Once
upon a time, I admired Dr Nkosama Moyo and considered him a man with a wisdom
and a vision. Now I have got to know him better, to say I am disappointed is an
understatement. He has turned out to be one of those very clever with words but
sadly there are all hollow words “fully of sound and fury signifying nothing”,
to borrow from William Shakespeare.
The
more Dr Moyo tries to show he is different from the current crop of corrupt,
incompetent and murderous tyrants, in the case of President Mugabe and his Zanu
PF thugs still in the party or now in the opposition camp masquerading as
democrats; the more he is becoming one with them.
“One
sign stands out though, valiantly trying to light a candle, instead of cursing
the darkness: APA is resolutely bringing a new brand of politics to Zimbabwe, a
brand driven by core values not convenience and expedience, a style of politics
whose focus is to rebuild the country with the right team and skill sets,"
said Nkosana Moyo.
"It
is time to pick the team that will reverse the decline, not one that will
produce more of the same. It is time for common sense to prevail. A common-sense
decision says, I have looked at all the candidates. I have examined what they
stand for. I have looked at their words versus their actions and because I want
to see my country's economy restored and my children's future guaranteed, I am
choosing to go with candidate x.
"We think your X should go next to APA on the ballot paper but the decision remains yours. You owe it to yourself to make a rational decision in the best interests of your country. It is time for heart and mind to converge so that all the signs of a dying country can be replaced by signs of prosperity."
"We think your X should go next to APA on the ballot paper but the decision remains yours. You owe it to yourself to make a rational decision in the best interests of your country. It is time for heart and mind to converge so that all the signs of a dying country can be replaced by signs of prosperity."
Dr
Moyo has only been in the opposition camp a few weeks and yet he already thinks
and talks like Morgan Tsvangirai.
"In
his usual light-hearted manner, President Tsvangirai said he was more worried
about the country's health, urging Zimbabweans to vote wisely next year so as
to deal with the multi-layered afflictions of the country's political
economy," Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka, told the nation the
other day.
So,
according to Dr Moyo and Tsvangirai, Zimbabweans have been stuck with this
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for all these last 37 years because
the people themselves failed to make “a common sense and rational decision”
and/or failed to “vote wisely”! How shocking. It is not the people to blame
here but the failed leaders.
The
country is in this political and economic mess because the leaders who promised
freedom and liberty before independence have since become the new oppressors. Those
who promised to bring democratic changes have failed to deliver even one change
in two decades in frontline politics. And those promising “to light the candle
and not curse darkness” do not have the common sense to accept that Zanu PF
rigs elections and that there will never be any meaningful change in the
country until something is done to stop vote rigging.
Instead
of the opposition expending their energy, time and treasure implementing the
democratic reforms they are wasting it all on hare-brain schemes to win rigged
elections and then blame povo, the victims of the rigged elections, for their
failures.
The
one thing the people told Tsvangirai everywhere he went last year, during his
nationwide tour, was the problem of Zanu PF rigging the vote; be it vote buying
using food, agricultural input donations, etc. Or by wielding the large stick
through voter intimidation, harassment, beating, rape and even murder. The
populous are constantly reminded of the wanton violence of 2008 and that it
will return if they fail to do as they are told. Tsvangirai has done absolutely
nothing to end this blatant denial of the people’s right to free, fair and
credible elections.
Dr
Moyo himself has acknowledged the country’s problem of politically motivated
violence. He has said, he is not going to hold any public rallies and instead confine
his campaign to door to door chats for fear rallies will attract retribution
from Zanu PF thugs. This is not going to end Zimbabwe’s culture of political
violence; he is just kicking the can down the street, at best. The solution is
to implement the democratic reforms and stop messing around.
Like
it or not Zanu PF is right now frogmarching people, especially in the rural
areas, to register to vote, to attend ongoing Zanu PF rallies and, come voting
day, to vote for the party.
The
vote rigging has already started. The regime has deliberately delayed the voter
registration until now, there is less than a year to the next elections; there
will be no time to inspect, correct and produce a verified voters’ roll. The
failure to produce a verified voters’ roll was one glaring and very serious vote
rigging tactic in the 2013 elections and, signs are, the regime will do the
same again.
SADC
leaders advised Zimbabwe’s morbid, corrupt and incompetent opposition
politicians not to contest the July 2013 national elections with no democratic
reforms in place. Their advice is even more relevant today. It is madness to
keep contesting elections, knowing fully well the whole process is flawed.
President Mugabe has a dice with six on all six sides, betting on him failing
to throw a six is insane.
Zimbabwe
is in a serious economic and political mess and we are not getting out of the
mess by contesting flawed elections. Just because the country’s opposition
politicians are corrupt and incompetent and would not listen to the sound
advice from SADC leaders does not mean we, the ordinary Zimbabweans, too should
not pay heed to the advice. We must demand the implementation of the democratic
reforms and refuse to be dragged into yet another futile electoral process.
The
common-sense decision in Zimbabwe today is to stop contesting flawed elections and
put an end to this madness of hoping to win rigged elections.
@ Special correspondent
ReplyDelete“EVERYONE should register to vote, especially the youth between 18 and 29 that make up the bulk of the voting population. The new biometric voter’s register should be checked by all parties, ward-by-ward, poll station by poll station to ensure no over-registering of ghost voters. Three months should be given for all parties to check and verify the voter’s register before signing it off as OK as this is the key to preventing rigging. A master copy of the poll based voter’s register should be uploaded onto the ZEC website for scrutiny by the public at large and not just the political parties.”
Every interesting indeed.
I do agree with you that making sure we have a verified voters’ roll is very important here. It should be noted that the regime failed to release a complete voter’s roll a month before the last elections. And has refused to release one even to this day.
Given voter registration exercise has only started it is hard to see how it can be completed in time to produce a verified voters’ roll.
There similarity between the vote cast in some polling station in an interesting point.
Ward 11 - Mkoba A Golf Course Tent – 234 votes for Zanu PF
Ward 11 - Mkoba C Golf Course Club House – 247 votes for Zanu PF
Ward 11 – Muchakata Community Hall – 237 votes for Zanu PF
Ward 11 - Mkoba B Golf Course Tent – 238 votes for Zanu PF
The interesting point about these figures is that these are polling stations most people did not know were there. The regime increase the number of polling stations from 2 000 to 9 000 just a few days before voting day. We know there were many Zanu PF youths who were bussed from one polling station to the next. A record of who voted at these polling stations and whether or not their name was in the voters’ roll or they had the voter registration slip alone would tell a very interesting tell.
Whilst you have focused on the voting process there are in fact other things that must be done to deliver free and fair elections. We need a free public press, Police reform to ensure opposition parties are able to hold their rallies without fear of violence, transparent party funding to stop looted diamond wealth being used to bankroll some parties, etc.
It will take a lot more that a verified voters’ roll to ensure free and fair elections and we should stop wasting our own times in believing that can be achieved without implementing the wide ranging democratic reforms.
SADC leaders have advised that we should not contest any elections without making sure we have the reforms in place first. We should just listen and stop wasting time.
“The BVR voter registration system is reportedly turning out to be discouragingly slow. As an example, it takes an average of 15 minutes just to register one voter. Added to that, the voter turnout is also disappointing. At Gokwe Centre today, a ZimEye correspondent witnessed that by midday only six people had showed up to register as voters. Probably it could be too early to say much but the threshold set is on a dark cloud. It’s sad in that if the current trend of trickling numbers continues, Zimbabwe could potentially be struck with the Zanu PF regime for years.”
ReplyDeleteI would NOT agree with you there that if people redouble their efforts to register to vote this will stop Zanu PF winning the elections because the evidence on the ground say otherwise.
In the March 2008 elections the people voted in droves for Tsvangirai and still nothing changed. Tsvangirai won 73% of the votes, according to Mugabe’s own inadvertent admission. The tyrant ordered ZEC to recount the votes and, after six weeks of cooking up the figures, this was whittled down to 47%, forcing the run-off. Mugabe then “declared war on the people”, according to Tsvangirai, to force the people to vote for him. It worked; Mugabe boosted his 27% to a staggering 84% landslide victory.
The 2008 elections have proven beyond all doubt that the Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut cannot be beaten by the simple act of asking people to register and then to vote. We need to do much more than that. We need to implement the democratic reforms.
SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai to implement the reforms during the GNU but MDC did not listen. The regional leaders advised MDC not to contest the July 2013 elections with no reforms in place and, once again no one listened. SADC leaders are fed with MDC leaders because they do not listen to anyone and, it seems, so are the ordinary Zimbabweans, they are tired of risking life and limb for change that never comes.
With no reforms, there is really no point in the people bothering to register, attend rallies, etc. because the result is already a done deal.
If voter registration continues to be slow, Zanu PF will frogmarch people to go and register just as the party will frogmarch them to vote; until that happens, people must stay put. There is nothing to be gained in playing any party in an election process one already knows is not free, fair and credible!
@ Crisis in Zimbabwe
ReplyDelete“With-out extensive voter registration education, the 2018 election will be a repeat of all the other elections whose results were highly contested,” you said.
Do you really think voter education alone will be enough to deliver free, fair and credible elections?
SADC leaders advised that we implement the democratic reforms before we hold elections. It is disappointing that, even now with the benefit of hindsight, Zimbabweans are failing to say what we want to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
The nation is yarning for clarity; should people bother registering for elections when they know elections will be rigged? Of course, SADC leaders are right in saying, no. It is madness to continue contesting flawed elections for 37 years plus and expecting a different result!
What is Crisis in Zimbabwe’s position on elections; should the people heed SADC leaders’ advice or not? If organizations like Crisis in Zimbabwe are dithering on the matter, what hope is there for the ordinary Zimbabwean in the rural back waters!
One of the things I have found to be fascinating in the Bible is how each generation was beset by its own set of challenges, it prospered if it knuckled down and dealt with the challenges and suffered if it was found wanting.
ReplyDeleteSince independence the greatest challenge the people of Zimbabwe faced was to come up with a system of government that would take the nation forward; secure the individual freedoms, liberty and basic human rights of all our people and build on the economic inheritance from the colonial regime for the economic wellbeing of all. There is no denying we have failed dismally on both the political and economic fronts, the de facto one-party (Zanu PF) cum one-man (Robert Mugabe) dictatorship has been a total disaster for the nation.
Zimbabwe had the potential to be one of the richest nation in Africa but four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption under this Zanu PF regime has completely destroyed the country’s economy. Unemployment has soared to 90% plus and today 72.3% of our people now live on US$ 1.00 or less per day. This is the grinding poverty paid for in heart-breaking human suffering and lost human lives.
Today, Zimbabweans are the poorest people in Africa and the long we stay here the heavier the toll price in human misery, harder and longer, if at all, it is going to take us to climb out of this hell-hole. The need to do something and start the difficult task of climbing out is urgent but few Zimbabweans seem to appreciate it.
The root cause of our political paralysis and economic mess is bad governance. The solution has been staring us in the face all along, SADC leaders spelt it out for us in the 2008 Global Political Agreement, implement the democratic reforms designed to end the corrupt and tyrannical de facto dictatorship. It is very disappointed that MDC leaders have failed to get even one reform implemented when they had the golden opportunities to do so during the GNU and after.
It is equally disappointing that the people themselves have been found wanting in fulfilling their sacred duty of electing competent leaders. The people’s failure to see Tsvangirai & co. for the corrupt and incompetent individuals they are, even now with the benefit of hindsight, has not helped the nation one bit.
Nation get the government they deserve and we certain deserve the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF government complete with its entourage of over 50 opposition political parties – all corrupt and incompetent. When we are ready for good government, we will implement the democratic reforms as SADC leaders have already advised; until then the nation will stew in the political mess of its own making!
There will be no meaningful political change until we implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. SADC leaders told Tsvangirai long before the July 2013 elections that with no reform Zanu PF will rig the vote and, sadly, MDC leaders paid no heed.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF has already starting rigging the 2018 election by delayind the start of the voter registration and thus making sure it will all be rushed and there will be no verified voters' roll before the elections. The nation did not expect corrupt and incompetent simpletons like Tsvangirai and Mujuru to understand that it is fulite to contest flawed elections but not you, Dr Nkosana Moyo!
@ Joseph Kaundura
ReplyDeleteI am sure Dr Moyo will be able to do a lot to revive the Zimbabwe economy; many of the things are common sense really. The problem here is that he or anyone else will never get a look in. We are stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime that has perfected the art of rigging the election to stay in power.
In the March 2008 elections the people voted in droves for Tsvangirai and still nothing changed. Tsvangirai won 73% of the votes, according to Mugabe’s own inadvertent admission. The tyrant ordered ZEC to recount the votes and, after six weeks of cooking up the figures, this was whittled down to 47%, forcing the run-off. Mugabe then “declared war on the people”, according to Tsvangirai, to force the people to vote for him. It worked; Mugabe boosted his 27% to a staggering 84% landslide victory.
The 2008 elections have proven beyond all doubt that the Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut cannot be beaten by the simple act of asking people to register and then to vote. We need to do much more than that. We need to implement the democratic reforms.
SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai to implement the reforms during the GNU but MDC did not listen. The regional leaders advised MDC not to contest the July 2013 elections with no reforms in place and, once again no one listened. SADC leaders are fed with MDC leaders because they do not listen to anyone and, it seems, so are the ordinary Zimbabweans, they are tired of risking life and limb for change that never comes.
With no reforms, there is really no point in the people bothering to register, attend rallies, etc. because the result is already a done deal.
If voter registration continues to be slow, Zanu PF will frogmarch people to go and register just as the party will frogmarch them to vote; until that happens, people must stay put. There is nothing to be gained in playing any party in an election process one already knows is not free, fair and credible!
Contest flawed elections is madness, more so after 37 years of rigged elections! I expect Tsvangirai and Mujuru to contest flawed elections, they are simpletons with no clue what the reforms are about but not Dr Nkosana Moyo too!