There
is a time and place for everything; there is a time to plough, time to sow and
a time to tender crops. The richness of your harvest will be a measure of your diligence
in keeping the rhythm of the seasons and how hard you have work.
Morgan
Tsvangirai the lazy farmer who will not listen to the advice of others, who
will sow his seed in poor sandy soil because it is easy to work and then spends
the rest of his time boasting of the richness of the harvest he is expecting. When
it does not happen; he will blame his poor harvest on army-worms, his ancestors
and curse the Gods for his bad lucky. Zimbabwe has a new election next year and
Tsvangirai is already full throttle with his expected landslide electoral
victory.
"We
won't agree on an outcome that is not my victory. Like [US President Donald]
Trump, if I don't win I will not concede. How does a fragmented minority win
over a united majority now that we are all wiser than in 2013 because of the
grinding poverty," Tsvangirai told a workers day gathering.
Anyone
with any common sense would asked Tsvangirai; “If Mugabe cheated in 2013, why
did you do something to stop him cheating then? And, more significantly, what have
you done this time to make sure he does not cheat you again?”
Even
if one accepts the notion that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends could not be
trusted to figure out for themselves the details of democratic changes necessary
to ensure free, fair and credible elections. SADC, in formulating the agreement
that led to the creation of the country’s 2008 to 2013 GNU, produced a raft of
reforms to be implemented to ensure Zimbabwe’s future elections will never
again be rigged.
Instead
of MDC leaders implemented the reforms they wasted time gallivanting round the
round and enjoying the trappings of high office. The GNU was initial chalked in
to last 18 months, in the end it lasted 60 months and still MDC failed to get
even one reform implemented. Not one!
Throughout
the five years SADC leaders reminded Tsvangirai & co. to implement the
reforms but they were ignored. In a desperate last minute bid to stop the
elections going ahead with no reforms, SADC leaders told the MDC leaders not to
contest the 2013 elections, at the SADC summit in Maputo.
“I
was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they (MDC leaders) were
told "if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the
elections are done", Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Violet Gonda in an interview
last week.
Needless
to say MDC leaders once again ignored the warning. And needless to say Mugabe
went on to rig the 2013 elections.
After
the rigged July 2013 elections Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders promised
the nation they will never again take part in future elections until reforms
are implemented. “No reform, no elections!” they promised.
We
are now approaching the 2018 elections and still not even one democratic reform
has been implemented. Not one!
"He
(Mugabe) wants to cheat. He thinks he can get away with cheating to victory. As
Nera, we know what you (Mugabe) are doing and want to repeat what you did in
2013, but this time around it won't be successful," Tsvangirai told the naïve
and gullible crowd.
Ask
him to name even one meaningful reform that NERA implemented and one is greeted
with a blank face. NERA has wasted a lot of time, effort and treasure on voter
mobilization, coalition building, BVR kits, etc., etc.; the easy stuff, the
sandy soil work. None of these activities are even mentioned in the SADC raft
of reforms because they not stop the rigging.
What
is the point of getting the best BVR kits, for example, and then hand it over
to a corrupt ZEC?
"If
he [Mugabe] refuses to go we have plan B. I can't divulge the details because I
don't know who is here, but I can assure you that Mugabe will not steal the
vote again," MDC-T VP Thokozani Khupe told an equally gullible audience in
Slough, UK.
In
other words, MDC-T and their opposition partners are asking the nation to take
part in yet another election knowing fully well that nothing, absolutely
nothing, has been done to stop Mugabe and Zanu PF rigging the vote. The people
are being asked to hope against hope that Zanu PF will rig the vote and, somehow
– not even Tsvangirai or any of the other leaders can explain how, MDC-T will
win the election.
What
the people of Zimbabwe must understand is that by participating in an election
process after they have been warned repeatedly the process is flawed, they
cannot afterwards reject the result on the grounds the process was flawed
especially when we have the chance to implement the reforms and stop the
rigging.
In
his book, David Coltart spelt out the primary reason why MDC leaders ignore
SADC leaders and contested the 2013 elections even when they (MDC leaders)
themselves had the evidence the elections were rigged before even the first
ballot was cast – greed.
“The
worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs
couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator
Coltart.
“The
electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to
withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the
distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that
the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process
credibility.”
The
grand coalition in the opposition camp is, first and foremost, to present a
united front to gain some measure of credibility, lost by their insistence in contesting
the elections when they know not even one reform has been implemented. The
second reason for the coalition is a lot more subtle; in the past Zanu PF has “won”
seats in opposition strong-holds because the later had split the votes. The
opposition parties, especially the briefcase ones, are hoping the coalition
will be the gentlemen’s agreement on how the few gravy train seats Zanu PF
gives away are to be shared.
People
must not allow themselves to be fooled by Tsvangirai’s empty promises of “refusing
to concede defeat”. He did that in 2002 and in all other elections thereafter;
all to no avail. Where was Ms Khupe and her plan B on all those occasions?
People
must demand to know why Tsvangirai and others have abandoned “No reform, no
elections!” And stop listening to his cheap grandstanding political posturing;
the boastful dog claiming he will put out the forest fire with “his puny fart”,
as the great African Novelist Chinua Achebe would put it.
Zimbabweans
are to today the poorest in Africa according to a recent AfrAsia report. The
evidence of our poverty is there for all to see; soaring unemployment, health
and education services have all but collapsed, etc.
The
root cause of our poverty and hopelessness is nearly four decades of corrupt
and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule. What the AfrAsia report should have said but
did not is that Zimbabwe’s ruling elite are some of the richest people in the
whole world. There is documentary evidence to show that Mai Mujuru and her late
husband, for example, tried to sell $15.8 billions in diamonds alone. Of
course, the two were not the only ones who have been looting and plundering
Zimbabwe’s wealth.
The
bottom line is to address the problem of growing poverty, Zimbabweans must first
address the problem bad governance with the sense of urgency and seriousness
the matter demands. And the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible
elections is at the very heart of our problem of bad governance.
We
must have free and fair elections; there is no excuse why previous elections
have not been free and fair and it is folly to allow this meaningless charade
to continue one more time!
The
people must stand up now and demand the implementation of all the democratic
reforms BEFORE the elections. It people
allow next year’s elections to proceed with no reforms the economic and
political consequences of their folly will be grime. Be warned!
We are living in the day and age when mankind has successfully send man to the moon and brought him back again safely, has split the atom to its smallest constituent parts and has understood life in all its complexities to be able to carry out pin-point surgical work on the most complex and delicate of organ ever – the human brain. And yet in Zimbabwe we are still grappling with should be a common sense and simple point; what constitutes free, fair and credible elections. We have 37 years of our own post-independence experience and human history dating back to the Greeks, who came up with democracy 2 500 years ago; and yet we are still blundering from pillar to post.
ReplyDeleteTsvangirai and his opposition friends were warned before the 2013 elections that with no reforms in place Zanu PF will rig the elections but they would not listen. SADC leaders accepted Mugabe’s electoral victory and ignore Tsvangirai’s protestation of “stolen elections” because they had warned MDC leaders that this would happen.
Tsvangirai has once again been warned that with no reforms in place the 2018 elections will too be rigged and still he continues to ignore the warning. What he hopes to accomplish by “refusing to concede defeat” is a mystery? Of course, the whole world will just ignore his protestations as before.
The real big mystery here is the hundreds of thousands if not millions of Zimbabweans who were foolish enough to believe Tsvangirai and allow the nation to be dragged into the 2013 elections with no reforms. That today there should still be hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans who still believe and follow this confused man, Morgan Tsvangirai, goes to show just how intellectually backward they are compared to the Greeks of 2 500 years ago. If these people have failed to attain the pre-requisite intellectual comprehension to be considered to have common sense in this day and age one wonders whether they are capable of ever attaining that level even if they were given another 2 500 years!
To do nothing to stop the vote rigging even when MDC has the golden opportunity to do so during the GNU and then contest flawed elections with the view of “refusing to concede defeat” after the elections are rigged is one of the truly illogical arguments I can imagine! The very fact that Tsvangirai is aspiring to be state president makes it even worse – who in their right mind would want an irrational individual to decide their destiny and that of the whole nation.
Zimbabwe is in serious economic and political trouble because of four decades of man-made problems because the nation has corrupt and incompetent leaders. I agree, the country must take the task of electing competent leaders, at least with common sense, with the sense of urgency and seriousness the matter demands. By continuing to follow blindly leaders like Tsvangirai is proof we have not suffered enough to force us to think (assuming we are ever capable of such novelty) what constitute good leaders, free and fair elections, etc.
There is talk of the US is cutting its aid to Zimbabwe. The next thing with be lifting all the targeted sanctions, the rest of the Western countries will follow. SA is kicked out 200 000 Zimbabweans by the end of the year and sealing its border behind them. All these things will only make Zimbabweans feel their economic hardship even more cutely and help clear the intellectual fog that is making them follow corrupt and incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai.
If these hash-tag groups have been following the political discourse so far then they would know that it is not contesting flawed elections the nation wants right now but to demand the implementation of the GNU reforms to ensure free and fair elections.
ReplyDeleteIt is midsummer madness to contest elections, knowing the whole process is flawed, and then "refuse to concede defeat". The whole world is sick and tired of this foolishness, especially coming from people who have been warned elections will be rigged and had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms!
It is one thing claiming one is enlightened "Tajamuka" and another to prove it! Trust me, contesting flawed elections again and again and expecting a different result is a sign of madness not enlightenment!
@ Mdaza
ReplyDeleteWell MDC leaders were in the GNU to make money, as MDC VP Khupe readily admitted; they sold-out on the reforms to make sure implementing reforms would not interfere with their money making. They knew implementing the reforms would upset their benefactor, President Mugabe, and so the kicked reforms into the tall grass.
As for the MDC leaders “enjoying sex”, I would not want to comment on that one!
Of course, Donald Trump had every right to refuse to concede defeat in the USA presidential race if he had any evidence that the elections were rigged. Hillary Clinton would too have refused to concede defeat if she had evidence of how the Russians had interfered with the elections, for example. She would have been foolish to do otherwise. Tsvangirai’s case is totally different.
ReplyDeleteTsvangirai knows from past elections that Zanu PF rigs elections, he has been warned that Zanu PF will rig the coming elections and, most important of all, he has had many opportunities to implement democratic reforms to stop the vote rigging but has done nothing about it. So, Tsvangirai has all this knowledge of the vote rigging in advance and yet he still goes ahead and contest because he is confident he will still win regardless of all the vote rigging Zanu PF will get up to. Common sense will say, he cannot therefore complain of vote rigging if he should lose!
Tsvangirai should know by now that he cannot have his cake and eat it too. Either he boycotts the elections until all reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote are implemented. Or he takes his chance and contest the flawed elections but know that he cannot complain about the vote rigging afterwards.
President Mugabe has corrupted the Army just as he has corrupted ZEC, etc. It is utterly pointless to expect General Chiwenga to understand that it is not the role of the army to judge, threaten and punish those who dare criticise the State President; that is for the Police and the Courts. General Chiwenga’s utterances are not empty threats because we know the army personnel have been deployed to work with other security sector personal and war veterans during elections and have carried out the intimidate, beat, rape and even murder of innocent Zimbabweans in pursuit of President Mugabe’s no-regime-change mantra.
ReplyDeleteThe only way we are ever going to stop the Army over stepping its democratic duties in pursuit of a selfish personal agenda by the top brass, the only ones who are benefiting from the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship, is for the nation to implement the democratic reforms.
We had the opportunity to implemented the reforms during the GNU and Tsvangirai and company wasted it. I knew we would live to regret MDC’s betrayal but never realise the nation was going to pay dearly for it! People are dying today because we failed to end the dictatorship in 2013 and it will take a few more decades yet to dismantle it, if at all.
The bottomline is Zimbabwe would not be in this mess if you, MP Cross, and your MDC friends had implemented the democratic reforms as you had promised. You failed to implement even one reform because of your are all "in politics for money"; President Mugabe offered you lot a generous bribe you took it and kicked reforms into the tall grass!
ReplyDeleteYou talk of the serious problem of corruption by Zanu PF leaders and you are right but you have never ever mentioned MDC corruption and incompetence. MDC can do something to address their own in house faults and it is the failure to do so that have left them totally ineffective in effecting any meaningful political change.
Expecting MDC to deliver meaningful democratic change is like expecting a poodle to bring down a bull elephant in his prime; the soon the people of Zimbabwe realise this the sooner they will stop wasting time with MDC and elect the competent leaders who will do the job!
You cannot teach old dogs like Chiwenga, who have been corrupted and are sworn supporters of the de facto one-party state, new idea of multi-party democracy. They have benefited from denying the masses their freedom, human rights and a fair share of the country's riches and they are not going to give up their privileged lives without a fight. They do not care that the system has failed and millions of our people now live in abject poverty!
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad and tragic that anyone with a half brain would admit that with no democratic reform implemented the elections will be rig and yet still maintains that we should contest the flawed elections regardless. This is like being warned that Zanu PF uses a dice with six on all the six sides and seeing that is true for oneself as the 2013 elections showed and yet still bet on Zanu PF failing to throw 6!
ReplyDeleteIf Zimbabweans participate in the next elections with no democratic reforms in place then they are being down right stubborn, stupid and arrogant; the world has better things to do than waste its time on idiots who think they know best and are hell bend to continue down this path of self destruction.
If Zimbabweans have learnt nothing from 37 years of tyrannical rule, there is nothing to show they will ever learn. They want to explore the depths of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has dragged the nation into; they have the democratic right to explore it to the end of time!
The opposition politicians like Morgan Tsvangirai have given up on struggle for free. fair and credible elections, rightly or wrongly, they have come to the conclusion that they will never get Zanu PF to implement any reforms and so they have been cashing in on whatever Zanu PF will give them. During the GNU they cashed in on the trappings of high office, former white owned farm and $4 million Highlands mansion for Ncube and Tsvangirai respectively, etc. in return for give President Mugabe the assurance they will not implement any reforms.
ReplyDeleteInstead of boycotting the 2013 elections even when this was the obvious thing to do and force the revisiting of the reforms MDC leaders opted for the share of the gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF would give away in return for the legitimacy opposition participation brought.
People have lost confidence in MDC politicians the opposition is not going to do as well as some of these opposition leaders and their supporters think. There will not be that many gravy train seats for the opposition.
As for Tsvangirai refusing to concede defeat after the elections, no one gives a damn about that one!
I am lost for words, how can Tsvangirai be so hopelessly stupid.
ReplyDeleteHe has had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and stop the vote rigging once and once for all; he did nothing for five years of the GNU. He was warned not to contest the 2013 elections; he ignored the warning and was cheated as expected. He is now gearing up to contest next year's elections ignoring his own undertaking of "No reform, no election!" Of course, Zanu PF will rig the vote and we will be back to 2013!
Tsvangirai tells us he will refuse to concede defeat if he loses the election. He is foolish to contest a flawed election and, honestly, who cares what a fool does after his foolish act!