Zimbabweans
must step up their political game if the nation is ever going to get out of the
hell-on-earth it is in right now. Those who continue to follow people like
Nelson Chamisa are telling the whole world that Zimbabwe is NOT yet ready to get
out of the hell-hole. Chamisa is not presidential material and every time he opens
his mouth he confines it.
“Reforms
are very important. There can't be elections without reforms. ED must stop
paying lip service and giving political rhetoric to free and fair elections,”
said Chamisa.
After
all that has been said on the subject, especially during and after the GNU; one
expected that this is the one subject any MDC leader will be able to talk about
with authority and decisiveness. Not so from Chamisa!
“He
(President Mnangagwa) has been calling for free and fair elections but he has
been doing nothing about free and fair polls. Free and fair elections is not a
slogan but practical substance on the ground.
“What
legislative reforms have been put in place; what institutional reforms have
been put in place; what structural reforms have been put in place; what about
habitual and cultural reforms (that) have been instituted? This madness has
shot off the roof.”
Gift Phiri, Daily News Editor, tried to pin down Chamisa with a follow up question. “Let's suppose you don't get the reforms you are pushing for, what will you do?”
“We will never accept an election where we don't know where ballot papers are printed. Polling material to be used and the ballot printing are key issues that we are not going to leave to conjecture like we did in 2013.”
If
Chamisa was not such a scatter-brain then he would know the following:
1)
Even with the best will in the world no one can
implement the legislative, structural, etc. reforms he is talking about now,
four or five months before the elections. So, if there is no hope in getting
the reforms implemented the question of what MDC is going to do become a
rhetorical one in that we already know the answer – the party will contest the
elections regardless.
2)
Chamisa is asking Mnangagwa to implement the
reforms and yet MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of
the GNU. One gets the feeling he is just grandstanding, he would never get any
meaningful reforms implemented even if he was to get another chance to do so.
3)
David Coltart admitted the reason why MDC leaders ignored
SADC leaders’ advice not to take part in the July 2013 elections without
reforms was 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.”
Coltart has also acknowledge
the price the nation has had to pay for the MDC leaders’ greed was forfeiting the
chance to force Zanu PF to implement the reforms. The same cannot be said about
Chamisa and many of the other MDC leaders; they are ploughing on heedlessly,
blundering from pillar to post.
The
state of the nation’s economy with unemployment a nauseating 90% and ¾ of our
people living on US$1.00 a day speaks volumes of Zanu PF, the party that has
governed the nation these last 38 years. The country is dying, literally, for a
complete government to take it out of this hell-hole. Alas! MDC is not that
alternative government.
Nations
get the government they deserve, 38 years after independence, we cannot say we
do not deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with
its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties. If we want a
competent and accountable government then we will have to take the business of
selecting competent leaders with the urgency and seriousness the matter
demands.
Zimbabwe
is the poorest nation in Africa both economically and politically; to have E D
Mnangagwa and N Chamisa as the nation’s presidential candidates shows just how
desperately poor the nation must be.
“Tichanzwa
nokuvirira zvose mavhu namarara!” (We will pay dearly for our recklessness in
electing rubbish as leaders!)
I liked the headline "Patriotic looters return $250 million". The two words, patriot and looter are strange bed fellows!
ReplyDeleteSo, government has recovered $250 million from the $3.1 billion "known to government". Can one dare ask how well informed is the regime? Some people believe that $2 to $3 billion worth of diamonds are being swindled every month and government knows there is wholesale looting going on in Marange but have no idea know much.
In other words the $3.1 billion knows about is but the ears of the hippo the rest of the beast in hidden under the muddy water.
@ Zimvigil
ReplyDeleteApart from inviting the observation missions, there is clearly a lot of work still to be done. We have heard nothing, for instance, about the need to open state-controlled media to the opposition during the election campaign. Time is running out.
For many of the reforms time ran out a long time ago!
What we, the people of Zimbabwe, are asking from the observers is for them to say whether it is possibe to have free, fair and credible elections without a free media, a verifiable voters' roll, one side has unfetted access to billions of looted funds whilst the other have nothing. etc. SADC leaders have said that free and fair elections are not possible without first implementing the reforms.
We just the election observers to give us their honest assessment!
The more relevant question to be asked is are the elections going to be free, fair and credible? If they are not, then surely who will know if the winner did not cheat?
ReplyDeleteUnless the democratic reforms are implemented we all know that the process will not be free, fair and credible and per se the result will be irrelevant! After 38 years of rigged elections we, the people, must take a lead in demanding a clean electoral process by refusing to participate in flawed and illegal processes and much less recognise the result as valid!
There must be free, fair and credible elections in which no one is frog marched to vote for a particular party or candidate, with a free press, a verified voters' roll, etc.
Other nations have never had an problems of rigged elections because everyone knows there are certain red lines no candidate will be permitted to cross and get away with it. We in Zimbabwe have been slow in drawing those red lines but that is no excuse for us not drawing them now! We demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE elections - that is a DOUBLE RED LINE!
We know the only reason why opposition politicians are willing to take part in these flawed and illegal elections is greed. They do not care that millions of voters are harassed, beaten, raped and even murdered as long as they win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away to entice the opposition to take part.
It is for us, the ordinary citizens, who have nothing to gain from rigged elections and have paid dearly because of it, who must police the red line. That we should be the ones crossing the red line ourselves is the height of folly! To be doing so still after 38 years is insane!
MDC had its best chance to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU they wasted it. They sold out during the GNU by accepting Mugabe's bribes and doing nothing about the reforms in return. President Mnangagwa knows that MDC leaders are too greed to ever take a principlaed stand on any issue like reforms as long as there are a few gravy train seats for the taking.
ReplyDeleteChamisa for all his posturing and grandstanding, has never given an details of what reforms he is talking about. He has no clue what the reforms are - it is all hot air!
@ Mudhara
ReplyDeleteIf there is one thing Wilbert has said a thousand times and thousand time again is that we need to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections.
"If we want a competent and accountable government then we will have to take the business of selecting competent leaders with the urgency and seriousness the matter demands," Wilbert said above.
The trouble with some people is that unless it is something they wanted to hear, they do not hear it!
"In Chinhoyi thousands of people turned out to make history in the pounding rain. A story of hope, a story of dreams, a story of anticipation is unfolding in Zimbabwe. It's an unstoppable tsunami. Wananchi want real transformation," said Biti via micro blogging Twitter.
ReplyDelete"We will protect and guard our unity, that is the legacy of our dearly departed leader."
"Hupenzi chikwekwe, benzi harioni hupenzi hwaro!" (The worst thing about being a fool is he does not know hence the reason a fool never listens or takes advice!)
"The MDC-T made many school boy errors whilst in the unity government, errors which were frustrating the western diplomats particularly the British and the Americans," wrote Hopewell Chinono in one of his articles.
"What made it worse was the fact that the MDC-T was not willing to acknowledge their mistakes when presented with them. They became so arrogant and refused to take counsel until they lost the 2013 election.
"The South Africans were equally frustrated especially with Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to take part in the 2013 elections, without the agreed GNU reforms being implemented.
"They found this astounding because the GNU was primarily set up to reform the political architecture in order to allow free and fair elections.
"The MDC-T arrogantly ignored SADC and South Africa's advice to not participate in the 2013 elections until these reforms were done, they referenced anyone who questioned their logic, to the huge MDC-T rallies."
Yes Hopewell Chinono is a President Mnangagwa apologist but what he said above are historic facts: MDC failed to implement any democratic reforms during the GNU and they ignored the advice not to contest the 2013 elections without reforms.
It is telling that Tendai Biti is boasting about the "thousands" at the Chinhoyi rally just as the party had done before the 2013 elections.
With no reforms in place Zanu PF will rig this year's elections just as easily as it rigged the 2013 elections. What is clear is Biti, Chamisa, Ncube and most, if not all, the other opposition politicians contesting these elections KNOW the elections will be rig. They also KNOW Zanu PF will give away a few gravy train seats, bait to the opposition. It is these few seats they are after!
Biti and company do not care that the elections are not going to be free, fair and credible just as they did not care that not even one reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU!
Tendai Biti and his MDC friends lost their political credibility with the West and SADC way back in 2013, as Chinono rightly pointed out. The important question is will the West and SADC consider these elections as credible given that the two contestants, MDC and Zanu PF, have lost political credibility. The former lost it for failing to implement any reforms during the GNU and the later for failing to do so since the November 2017 when the regime promised free, fair and credible elections.
With no reforms, these elections are NOT going to be free and fair and therefore the international community has no option but to declare the whole process null and void! We must condemn these flawed elections now and not have to wait for Biti's imaginary Tsunami.
@ Rangwani
ReplyDeleteWell if someone told you that the solution you have adopted is not going to solve you problem you will be a fool not to listen just because he/she failed to provide the right solution!
I have, as a matter of fact, provided a solution. We must demand the implementation of all democratic reforms and refuse to take part in the elections with no reforms in place. It is insane to take part in election whose results one already knows will be rigged!
If Zanu PF refuse to implement the reforms, it is clear the regime will not do so, then we must make sure the process is declared null and void this will force the country back to the political impasse of 2008. This time we will see to it that the administration appointed will implement the democratic reforms!
That is amazing, these people have heard me say implementing the reforms a thousand times and thousand times again and still they failed to hear!
ReplyDeleteAfter 38 years of rigged elections some people are determined to contest the flawed and illegal elections knowing Zanu PF will rig the elections but hoping against hope that the rig will rig the vote and lose the elections!
"Nhamo inyama yegakava!" (The ignorant and foolish are as stubborn as a mule!)
MDC politicians sold-out during the GNU, their failure to appreciate what the GNU was about and failure to get even one reform implemented in five years proved they were utterly useless, beyond the pale.
ReplyDeleteThe party's Western donors deserted MDC in droves and even SADC leaders openly criticised them. MDC leaders were busy "enjoying themselves during the GNU, the forgot why they were there," said one SADC leader in sheer frustration at the breath-taking incompetence and corruption of the MDC leaders.
"We will never accept an election where we don't know where ballot papers are printed. Polling material to be used and the ballot printing are key issues that we are not going to leave to conjecture like we did in 2013," admitted the MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa.
No doubt there were many others issues the party left to "conjecture" such as how many multiple votes Zanu PF youths bussed from one polling station to the next casted. With not reforms in place Zanu PF has an infinite number of way to rig the vote. Why the MDC continue to participate in such flawed and illegal electoral process in which there are so many unknown factors is shocking.
It is only when one realises as far as the MDC leaders as concerned the elections are NOT about free, fair and credible elections and making sure the ordinary Zimbabweans have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. They do not care about any of these things. All the care about is winning the few gravy train seats they know Zanu PF is throwing away like bones to the dogs.
David Coltart is spot on, greed is the only reason that is pulling MDC politicians and all the other politicians in the opposition to contest flawed and illegal elections. One should not be surprised after all they have already proven they are beyond the pale!