May
I be the first person to salute Dr Dumiso Dabengwa for being the SECOND of our,
otherwise morbid, corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians given to burying
their heads in the sand and talking nonsense, politicians to talk sense. He has
finally seen the madness of contesting flawed elections and is calling for next
year’s elections to be postponed.
“The
continued involvement of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) in the running of
the country's elections is likely to work against the fight for free, fair and
credible polls, Zapu president, Dumiso Dabengwa, warned this week,” reported
Bulawayo 24.
“Dabengwa's statement comes after he recently
called for the postponement of the 2018 elections, saying events on the ground
indicated that ZEC was not yet ready to conduct a credible election.”
The inability of this Zanu PF regime to hold free, fair and credible elections was settled beyond debate in the 2008 elections when the regime demonstrated the reach, audacity and brutality of its vote rigging activities. There is overwhelming evidence that Tsvangirai had won the March 2008 vote by more than the minimum 50% plus one and not the 47% to President Mugabe’s 43% as announced. The regime withheld declaring the result for six weeks because it had to revisit each polling station to doctor the figure to suit.
The inability of this Zanu PF regime to hold free, fair and credible elections was settled beyond debate in the 2008 elections when the regime demonstrated the reach, audacity and brutality of its vote rigging activities. There is overwhelming evidence that Tsvangirai had won the March 2008 vote by more than the minimum 50% plus one and not the 47% to President Mugabe’s 43% as announced. The regime withheld declaring the result for six weeks because it had to revisit each polling station to doctor the figure to suit.
In
the presidential run-off that followed the regime used some brute force,
beating, raping and over 500 opposition supporters were murdered, to make sure
the people vote for President Mugabe. It was the worst political violence
visited on the people since the dark years of Gukurahundi; the wanton violence to
eliminate PF Zapu, Dr Dabengwa’s former party, to create the de facto Zanu PF one-party
dictatorship we have today.
No
one, not even the see-nothing, hear-nothing and say-nothing SADC and AU
election observers would endorse Zimbabwe’s 2008 election results as free, fair
and credible. SADC would only grant President Mugabe political legitimacy on
condition he agreed go into Government of National Unity (GNU) with MDC.
The
GNU’s primary task was to implement a raft of democratic reforms to dismantle
JOC, restructure ZEC, Police, Army and all the other State Institutions; to
free them carry out their statutory duties without fear or favour. Sadly,
Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends, the partners in the GNU who were
supposed to implement the reforms, failed to get even one reform implemented.
With
no reforms in place, Zanu PF was free to use any or all of its audacious and
brutal vote rigging tricks. And under pressure, Zanu PF was not the party that
would hesitate to use all the dirty tricks in the book; everyone knew this,
none more so than SADC leaders. The regional leaders called for the 2013
elections to be postpone until reforms were implemented.
“Of
course they can be postponed,” explained Dr Ibbo Mandaza in a recent interview
with Violet Gonda. “In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the
elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the
SADC summit. I went there.
“I
was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the
elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at
least electoral laws, and after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti,
Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of
State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening.
“And
they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they
were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the
elections are done’.”
The
tragedy here is that MDC leaders themselves knew, at least one of them knew,
the futility of contesting the July 2013 elections with no reforms. They contested
and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote as expected. The only reason the morbid
and corrupt opposition contested is greed, as David Coltart (the first and only
one until now) admitted.
“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.”
Since
the rigged July 2013 elections, the MDC-T, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, have come
up with a party resolution that they will not contest future elections until
the reforms are implemented. “No reform, no elections!” The party has boycotted
all the by-elections that followed and so has all the other MDC factions.
However,
Tsvangirai and company have all since changed their minds; they are going to
contest next year’s election even though nothing has changed, not even one
reform has been implemented. They have tried using the coalition as an excuse
to contest but this too has fallen through as the grand coalition has never
materialised.
The
only reason the opposition are contesting these flawed elections is greed pure
and simple. The opposition know Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats,
bribes, to those who participate in the elections regardless how flawed and
illegal the process happens to be. Now that the truth is out the opposition
politicians are exposed, they are the naked Emperor hiding behind the imaginary
gold robes.
South Africa's Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has revealed that nearly 12,000 foreign nationals are in SA prisons for criminal offences ranging from murder, rape and crimes against the safety of the state.
ReplyDeleteMasutha said the annual cost of taking care of each prisoner in the country is R133,805 a year, which amounts to R1.6-billion annually for the 11842 foreign nationals behind bars.
According to Masutha, 448 Zimbabweans are either currently imprisoned or awaiting trial for murder while 311 Mozambicans were behind bars for the same crime. For rape, there are 186 Zimbabweans and 213 Mozambicans imprisoned.
The pressure for Zimbabwe to sort out our own problems and stop exporting them is growing. By the same token, SADC must deal with Zimbabwe decisively, the region cannot afford to endorse another rigged election next year and kick the can down the street again!
We know Zanu PF will rig next year's elections just as it rigged so many other elections in the past. What Dr Moyo is doing here is dragging the nation into yet another election knowing fully well Zanu PF will rig the process. Dr Moyo has already talked of limiting his campaigning to door to door talks with no public rallies, for example, because he is fearful of political violence.
ReplyDeleteWhy is he refusing to join the demand to implement the reforms and get this matter sorted once and once for all!
By participating there is no doubt he too is giving the process credibility.
Is he going to tell us Zanu PF stole the elections if he lost the elections? What good will that be to the people of Zimbabwe?
Dr Moyo has a hot-air balloon size ego and the nation’s chance of implementing the reforms and finally holding her first free, fair and credible elections is once again being sacrificed to gratify an individual’s misplaced ego.
Zimbabwe is in deep trouble because many of our people are always for the easy solutions. We are in a hell-hole and implementing the reforms is the up-hill but only way out. Instead of getting on with the task in hand Tsvangirai, Biti and the rest of the MDC leaders thought they knew better, they would bring about the democratic changes the nation was after by flattering, appeasing and even bribing the tyrant and his cronies. So the chance was wasted.
ReplyDeleteThe task of implementing the reforms today is a hell lot tougher but if we go through and have yet another rigged election, the task will only be even tougher.
Many in the opposition camp have thrown in the towel and settled for the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away.
The ordinary Zimbabweans who are as keen as mustard pushing even harder than the voter education, voter mobilisation, demand for diaspora vote, demands for NERA reforms, calling for the formation of the opposition grand coalition, etc., etc. are doing so oblivious of the fact that none of these activities will have any effect on the result. They have the work horse Boxer, in Animal Farm, mentality than everything will change all they need to do is work harder.
All efforts to explain how Tsvangirai and the rest in the MDC have sold out during the GNU have all fallen on deaf ears. Like Boxer, these ordinary Zimbabweans’ faith and trust in Tsvangirai is unshakable because it is blind loyalty; no reason or logic can shake that!
Boxer’s slogans are:
• "I will always work harder."
• "Napoleon's always right."
Povo have no clue how Zanu PF has been rigging elections and hence the reasons they will readily believe whatever the opposition tell them. The opposition’ failure to implement the reforms did not mean anything during the GNU and does not mean anything now. Still, one gets the feeling that some of the povo, those in the rural areas at least who are more realistic, are beginning to doubt Tsvangirai will change anything. They cannot say why because they cannot put their finger on anything concrete yet.
If the likes of Tsvangirai fail to see they have lost public support and join Dr Dabengwa is boycotting the elections then SADC leaders, at least, will know the opposition are representing no one else other than themselves. The opposition have definitely lost political credibility and the days and months ahead are going to be tough for our naked Emperors!
@ Themba Mthethwa
ReplyDeleteThere is no one in the opposition camp who does not know that Zanu PF is going to rig next year’s elections, let us all agree on that point because it is now self-evident. As David Coltart rightly admitted in his book, the opposition are fighting over the few gravy train seats we all know Zanu PF gives away as the price the dictatorship has to pay to entice the opposition to play along.
“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,” commented Senator Coltart regarding the July 2013 elections.
“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 opposition used the new constitution, swearing to the people that it would deliver free and fair elections although they knew that was not going to happen, as the smokescreen behind which to hide their real reason – greed - for contesting flawed elections. For next year’s elections the opposition have tried to use the coalition for a smokescreen but failed. The coalition was no more than black granite just because it looks like coal does not mean it is coal!
Opposition politicians have absolutely nowhere to hide, everyone with any brain can see they are contesting flawed elections for the few bribe seats Zanu PF is offering them and nothing else!
“There is pandemonium within the opposition political parties following the capture of ZEC by the army. Some political opposition parties are believed to be agents of the rigging prone President Mugabe to create a proxy opposition; other parties want to go it alone and take the fight to Mugabe even with the capture of ZEC by the army; others say they would rather fight as a coalition but they are held back by power struggles and others are keen to throw in their candidacy in the hope that political office will parachute them to riches,” you said.
You are 100% correct in everything you said except the first. ZEC is staffed by personal all vetted and approved by Joint Operation Command (JOC) who are owners of Zanu PF, the Army, CIO, Police, ZEC, every government department, everything! So why would JOC need to capture itself!!!!
Rigging the 2018 election is proving to be a such walk in the park for Zanu PF because the opposition have lost all political credibility that Mugabe is now really worried that the international community is not going to be fooled by all this charade. Botswana was the one SADC country that refused to be fooled by Mugabe’s vote rigging antics 2013; this time, Botswana not be the only one to reject Mugabe’s landslide victory, mark my word!