There is one thing we can say
with certainty about the 21 January 2017 Bikita West by-election - Zanu PF did
not roll out its vote rigging juggernaut. The party did not deploy NIVUK to
corrupt the by-election voters roll, for example. In the 2013 national elections,
the Israeli company’s handwork disenfranchised nearly one million, mainly opposition,
voters whilst hiding the multiple voting of Zanu PF supporters bussed from one
polling station to the next. The number of polling station was increase from 2
000 to a staggering 9 000 just two days before voting day!
The Zanu PF candidate in the
Bikita West by-elections does not have the cash to spend on a vote buying spree
as did party heavy-weights like Professor Jonathan Moyo. In the Tsholotsho
by-election the later splashed $500 000, looted from the Zimbabwe Manpower
Development Fund (Zimdef), buying bicycles and motorbikes for community leaders
in the constituency. The Professor was in trouble for corrupt but the case was
dropped after Minister Chombo, speaking on behalf of President Mugabe, said
spending government money on Zanu PF business was not corruption.
When the going gets tough, Zanu
PF has always resorted to the use of violence, especially in the rural areas
where the party thugs run riot with impunity. Masvingo Provincial Affairs
Minister, Shuvai Mahofa, has reminded the opposition and Bikita West voters that
Zanu PF will punish them if they do not vote wisely.
“Muno, munonetsa kutamba namo. Ukada
kutamba nemadh**** pasina mvura unoshaiwa pekumagezera,” Minister Mahofa
threatened. (Here (Masvingo Province) one must be very careful or they will get
into serious trouble.)
Still, whatever Zanu PF has been
doing in Bikita West by-election so far is not even a foretaste of what the
party will do come the national elections when all the parliamentary and
senatorial seats and the presidency will be up for grabs. Zanu PF will roll out
its vote rigging juggernaut and then, Lord have mercy! Or as one would say in
Shona, “Vane vana, sudurukai!” (Those with children, get out of the way!)
It is therefore laughable that Mai
Mujuru and her Zim PF, the main challenger in the Bikita West by-election, should
be panicking after hearing Minister Mahofa and are begging for MDC-T support.
"If all goes well, Save
(Tsvangirai) will join Mai Mujuru when he returns from Ghana at a joint rally,
on the 14th, in Bikita. We expect the president (Mujuru) and Save to share the
podium as we prepare to take Zanu-PF to the cleaners come the 21st
(January),” a Zim PF official told Daily News.
"In the process, the rally will also send a message to all who are doubting the prospects of an opposition coalition that we are not about to ignore the national sentiment that we should unite."
"In the process, the rally will also send a message to all who are doubting the prospects of an opposition coalition that we are not about to ignore the national sentiment that we should unite."
SADC advised MDC not to take part
in the 2013 election without implementing the democratic reforms designed to
stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Sadly, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends paid
no heed to the advice and we all know what happened – Zanu PF went on to
blatantly rig the elections landing the nation in the mess we are in today.
Since the rigged July 2013
elections, nothing has changed, not even one reform has been implemented, and
thus the SADC’s advice not to take party in the elections is valid for the 2018
elections as it was for the 2013 elections.
All this talk of presenting the opposition
uniting to form the grand coalition as the panacea to counter the failure to
implement democratic reforms is nonsense. How will the coalition stop NIKUV
corrupting the voters roll or the plundering of diamond wealth going on right
now!
Zanu PF has corrupted all the key
state institutions such as the Public Media, Police, CIO, Army, Judiciary and
ZEC, they now serve the regime’s selfish political interest instead of public
national interests. The regime has unfettered access to the nation’s resources
and wealth and thus can bribe officials and buy specialist services such as
those of NIKUV.
Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans
are out of work and living in abject poverty, the need for meaningful economic
recovery is now a matter of life and death. There is no chance of any
meaningful economic recovery without a meaningful political change. The need
for free, fair and credible elections is now a matter of life and death and not
to be left in the hands of political day-dreams like Mujuru and Tsvangirai and
their utterly useless opposition coalitions!
“But perhaps even more problematic for Mnangagwa, a secret Zanu-PF document which was passed on to the New Statesman at the time of the VP's interview suggested, damningly, that Mugabe himself created the ruling party's Generation 40 (G40) faction as the nonagenarian had allegedly "always felt threatened by VP Mnangagwa and the prospect of his presidency being outshined by that of his protégé".”
ReplyDeleteIf the truth be told no political analyst worth his/her salt was not aware that President Mugabe is the mastermind behind G40.
As for President Mugabe being fearful that Mnangagwa’s presidency would “outshine” his; that goes without saying. Mugabe feared the prospect of Tsvangirai becoming president for the same reason. When you have fcuked up as Mugabe has done even a village idiot, like Tsvangirai, Mujuru or Mnangagwa will do better than him!
"As the MDC, we feel greatly honoured that our leader was accorded the opportunity to mix and mingle, as well as to compare notes with some of Africa's respected leaders who believe in democracy, transparency, good governance and accountability," he said.
ReplyDeleteIf President Nana Addo is serious about promoting good governance in Africa then he should know that Tsvangirai failed to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU because he is corrupt and incompetent. What good will it do Zimbabwe or Africa honouring people like Tsvangirai we know are corrupt and incompetent already. What more political blunders and sell-outs does Tsvangirai have to do to finally convince President Addo that he is no good!
Defiant Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairperson, Christopher Mutsvangwa, has escalated his savage assault on President Robert Mugabe, saying yesterday the increasingly frail nonagenarian was willingly being led astray by "compulsive plotters" in the warring Zanu-PF.
ReplyDeleteMutsvangwa and his rogue war veteran betrayed the ordinary people by agreeing to do Zanu PF's dirty work of imposing the one-party dictatorship on the nation. These idiots have not repented, all they want to do now is remove one dictator and impose another, Mnangagwa.
We fought the liberation war to secure the freedom and human rights of all Zimbabweans and not for the war veterans to impose their will on the nation.
Mugabe has cheated Morgan Tsvangirai many times and bamboozled Joice Mujuru for more than 34 years. During his party conference last month the tyrant dismissed the opposition with total contempt and for good reason, there is not even one opposition leader who has said or done anything to show they have a working brain. Mugabe knows that he has nothing to fear from Tsvangirai and/or Mujuru, he will bamboozle and cheat the two just as easily as he has done before.
ReplyDeleteMai Mujuru did not see anything wrong with Mugabe's vote rigging for 34 years because she is a greedy simpleton and as long as they continue to get a cut of the power and wealth people like her never anything wrong with dictatorships. She is fighting to get back into power and if she does, she will be conducting elections along the same lines as Mugabe has done. She has been chasing war veterans like Jabulani Sibanda so they will terrorise the populous for her just as they have been doing for Mugabe.
Tsvangirai did not implement even one democratic reforms during the GNU because he never considered the reforms necessary. If he was ever elected back into power he too will not implement any reforms, his election will prove that reforms are not necessary and he will be expecting his challenger to jump through the same hoops Zanu PF has laid out for him all these years. He too will maintain as much of the status quo as he can!
Tsvangirai too has been seeking the services of rogue war veterans like Jabulani Sibanda to herd the electorate like sheep to ensure they vote for MDC. He too does not want the people to have their freedoms and rights and have free and fair elections.
If we are serious about wanting democratic change then we must seek leaders who too want democratic change and not those, like Mujuru and Tsvangirai, who are only paying lip service to democratic change.
By continuing to follow blindly individuals like Tsvangirai and Mujuru who have already proven beyond doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent we are telling the whole world that we either do not know what democracy means and/or we do not want it!
Of course no one is going to force us to embrace democracy, implement reforms and have free and fair elections. But by failing to bring about meaningful political change we have per se accepted the status quo and the misery it has brought to us all. There are rewards for doing the right thing just as there are punishments for doing the wrong thing; such is life!
"He (Tsvangirai) is a tried and tested fighter for democratic change in Zimbabwe,” said Obert Gutu.
ReplyDeleteYes Mr Gutu, Tsvangirai is a tried leader alright but he has failed to deliver democratic change all these last 17 years because he is one of the most corrupt and incompetent politicians in the country’s history. He failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU because he and his follow MDC leaders kicked the reforms into the tall grass after they were bribed by the trappings of high office and the $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai was test but failed, he will never deliver democratic change in Zimbabwe!
In the March 2008 vote, Zanu PF reduced Tsvangirai’s 73% share of the votes to 47% after six weeks of recounting the 5 million votes. This is the level of blatant vote rigging we are dealing with here and the only way to stop is by implement all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA.
Uniting the opposition will stop dividing the opposition vote but will not stop the Zanu PF recounting the votes turning 73% into another 47%. The regime has since the 2008 developed even more complex and subtle vote rigging schemes!
SADC leaders knew Zimbabwe will not have meaningful elections without implementing democratic reforms first and that is why they warned MDC not to take part in the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented. The warning is just as valid for the 2018 elections.
Not even one reform was implemented since the rigged 2013 and therefore it is folly to take part in elections knowing they will rigged, regardless of whether opposition unite or not!
“The young thieves often criticise the older thieves of being corrupt. It looks and sounds noble on the surface but paradoxically the latent intent is to get a chance to take over and 'Alooter Continua'. Some are the flotsam who envy the eaters because they themselves do not have the opportunity to eat or have been kicked off the eating table,” wrote Phillemon Sithole.
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
Where corruption is rampant you will always find that the power to end corruption is in the hands of the thieves and the rest are powerless bystanders!
Al Capone in 1930s Chicago, USA, showed the world the danger to society when lawless thugs are allowed to dictate to society.
“You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone,” boosted Al Capone.
Whilst Al Capone bribe the State Institution officials to do his bidding, in Africa the mafia have taken over all state institutions, they own and control every facet of human activity and the regime has more spies spying on the citizens than teachers and doctors! Didymus Mutasa, when he was CIO boss once boosted that the Zanu PF regime had spies everywhere.
The only way Africa is ever going to end corruption and misrule is for the people to take the responsibility of understanding the big issue affecting the nation with the seriousness it demands, take back the people’s right to meaningful say in the governance of the country, elect competent leaders to address the nation’s teething problems including corruption and remain for ever vigilant of the mafia staging another comeback.
The election season has started and with it the opposition's confidence of winning the elections.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the GNU MDC ignored the advice to implement the democratic reforms in preparation for the 2013 elections because the party was confident it would win “regardless of all Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans”, as Tsvangirai later admitted. It was only after Zanu PF blatantly rigged the election that MDC admitted the reforms are necessary, the party vowed they will boycott all future elections until meaningful reforms are implemented.
Not even one reform was implemented since July 2013 and MDC and the rest of the opposition camp are gearing up for the next elections; no doubt, confident they will win “regardless of all Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans”! They will once again ignore all advice to implement the reforms first and sail on regardless of the mounting evidence of vote rigging. The excitement and euphoria in the opposition camp is set to grow right up to voting day when it will pop, like a balloon, with admission the elections were rigged.
"Insanity,” said Albert Einstein “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
We know Zanu PF has looted billions of dollars to bankroll the most complex and daring vote rigging scheme ever in 2018. Are Zimbabweans really that stupid they will still take part in yet another election expecting them to be free, fair and credible after all the rigged elections of the last 38 years!
What is Chitando talking about? ZimPF leader Joice Mujuru has never condemned this Zanu PF so called "prostitute beerhall language" all the 34 years she was in the party. Indeed, she and other Zim PF leaders like Didymus Mutasa have used similar threatening language countless times and many have gone on to shed innocent blood!
ReplyDelete“We are dealing with people who think of bottom power and individuals who got their positions of power through unholy sexual relationships. These people are possessed by the Jezebelic spirit,” Chitando said.
Zim PF people are only now condemning Zanu PF’s Jezebelic spirit because they are at the business end of whip but said nothing for 34 years when they too wielded the whip. If political violence could be limited to Zanu PF between Zim PF members only, everyone would be pleased, the Zanu PF thugs (Zim PF are Zanu PF in all but name) are finally getting a taste of their own medicine!
"They know that only those that are mad will vote for them under the circumstances and when it comes to Bikita West, we are already working with the MDC and other parties to ensure that Zanu-PF loses.
ReplyDelete"So, we are not worried about what they say at all. We know Zanu-PF is scared of our unity and our working together because they know this is the beginning of their end as they have nothing to offer to Zimbabweans who know that it is Mugabe who authored their problems,” said Zim PF’s Rugare Gumbo.
Mr Gumbo, the people of Zimbabwe have known that Zanu PF is the author of many of the nation’s problems since the late 1990s, at least. People have tried to remove the corrupt and tyrannical regime from office all these years but has failed because the tyrant rigs elections.
Of all the Zim PF leaders I had expected Gumbo to be the voice of reason and drum some sense into Mujuru, Mutasa and all the other simpleton that uniting the opposition will not stop Zanu PF rigging the elections, only reforms will do that.
It is shocking that Mai Mujuru and her supporters did not expect Mugabe to rig the 2014 party elections after all the years of working with the tyrant. In a way, it is not shocking that Zim PF do not expect Zanu PF to rig the 2018 elections; there are breathtakingly naïve as we saw in 2014!
"Zanu-PF is damaged goods. They are running scared because of the real possibility that the regime will be facing a united opposition in the 2018 elections.
"In fact, let me categorically and emphatically state here and now that Zanu-PF will receive an unprecedented and humiliating electoral annihilation in 2018.
"The MDC will definitely form the next government after the forthcoming elections. There's absolutely no doubt about that," MDC spokesperson, Obert Gutu, told the Daily News.
Poor Obert Gutu, with not even one reform in place and Mugabe with a treasure-chest full of cash; what reasons do you have to be so sure he will not rig the vote as he has done so many times in the past????The idiot will be joining the rest of his opposition colleague complaining that Zanu PF rigged the vote by high-noon on voting day!
Minister Shuvai Mahofa has been threatening to punish voter if Zanu PF lose the by-election; she said so publicly and no lesser person than VP Mnangagwa can testify to that. Surely that is not acceptable. So, what is ZEC going to do about it?
ReplyDeletePoor Rita Makarau, she pretends that ZEC is an independent and competent outfit that is delivering free, fair and credible elections and yet everyone can see she is just a puppet and the tyrant Mugabe pulls the strings! The nation will implement the democratic reforms necessary to cut all the puppet strings and have humans being running ZEC only then will the nation has its first free, fair and credible elections.
The Bikita West by-elections will not be free, fair and credible; the puppeteer is still running ZEC!
We had peaceful meanings to end Zanu PF rule during the GNU, you must ask Tsvangirai and his MDC friends why they failed to implement even one reform!
ReplyDeleteForce should be used as a last resort because it always brings a lot of death and destruction and does not always bring about the desired result. Was it not the liberation war that thrust Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs into leadership positions and for the last 37 years the nation has suffered under their corrupt and tyrannical rule unable to remove them from power.
We have a president who is now used to a $36 million overseas and local trips lifestyle even when the nation “is failing to buy painkillers for public hospitals”. No wonder he does not want to step down as president and be forced to give up this extravagant lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteGrace Mugabe has made it clear that she too is not ready to give up the highlife of Zimbabwe’s first family. She has made no secret of her burning desire to be the next president. Meanwhile her husband will remain president even if he cannot stand up because of old age and ill health; he will use a wheelchair, she said.
By allowing Mugabe to enjoy absolute power for all these years we have created a monster because he and his wife are now totally addicted.
Mugabe will use some of his vast looted wealth to rig the coming elections and will use wanton violence if need be. The only peaceful way to stop him getting back into State House is implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop all vote rigging and violence. Those who are advocating uniting the opposition as the answer are wasting time!
Zimbabwe has become the basket case of an otherwise wealthy African country gone to the dogs because of corrupt and incompetent leaders. There is no way Mugabe could ever sell himself as a great statesman given the sorry state of Zimbabwe under his rule the fact that he has done just that goes to show just how inapt Tsvangirai is. The tyrant has done a great job of shooting himself in the foot and Tsvangirai is so incompetent he is the one who is made to look the fool!
ReplyDeleteTsvangirai shot himself in the foot by failing to get even one reform implemented during the GNU even after SADC leaders did their best to remind him to do so. Correction, he shot himself in the head because politically he is finished. Tsvangirai can spend the next month, year or decade visiting every African country he can think of that will not change the fact that he is corrupt and incompetent.
Tsvangirai will never ever deliver the democratic changes the nation is dying for, the sooner the people of Zimbabwe accept this reality they soon we can get on with the important task of search for a competent leader!