Mnangagwa promise diaspora vote with the cynicism of one throwing a bull unbroken thigh bone to a dog.

In one of the many interviews President Mnangagwa gave in Davos, Switzerland, President Mnangagwa agreed on the need to allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote. He did not give much detail on how this was going to happen or whether it would happen quickly enough for them to vote in this year’s election. This has been such a very emotive issue and was not surprising that many Zimbabweans have jumped on to it like a dog to an old bone that has yet to yield the marrow.

It is a tried and tasted Zanu PF diversionary tactic, the diaspora vote is nothing more than a bull’s unbroken thigh bone to puppy; not a dog, a puppy. The puppy knows the bone has plenty of marrow to yield but it is also as hard as granite; all the poor creature can do is lick the bone. What everyone should be concerned about is President Mnangagwa’s repeated promise to hold free and fair elections and yet doing nothing to make this happen. What good is having the diaspora vote if the elections are rigged? 

The elections are due in six months at the latest, it is impossible to see how diaspora voter registration can be carried out in time to include them on a national voters' roll this late. And, more significantly, what will the nation gain from having some people in the diaspora able to vote if the Zanu PF is able to blatant rig the local vote to secure 60 to 70% a landslide victory!

When it was clear that MDC leaders had sold-out during the GNU and had not implemented even one democratic reform; SADC leaders did not hesitate to ask for the 2013 elections to be postponed.

“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,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza explained to Violet Gonda.

“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’.”

It should be noted that SADC leaders had very right to ask for elections to be postponed. The region body was the guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement which had called for the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF blatantly rigging and repeat the barbarism of the 2008 elections. SADC leaders arm twisted Mugabe to get him to agree to the need for democratic reforms.

SADC leaders did their best to remind Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement the reforms but they were ignored. As we know, MDC leaders also ignored SADC leaders’ warning not to contest the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms.

Five years later from the rigged July 2013 elections, we still face the same political situation – new elections but still with not even one democratic reform to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote implemented! No even one!

Yes President Mnangagwa has been promising that the elections will be free, fair and credible but has not implemented even one democratic reform that SADC leaders called for in 2013. The Army, ZEC, the Police, Public Media, etc., etc. are still staffed with Zanu PF loyalists whose commitment to the party’s no-regime-change mantra is as unshakable as ever.

Indeed, contrary to his public platitudes of free and fair elections, Mnangagwa has been implementing Zanu PF’s carefully laid out vote rigging plans the party has used in the past. He bought the Chiefs the new trucks, a bribe Mugabe had promised. The Chiefs have always done a sterling job of threatening rural voters and frog marching them to Zanu PF rallies and then to vote for the party. President Mnangagwa wanted the Chiefs to know that he, just like Mugabe, appreciated their blind loyalty and, more significantly, will happily pay the bribe.

Two weeks ago Engelbert Rugeje, the man President Mnangagwa appointed Zanu PF Political Commissar, was in Masvingo Province, his old stamping ground, telling the people that the wanton violence of 2008 and 2013 elections will return if they do not vote for Zanu PF. The people know Rugeje is not Father Christmas sending the message of good will. Last week it emerges that Zanu PF operatives have amassed an impressive data base of people’s voter registration details.

President Mnangagwa keeps talking of holding free and fair elections and yet continues to blatantly disregard everything to make free elections possible. He is like a hyena that denies that it does not eat rotten meat but its bad breath gives the game away!

So, what should be the national response to the certainty there will be NO free, fair and credible elections?

The only logical response is for the people of Zimbabwe to have absolutely nothing to do with these flawed and illegal elections. After 38 years of Zanu PF blatantly rigged elections, it is insane to keep taking part in such elections.

SADC leaders were 100% right in advising Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented.

The nation’s response to Zanu PF’s stubborn refusal to implement the democratic reforms everyone agrees are absolutely necessary for free, fair and credible elections must be clear and unambiguous. Free, fair and credible elections are a fundamental right; not a privilege that Zanu PF can continue to deny the people willy-nilly for the selfish purpose that Zanu PF and Zanu PF alone must rule Zimbabwe regardless of the democratic wishes of the electorate.

Of course, there is nothing President Mnangagwa would want more than for the elections to go ahead without  ever implementing even one democratic reforms to dilute the party’s carte blanche powers to rig elections this year or ever.

“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchigo hukura. Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! While you (demanding the implementation of reforms) bark! And bark!) President Mnangagwa has said repeatedly it has become his all-day all-night cock crow!


It would a great tragedy if Zanu PF’s corrupt, vote rigging and autocratic rule was to continue for another five more years because the nation, once again failed to send a clear message on the need for democratic reforms. The confusion this time, coming from those in the diaspora because the cunning and cynical Zanu PF regime dangled the diaspora knowing only too well it will never deliver.