Zanu PF must win Norton "at all cost" instructs Mugabe - or "rig the vote". By W Mukori

There is nothing like a serious challenge to Zanu PF’s iron grip on power to bring out the ugly side of that party! When the disgruntled war veterans announced that they would be switching their support from the Zanu PF candidate to an independent in the Norton by-election they did not just throw the electoral gauntlet challenge at President Mugabe, they might as well have slapped him in the face several times with it.

Of all the independent candidates to support, the disgruntled war veterans are supporting Themba Mliswa, himself a former Zanu PF MP and provincial party chairman, who was booted out of the party together with Mai Mujuru and others in 2014. All those Mugabe kicked out of Zanu PF are not supposed to stage any form of comeback!

No one likes to lose and President Mugabe is no exception in that; what sets him apart from everyone else however is that whilst there are red-lines they will never ever cross to secure victory, Mugabe has no such inhibitions. None!

In the past President Mugabe has relied on the rogue war veterans, his storm troopers, to harass, beat, rape and even murder his political opponents and the public at large to secure election victory. He has since fallen out with the rogues because he has failed to keep his promise of a fair share of the country’s looted wealth. Whilst President Mugabe and a few in his inner circle have become filthy rich the rest of the population including the great majority of the rogue war veterans have been forced into a life of abject poverty.

“We are the stockholders of Zanu PF and Zimbabwe,” the disgruntled war veterans told President Mugabe finally. “You and everyone else are stakeholders who come and go!”

So the stakes in the Norton by-election are sky-high for President Mugabe. A Mliswa victory will confirm there is life outside Zanu PF for those Mugabe has kicked out and, worse still, that, without the war veterans terrorizing the electorate on Zanu PF’s behave, the party is not as electorally invisible as Mugabe would have us believe. These are two myths President Mugabe cannot afford to have demystified hence the reason some of the demonic aspects of Zanu PF normally kept for nation-wide elections are coming out in this by-election.

VP Mnangagwa who has been out campaigning in Norton is support of the Zanu PF candidate told his listeners President Mugabe has instructed him the party must win the seat “at all cost”!

Zanu PF has been dolling out residential land to party supporters and has even boasted about it.

“The youth fund is continuous and all you requests and recommendations will be considered. Of course Zanu PF youths will get priority because it is the party in government,” said Youths and Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao recently.

“The white man should go back where he came from, we will keep our Zimbabwe,” said VP Mnangagwa in Norton. “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.”

This is the kiss-of-death in Mugabe’s satanic kit because he has unleashed all the state’s power and resources to hunt down and kill all those accusing of helping the white’s regime change agenda. The threat to re-colonize the country is a smoke-screen to justify the imposition of a de facto one-party (Zanu PF) state cum one-man (R G Mugabe) dictatorship. Instead of upholding the individual right to free, fair and credible election, the basis of good and accountable governance, President Mugabe has systematically denied the people this right under the pretext that granting it would result in regime change and re-colonialization.

Zimbabwe is not the only country in the world to have been a colony and then gain her independence; none of the other nations have ever been re-colonized. It is total irrational to deny the people their freedoms and basic rights, the very things independence was supposed to bring, on the pretext that to grant them will result being recolonized!

Of course the people of Zimbabwe did not have any democratic say on whether or not they approved the imposition of this no-regime-change mantra – it was imposed and is being maintained against their will. Indeed, in the last 36 years the people have risked life and limp to demand the country holds free, fair and credible because this is the only way to end this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe rule that has destroyed the country’s once promising economy leaving millions living in abject poverty.

Given Zanu PF’s unfettered access to state resources including land and billions of dollars looted from Marange diamonds and total control of State institutions like the Police and ZEC it is clear Zanu PF will rig the Norton and the upcoming 2018 elections hands down. Not even ex Zanu PF candidates like Mliswa, even with the help of disgruntled war veterans, can force Zanu PF to hold free, fair and credible elections.

“You should vote for the rulers, not for the ruled. Vote to be part of the rulers, not the ruled,” boasted VP Mnangagwa.

“Even if you are asleep and you dream of Zimbabwe under another government, which is not Zanu PF, you should wake up, brew beer and ask your ancestors why they have forsaken you.” The voice of one who knows Zanu PF will always “win” the elections regardless of what the ordinary people would say in a free and fair vote. Zanu PF knows that the people will never ever have a free vote – not without dismantling its vote rigging machinery.

We all know what Mliswa is going to say after the by-elections; “Zanu PF rigged the elections!” And unlike Donald Trump, we all know Mliswa is right because we already have a mountain of vote rigging evidence.

The people of Zimbabwe should wake up to the reality that those participating in elections, knowing fully well the elections will not be free, fair and credible, granting the process the veneer of competition and thus a veneer of legitimacy. Zimbabwe’s economic recovery and with it the hope of getting out of this hell is dependent on the country holding of free and fair elections.

Mugabe has a well-established and well-funded vote rigging machinery that is why he is sure of Zanu PF wins all key elections “at all cost”. It is foolish to take part in a contest knowing it will be rigged even worse complain about it after it is indeed rigged!