
her baptism of fire.
In 2014 she thought she was set to win the VP
post in the party’s upcoming elective; she had 8 out of the 10 provinces
backing her. She was falsely accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe
(nonsense given that the electoral victory would have put her in pole position
to be his successor). She did not see that one coming and, worse still, did not
what to do to fight back.
ZPF is going to be just another opposition party
whose supporters will be in for the usual harassment, beating or worse. At the
end of the day they too will complain about the violence against its supporters
and the vote rigging. Like MDC, ZPF too will have no clue, even after seeing
Zanu PF bussing in its supporters to vote, etc. how Zanu PF rigged the
elections!
There is a lot of stuff Mujuru did not know,
even when she was VP; that fits in well with her character and reputation as
corrupt and incompetent. If she was to
become president, God forbid, then she will either stop a lot of things happening
because she cannot get a head round the issues involved or else sign off things
many things when she does not a clue what it is she is doing.
If the opposition has been banking on Mai
Mujuru and her ZPF colleagues knowing Zanu PF’s vote rigging secrets and
spilling the beans and thus make it very difficult if not impossible for Zanu
PF to rig the next elections now the opposition have heard it from the horse’s
mouth – she and her friends know nothing of substance. The only sure way to
stop Zanu PF using violence and rigging the next elections is by implementing
the GPA reforms BEFORE the next elections.
I can understand people like Mafume and Obert Gutu's anger and frustration with Mai Mujuru's failure to give them the details of how Zanu PF rigged the last elections. These opposition leaders were contesting candidates in the July 2013. They are the ones who maintain the elections were rigged but have failed to say how. The evidence of the rigging is all there, the bussed voters, failure to release the voters roll (the smoking gun) etc. these MDC leaders have not been smart enough to see it.
ReplyDeleteThe opposition was hoping that Mai Mujuru will provide them with the evidence of vote rigging they were not smart enough to see for themselves and, better still, provide the smart people to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections. It turns out that Mai Mujuru and her ZPF friends are as dum as Tsvangirai and company. Drawing a blank from her means the opposition are no wiser at stopping Zanu PF rigging the next elections than they were in 2013!
Anyone who even mentions Mai Mujuru of ZPF in Harvest House for the next week risks being man-handled out of the building as happened to Elton Mangoma. The knowledge that she is just as dum as MDC cadres has reminded them all just how hopeless their situation is, no wonder everyone is on edge!
"There is no value if they were also innocent beneficiaries because they will simply become victims now," said Jacob Mafume.
There was no note of welcome in that, rather the opposite! The MDC cannot wait for the day ZPF members will be tear-gassed and beaten by the regime!
Leaders like Tsvangirai and Biti have avoided the hard work of getting the GPA reforms implemented especially now the GPA has expired. They were hoping for a political marriage to Mujuru and she and her people's knowledge of Zanu PF vote rigging will stop the latter rigging elections. Now it turns out that she has picked up nothing after all her years in power showing that she was not really as great a political catch as they thought.
DeleteThe big tragedy here is the nation is being dragged into yet another election with no democratic reforms in place and those who should be leading in this process are again gambling the nation's future.
When Didymus Mutasa accused Patrick Chinamasa of vote rigging in the 2013 elections MDC leaders' ears pricked up like Kudu's. The thing is what ever Mutasa had picked up during that election one has to ask why MDC candidates up and down the country had failed to come up with anything.
ReplyDeleteIt was election observers who noted that nearly one million voters had been denied the vote because their names were not in the voters roll. It was observers too who had picked up the unusually big number of polling station that few people were aware of, etc. The opposition politicians themselves picked very little or nothing!
Not that MDC have known what to do with any evidence of vote rigging. They have threaten to take up the evidence to court and challenge the result but more often than not they have always chicken out the last minute.
Leaders like Biti and Tsvangirai are free loaders, they were hoping to get back into power on the work of Mai Mujuru and the fact that she has turned out to be a free loader too has been a shock for them!