ZimPF to deal Mugabe "a crushing defeat" in 2018 - boasting of proverbial frog. By Patrick Guramatunhu

Lord have mercy on us all! There is no big fool than one who learns nothing from the past and Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians are some of the biggest fools that have ever walked on this earth!

“ZimPF on Saturday satirically prayed for Zanu-PF leader President Robert Mugabe to survive until the 2018 elections for him to experience his first crushing defeat by his former lieutenants,” reported Bulawayo 24. The paper was quoting the party’s national chairperson Methuseli Moyo.

How many times have the people of Zimbabwe heard the opposition make similar boastful predictions only for President Mugabe to emerge, by hook and crook, victorious! In 2008 President Mugabe did in fact suffer a crushing defeat in the March vote only for him to “cook” the result to justify a run-off which he went on to win after using wanton violence to force the electorate to vote for him.

Morgan Tsvangirai should have won the 2013 elections judging from the MDC’s well attended rallies and popularity. President Mugabe could not use violence again, not with the whole world watching, he used the war chest of cash looted from Marange diamonds to finance a very elaborate and expensive vote rigging scheme.

Zanu PF’s reputation of using violence and other vote-rigging dirty tricks to win elections is well known and therefore there was no excuse why MDC had failed to take measures to stop these activities. Following the wanton violence of 2008 SADC forced President Mugabe to agree to form GNU which was then tasked to implement democratic reforms designed to end the Zanu PF culture of violence and vote-rigging. Foolishly MDC failed to implement any of these reforms.

After Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections, Morgan Tsvangirai explained that MDC did not implement the reforms because he and his colleague were, until elections day, confident of electoral victory “regardless of Zanu PF vote-rigging shenanigans”. No doubt the “sea of red” of MDC supporters at their party rallies had lured MDC leaders into a false sense of security; they really believed they did not need to implement any reforms; they even ignore SADC’s repeated warning not to take part in the elections without reforms.

Joice Mujuru launched her ZimPF party last month and its popularity with the people is yet to be established and yet already the some of the party’s leaders cannot wait for 2018 elections and they are cocksure of defeating Zanu PF. There is nothing on the ground to justify their confidence; this is just the proverbial frog claiming he would put out the forest fire with his fart!

President Mugabe lost the political support of the people of Zimbabwe a long time ago and so it follows to deliver him a crushing electoral defeat and make it stick one must make sure the elections are free, fair and credible. Therefore the key to defeating President Mugabe and Zanu PF is to implement the democratic reforms necessary to stop him using violence and other vote-rigging shenanigans. There is nothing to show that Mai Mujuru and her ZimPF friends understand this!

Whilst Mujuru and many of her ZimPF friends were elected back into office in 2013 on Zanu PF ticket thanks to MDC’s folly of failing to implement even one reform, there is no evidence to show she understood what was going on. Indeed she has since admitted as much.  

"I never saw the rigging… I am sure it was a very small clique that was doing it," Mujuru told the UK Sunday Times when was asked about Zanu PF’s vote rigging.

As the party’s second most senior member, of course it is shocking that she does not something this serious was happening all those years under her very nose! Others in ZimPF, like Didymus Mutasa who was, until his unceremonious dumping in December 2014, State Security Minister too did not have a clue what was going on. The sheer incompetence of the ZimPF leaders is an open book, there for all to read!

ZimPF have not implemented anything to ensure the 2018 elections are free, fair and credible and yet they are already impatient for elections to be held and are confident of crushing victory over Zanu PF. They have done nothing to stop Zanu PF using wanton violence; nothing to stop Zanu PF looting in Marange and having a war chest to bankroll another vote-rigging scheme; etc. and, most critical of all, has not implemented even one democratic reform. This is nothing short of the misplaced confidence of the proverbial frog who boasted of putting out the forest fire with his fart.

If the next elections are rigged all Mujuru and her ZimPF friends stand to lose is a chance to get back on the gravy train. For the nation, another rigged elections will mean the economic meltdown will continue and so will the political chaos; Zimbabweans have suffered enough.  

prospect of the present economic meltdown and political chaos continuing on until 2018 is hard to bear; the prospect of it going on beyond 2018 is unthinkable.

We must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms and must not allow ourselves to be side tracked again, as happened during the GNU, by the foolish and boastful zeal of the proverbial frog. Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged election in 2018, the stability of the nation and the region is at stake.