Let me start by restating Dr Mandaza’s point that there is
no point in going into next year’s elections with no reforms because Zanu PF
will just rig the elections just as they did in July 2013.
All our opposition politicians know that since the last
elections not even one reform was implement and therefore Zanu PF will rig the
election. They are tripping over each other to contest in the flawed elections
regardless, just as they did in 2013, for one reason and one reason only –
greed.
They know Zanu PF learned an important lesson in 2008; if
its legitimacy is not going to be questioned ever again, the party must allow
the opposition to win some seats. It is these give away seats that the
opposition politicians are after! David Coltart admitted as much in his book.
“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.”
Zanu PF got what it wanted in the July 2013 elections – no regime
change. The opposition politicians got what they wanted too – the few gravy
train seats. By failing to get even one reform implemented during the GNU, the
opposition had reduced themselves to beggars and therefore they had to accept
whatever Zanu PF gives out to them.
It is the ordinary Zimbabweans who were the big losers in
July 2013 – they continued to be denied their freedoms and human rights including
the right to free and fair elections and thus were stuck with the same corrupt
and tyrannical regime, the economic meltdown, etc.
If the 2018 elections go ahead with no reforms in place,
Zanu PF will win the presidency plus two thirds majority in parliament. The
opposition will win the remaining seat, the on-going coalition talks is more
about maximizing they chance of winning the give-away seats by making sure they
do not split the vote and thus allow Zanu PF win. The big losers will once
again be the ordinary people.
It is the ordinary people, the big losers, therefore who
must understand that we must NOT go into the elections until the reforms are
implemented.
“The least we require right now is elections,” explained Dr
Mandaza. “There should be no elections until we tackle the crucial political
hegemony that confronts us, which is reform of the state, reform of the
national institutions which have been corrupted by the Mugabe regime and making
certain that we have generational change in our politics.”
Unless we, the people of Zimbabwe, make a concerted effort
to make sure there are NO elections with no reforms – by forcing the opposition
parties to honour their party resolution of “No reform, no elections!” for example
– then elections will go ahead.
I too share Violet Gonda’s pessimism that Zanu PF will ever
want to give up power.
“Well that's political posturing. When the die is cast
people will negotiate. We have learnt from Political Economy, no class ever
commits suicide; it is the objective of every class to replace itself, and when
under threat they will want to find a solution in which they can survive and
see tomorrow,” replied Dr Mandaza.
President Mugabe and his ruling elite will be committing
suicide in giving up power, they simply have too much to lose. The economic poverty
of the masses and the fabulous wealth of the ruling elite is now an
unbridgeable chasm. Whilst the masses are earning $200 per year, according to a
recent AfrAsia report, the likes of Mai Mujuru and her late husband earned a
cool $15.8 billion from the sale of three concernments of diamonds alone! Anyone
who thinks that Zanu PF ruling elite would ever voluntarily want to share their
wealth is simply daydreaming.
There is also the question of Zanu PF’s dark past; the
Gukurahundi massacre, all the political motivated murders, the vote rigging,
etc. When one has so many skeletons in the house; you do not want tenants, even
if you need the extra income!
Besides, the pressure for Zanu PF to accept democratic
reforms was greatest during the GNU and the party weathered that thanks to the
breath-taking incompetence of the MDC leaders. SADC washed their hands clean of
Zimbabwe after MDC failed to implement any reform, as Dr Mandaza himself has
admitted in his interview.
If next year’s elections go ahead with no reforms then the
USA will probably remove President Mugabe and his cronies from the targeted
sanctions list. The sanctions were imposed back in 2002 and Zimbabweans have
failed to bring about any meaningful change although we have had many
opportunities to do so. This is just a lost cause, at least as far as outsiders
are concerned. The rest of the West will follow America and lift the sanctions.
There is nothing to be gained by holding the next elections
with no reforms in place; it is up to us, the people of Zimbabwe, to pressure
the opposition not to take part in the flawed elections. If the elections go
ahead and the international community accept the outcome as a fait accompli,
the last window of opportunity to exert peaceful pressure on Zanu PF to accept
reforms will close.
“We need a coalition
around the need for reform and a clear definition of an alternative Zimbabwe.
If it's a coalition merely to win elections to get Mugabe out, as I've said
somewhere before, Mugabe's not the issue really, Mugabe is unlikely to be there
at the next election, if there are elections, which I don't think there will
be, next year,” concluded Dr Mandaza.
Unless the people of Zimbabwe stand up and stand firm now in
demanding that there must be no elections without reforms then next year’s
elections are set to go ahead. SADC’s warning to the opposition against
contesting the elections with no reforms is as valid today as it was in 2013;
it is up to us to make sure all opposition parties heed the warning this time!
We will only have ourselves to blame if the elections go ahead!
Tsvangirai was telling the crowd at a worker's day rally to mobilize and register to vote. He even told the crowd he will not accept anything other than an MDC victory.
ReplyDeleteSome people are saying, with no reforms in place, Zanu PF has the 2018 elections already in the bag but clearly Tsvangirai thinks otherwise. We have all heard MDC boasting and grandstanding, all the usual theatrical sound and fury signifying nothing!
The best and possibly only way to stop next year's flawed elections going ahead is by piling the pressure on Tsvangirai and his opposition friends to honour their own pledge not to contest elections without implementing the reforms first. What better way of ensuring that happens than by making sure ordinary Zimbabweans are being shafted by Tsvangirai and company. By making sure that all those who sell-out and contest in the flawed elections know they are committing political suicide.
It is one thing for the likes of Tsvangirai or Mujuru, whose political career is as good as died if the reforms are implemented given their hopeless past track record, to commit suicide, Kamikaze style. It is another matter for the likes of Biti, Ncube and others who think they may have a chance to get back into power!
Mai Khupe was a senior member of the MDC leaders in the GNU who failed to implement even one democratic reform throughout the five years of the GNU because they "were busy enjoying themselves and forgot why they were in the GNU," as SADC leaders rightly pointed out. For Mai Khupe to therefore boast of her "making money" by selling out the nation only saves to underline how corrupt and incompetent she is. The fact that her MDC supporters or anyone else saw nothing wrong with what she said only goes to explain how naive they are and why the country is in this mess - with such a naive electorate there is no chance of electing quality leaders!
ReplyDelete@ Rodney15
ReplyDeleteI agree with you there 100%, that Tsvangirai is corrupt and incompetent and hence the reason why President Mugabe has been able to run ring round him.
However, I do not think there is any realistic possibility of the opposition withdrawing from the elections because they know the elections will be rigged but also know Mugabe will give away some seats to the opposition to give the process some degree of credibility. It is these few seats that the opposition parties are fighting each other for.
SADC have already told Zimbabweans what to do to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections; implement the reforms! Tsvangirai and company had five years to do this but failed to get even one reform implemented. SADC warned MDC leaders at the last regional summit before the 2013 elections not to contest they elections without implementing the reforms first. But once again Tsvangirai would not listen.
SADC leaders like President Ian Khama of Botswana and the British have already repeated the warning not to contest the 2018 elections without implementing the reforms. It is for us Zimbabweans to stop corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians like Morgan Tsvangirai, Joice Mujuru, etc. whose only interest is to get back on the gravy train a.s.a.p. regardless the high cost to the nation of contesting flawed elections.
We made the mistake of allowing Tsvangirai & co. to waste the GNU years and fail to implement the reforms. We compounded our own mistake of the GNU years by allowing these useless politicians to drag the nation into a flawed electoral process against all advice and reason. It would be sheer folly to allow ourselves to be conned by these brainless upstarts into participating in yet another election knowing the whole process is flawed!
Albert Einstein said insanity is going the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. If participating in an election which we know will be rigged because you have done nothing to stop the rigging is not an act of insanity, then I do not know what is.