“There are those who want a GNU, we are saying no to that. We are fighting for free and fair elections and not positions; we need the right conditions for elections,” Tsvangirai told his party supporters.
Let us just unpick what he has just said.
To start with, the principle task of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was that this interim administration must implement a raft of democratic reforms and write a new DEMOCRATIC constitution designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and vote rigging machinery for that the next elections will be free, fair and credible. We all know that the 31st July 2013 elections were not free and fair – Tsvangirai admitted as much by noon of elections day and has done so again above.
So we are starting on an agreed position; that the last GNU failed to deliver free and fair elections. Why?
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote in July 2013; proof that there was something wrong with the implementation of the democratic reforms and/or with the new 2013 constitution because that is exactly what they were supposed to stop happening. It turns out that not even one democratic reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. As for the new constitution, it is a weak and feeble constitution a product of “horse trading” between Zanu PF and the two MDC factions, as Trevor Ncube, CEO of Alpha Media Holdings, has rightly pointed out. It is not at all the democratic constitution the nation had been promised.
Since the July 2013 rigged elections MDC-T has promised the nation that the party will not take part in any future elections including by-elections until electoral reforms have been carried out. True to their word the party has not contested any of the by-elections since 2013. The next elections are two years away and still not even one reform has been implemented. Not a sausage!
MDC-T has maintained it will force Zanu PF to implement the reforms necessary for free and fair elections. Zanu PF has since refused to implement any reforms because being able to rig the elections is clearly in the party’s interest. Zanu PF has a clear two thirds majority in the new parliament after the rig 2013 elections and has resisted all parliamentary pressure to implement any reforms.
Even if some other pressure, the worsen economic meltdown for example, was brought to bear on Mugabe; it would be naïve to expect the Zanu PF regime to preside over the dismantling of the dictatorship design to end the party’s political domination. The pressure would be to force Zanu PF to accept the formation of an independent body that will then be tasked to implement the reforms.
Since no democratic reforms were implemented during the last GNU there is no question that we need the reforms to be implemented. We know we cannot trust Zanu PF as the government of the day to implement the reforms and so that leaves us with no other choice than finding some independent body to do it. The National Transition Authority (NTA) or GNU – the name is not important - composed of competent Zimbabweans who understand what the reforms are about and can be trusted to implement all the reforms and finally deliver free and fair election.
Tsvangirai is being very presumptuous with his assertion that he will not be is the NTA or GNU; it would be madness to allow any of the Zanu PF or MDC players involved in the failed last GNU to be in the new one. What for; they messed up the last time what is there to suggest they will not do so again.
Zimbabwe is not going to end the crippling economic meltdown and the increasing political chaos gripping the country until we implement the democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections. Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms, it rigged the last elections and, as long as the party is allowed to rig future elections, it will remain in power and so no reforms will ever be implemented. We need the NTA to break the cycle!
Assuming that Tsvangirai understands why we need the NTA, (knowing him as I do that is assuming a lot) then the only reason he is objecting to NTA or NGU is that accepting bringing into sharp focus why the last GNU failed and his role in that failure.
For Tsvangirai to claim that he is fighting for free and fair elections and can deliver without coming up with some form of arrangement to neutralize Zanu PF’s dictatorial and vote rigging powers is as nonsensical as him claiming we can swim across the crocodile infested Zambezi River with no protection. We should concentrate on building the bridge and not waste time much less one human life listening to him!
Whether people like it or not a corrupt and incompetent individual like Emmerson Mnangagwa, Joice Mujuru and Morgan Tsvangira will never implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for. The first two were key players in the Mugabe team that created the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship we are suffering under today. If we elected anyone of them back into power, they will be there to remodel the dictatorship to fit their image. The latter has already a chance to end the dictatorship but failed to do so only because Mugabe bribed him to do nothing.
By electing corrupt and incompetent leaders, even recycling leaders with a proven record of failure Zimbabweans are showing the whole world that we are not serious about wanting free and fair elections – at least, not yet!
Party candidate Nokuthula Matsikenyere garnered 11 446 votes with second placed independent candidate Edmore Mtetwa getting 3 018 votes.
ReplyDeletePeter Gudyanga, the candidate from Elton Mangoma’s Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe got a paltry 183 votes with the National Constitution Assembly candidate, Pesanai Musakaruka getting 171 votes.
There are also people who believe that Zanu PF would punish them if they voted for anyone else. If we are not going to secure the safety of the voters, especially those in the rural areas who are vulnerable to all manner of political abuse by Zanu PF thugs then we have no business asking these people to put their security on the line. People risked life and limp in 2008 to elect Tsvangirai and his troop of monkeys and what democratic changes did they deliver? President Mugabe offered Tsvangirai and company the gravy train life plus the $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai and they forgot about the reforms.
No doubt MDC-T will be contesting in the 2018 elections with no reforms in place just as they did in 2013. They know the elections will be rigged but they do not care - they will be fighting for the few seats Zanu PF will throw away for the opposition. I will not risk life and limp for that; I will vote for Zanu PF!
Until we have quality opposition leaders with the common sense to see that taking part in an election process whose results is already predetermined is a completely mockery of democracy and all those taking part are exploiting the poor who are desperate for meaningful change by string them along and pretend the process is democratic and will ever deliver change.
Is it not bad enough that these corrupt politicians are making the nation suffer whilst they waste the nation’s time and resources without having to massage their balloon egos by giving them my vote too!
"Within Zanu-PF, successionists arrogantly assert that they are entitled to power, entitled to rule and entitled to the country's resources because they fought and died for these things."
ReplyDeleteHe said the faction did not care about elections as they believed that Mugabe should "just pass the baton to them".
Moyo said the "successionists" had worked with Mugabe for a long time and were using that history as basis for their entitlement.
"They say we come a long way with the president and so it's now our turn to take over from him. They say they are entitled to take over from him and they don't care what the Constitution says or what the people want or may choose at an election," the minister said.
This is just as case of the kettle calling the pot black! Professor Moyo is accusing Mnangagwa and his friends of wanting power because they think they are entitled to rule since the fought in the war of liberation – a notion Mugabe himself had cultivated for decades and dropped only in the last two years because he wanted his wife to take over. But is the G40 faction not doing the same thing, they too think they are entitled to rule because they think no one is entitled to special privileges just because they fought in the liberation war.
It is sickening that Professor Moyo should try to justify President Mugabe’s continued tyrannical rule on the grounds of what the constitution say and of having been elected by the people. He knows as well as everyone that President has disregarded the party as well as the nation’s constitution countless times. He also knows that President Mugabe has been rigging elections all these years.
Once there is regime change in Zimbabwe, we must have a thorough investigation into how President Mugabe has rigged past elections and put the record right once and once for all!
You can take the horse to the river but you cannot make him drink. Zimbabweans have been warned about Tsvangirai being corrupt and incompetent and therefore useless but they refuse to listen. No one should need any persuading that Zanu PF will never preside over its own demise, that is self-evident and common sense. But clearly not self-evident to Tsvangirai and his morbid followers!
ReplyDeleteWhilst one would have thought that Zimbabwe’s worse economic situation will finally force Zimbabweans to sit up and pay close attention to what is happening and demanding meaningful change; the situation on the ground tell its own different story. If anything Zimbabweans have become even more morbid than ever. When Tsvangirai told them he did not want to go into another GNU, his listeners cheered. They had braved the rains to listen to that!