Ali boasted AND delivered some people boast but never ever deliver. By Wilbert Mukori

 

Ali boasted and delivered; some people boast but never deliver!

 

“I shook up the world! I shook up the world!” screamed Muhammad Ali after beating Sonny Liston in 1964. His critics were quick to call him “big mouth” and no matter how much many of them wished someone would shut him up, throughout his illustrious boxing career few ever did shut him.

 

Ali boasted of “whipping good” his opponents off the ring and did just that in the squared circle!

 

“I shook up the world! I shook up the world!” screamed Ali, it he was not boasting but stating a fact!

 

In Zimbabwe we have our own home grown “big mouth” one Robert Gabriel Mugabe; sadly unlike Muhammad Ali, Mugabe is all talk. Boy oh boy the man can talk; denouncing the West is by far his favourite subject.

 

He has denounced the “British imperialists and their allies for imposing illegal sanctions” against Zimbabwe. He pronounced his “look East” as a defiant counter measure although the country’s economy has got progressive worse and not better.

 

Before the 2013 national elections he promised the nation 2.2 million new jobs by 2018. We are now three years down the line and he has yet to create even one new job. He has reverted to blaming the “illegal sanctions” for his government’s failure to revive the economy and create the desperately needed employment opportunities.

 

If he had been in the boxing ring then a left hook reminding him he promised the jobs knowing fully well there were sanctions would has caught him on jaw. Followed this up with a hammer-blow right in the breadbasket; reminding him of his own admission that the country lost $15 billion worth of diamond revenue, how can any nation prosper given such serious economic haemorrhaging. Technical Knock Out (TKO)!

 

But by far the greatest lie to come out of Mugabe is that he has the popular political support of the people of Zimbabwe when he has systematically denied them the basic right to free, fair and credible elections.

 

In 2008 elections, by far the worst case, Mugabe lost the March vote and withheld the results for five weeks whilst he “cooked” them to force a presidential run-off. He then deployed rogue war veterans and selected members the Police, CIO and Army to harass, beat, rape and even to kill innocent Zimbabweans to force them to vote for him in the run-off.

 

The blatant and wanton violence was so widespread and brutal Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of “declaring war on the people” he withdrew from the race. None of the election observers; not even SADC and the AU known for turning a blind eye to vote rigging; would endorse the elections having been free and fair.

 

SADC and the AU told Mugabe they would not recognize his government as legal and forced him to form GNU with his rivalry, Tsvangirai. The GNU was tasked to implement democratic reforms designed to ensure the next elections would be free, fair and credible. The task to implement the reforms fell on Tsvangirai and his MDC friends and they had five years to implement the reforms.

 

SADC Heads of State did their best to remind MDC to implement the reforms throughout the GNU but were ignored. Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections. He used the billions of dollars looted from Marange and Chiadzwa diamond mining to bankroll elaborate but very expensive vote rigging schemes. He used violence but not as extensively as in 2008 and so did not need the war veterans as much.

 

Mugabe has his fallen out with war veterans and they have since confronted the tyrant demanding that he must step down.

 

“I am created, as president, by the people; the people of Zimbabwe,” he answered back.

“Once the party says you rest, fine, or if I ask the party that, no, I think the time has come for me to rest, I will tell the party that.

“But for as long as the party still wants me to serve, if I still have the energy, and still have the life and the blessings of God, I will continue,” he said.

In other words the people cannot deliver the TKO because he has a well-established and funded vote rigging system.

 

The war veterans have helped Mugabe rig elections in the past but they cannot now stand-up and declare the people did not elect him and spill all the vote rigging secrets to prove it; not without incriminating themselves. They would risk a double KO only if Mugabe should seek to knock them out. They have warned Mugabe that they will not back him in the next elections. He can live with that since he is now relying on spending billions to bankroll his vote rigging schemes; he still has billions rolling in from the looting in Marange that has continued even after his March 2016 admission of looting.

 

The only way to peaceful shut Mugabe up is for the people to demand the full implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. We, the people, must demand the reforms and see to it that they are implemented and not leave this to the opposition parties, especially MDC leaders who have already show that they have no clue what the reforms are about.

 

Implement the reforms so there are free and fair elections and Mugabe’s boastful lie “I am created, as president, by the people!” will finally be exposed and force him to shut up! Once there is regime change a thorough investigation must be carried out and put the record right that he had indeed rigged past elections!