ED ignore Zanu PF violence to talk of "democratic ethos" - essence of "legitimacy trap" P Guramanhu

“Zanu PF's hotly-contested primary elections took place countrywide yesterday amid violent and chaotic scenes, as well as damaging allegations of bribery, favouritism and the imposition of candidates - prompting the ruling party to postpone the internal polls in many constituencies to today,” reported Daily News.

“In Mashonaland Central, police made several arrests in Mazowe West where alleged supporters of the sitting MP, Kazembe Kazembe, were said to have slashed the vehicle tyres of rival Tafadzwa Musarara.

"The tyres were deflated and my driver was attacked, and I know it is the work of incumbent MP Kazembe Kazembe's campaigning team who were spotted at the scene. Arrests have been made under RRB 333861440," Musarara told the Daily News.

If there is so much violence and mayhem by Zanu PF members directed against fellow Zanu PF members how much worse when it is the against the opposition whom they consider to be puppets of the West seeking regime change!

If the violence is taking place in urban centres how much worse will it be in the rural backwaters where the Zanu PF thugs rule the roost!

It is disappointing that President Mnangagwa is not even concerned about the violence in his own party. “Whatever teething problems we have experienced so far, we remain convinced that the democratic course we have started in the management of our party affairs is the correct one, indeed one befitting a party of our history, our strength and our stature,” he said.

“As the ruling party, the democratic content and standards of our processes define and preordain our national politics. We thus not fear to widen the scope and play of the elective ethic in our party affairs and processes. Whatever challenges we face in the interim must thus be in the direction of firmly rooting the democratic ethos which, after all, we planted in the land through our historical sacrifices as a party of the national liberation.”

What “democratic ethos” has Zanu PF ever planted?

Here lays the essence of the nation’s failure to make any head way in addressing its teething economic and political problems. The root cause of the economic problems is the criminal waste of national resources, material and human, through mismanagement and corruption. For the last 38 years, these problems have been allowed grown and spread like cancerous tumour to force the economy into the state of total meltdown pushing unemployment into the nauseating height of 90% and ¾ of our people into abject poverty.

First the nation could not get the Zanu PF government to address these problem, the regime simply ignored the calls for changed and ignored the tragic human suffering brought on by the economic decline. Ordinarily the people would have voted Zanu PF out of office but this did not happen because the regime has routinely rigged elections.

In short, the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic problems is the nation’s failure to remove Zanu PF from office even when it was clear the regime corrupt and incompetent and must go. The nation was stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime for 38 years and counting.

There is no hope of getting meaningful regime change as long as Zanu PF retains the carte blanche powers to rig the vote. The party has resisted all efforts to get democratic reforms, designed to take away the vote-rigging powers, implemented. As we can see from his remark above, President Mnangagwa maintains Zanu PF is a democratic party that does not rig elections.

“Nearly 20 years into Zimbabwe's unresolved Machiavellian Moment, and as the old order has been bleeding to death slowly, while the new has been struggling to be born, it has become quite clear that the birth of a new dispensation is being arrested by the country's lingering illegitimacy trap,” admitted Professor Jonathan Moyo in a recent article written from his hiding place in exile.

“The means for legitimately getting into, staying in and getting out of political office in Zimbabwe, in government and mainstream political parties, have remained contested since 1980. Just about all holders of elective public office in politics, especially but not only at the level of the presidency, are illegitimate. The problem has been so pervasive that it has found expression even in appointed offices in the civil and security services. It is notable that key members of the ZDF "command element" that staged the November coup had outlived their tenure and were thus in the command illegitimately.”

Moyo is running away from President Mnangagwa and his junta regime, his erstwhile former Zanu PF colleagues. Moyo and a few other G40 faction members have been on the run since last November’s military coup in which saw ED and his Lacoste faction seize power.

It is heartening to hear Professor Moyo is admitting Zanu PF’s failure to hold free and fair elections and hence the “lingering legitimacy trap”. It is disappointing that Moyo is admitting this now when he has lost power and influence to help get the nation out of this trap.

Whilst there no stopping these flawed elections going ahead now, the way out of this legitimacy trap is for the international observers admit that with no meaningful reforms it is impossible to hold free, fair and credible elections and thus declare the elections null and void.

Free elections are not important in "Chinese model" - they do not want it and never did W Mukori

Zimbabwe is already a de facto one-party state and it was none other than President Mnangagwa and his coup junta have been at the very heart of Zanu PF’s looting, vote-rigging and political intrigue that have established and retain the dictatorship. The junta tried to take the illegitimacy-sting off following the November coup by promising to hold free, fair and credible elections. No one with half a brained believed that nonsense and it did not take long for the regime to confirm that by stubbornly refusing to implement the democratic reforms.

For the last five months the junta regime has been on a charm offensive to woo investors and lenders with its “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call. The call has been loud and haunting like the Southern Hornbill’s call. Instead of investors flooding into the country they have, instead, kept their distance and invested in other countries. The haunting call scarred away investors like lizards running away from captain hornbill and his marauding gang.

Investors are a shrewd lot and they were the first to dismiss as nonsense the notion that the removal of Mugabe and a few elements around him was enough to transform Zimbabwe from a pariah state ruled by thugs into a democracy. The same old corrupt and vote-rigging thugs masquerading democrats with zero tolerance on corruption to fool the naïve and gullible. Investors were not hypnotized by the hornbill’s multi-coloured wattle and voted with their feet by staying out of Zimbabwe. Investors do not do business in a nation ruled by thugs.

It has taken five months for the Zanu PF junta to get the message that investors were not fooled by whitewashing the corrupt and vote-rigging dictatorship as a democrat per excellence! So, the regime has changed tact; it is not going to hide it is a de facto one-party dictatorship and sell itself instead as a regime set to replicate the success of China – a successful one-party dictatorship.

“One of the hallmarks of the remarkable turnaround of the Chinese economy since that country launched sweeping economic reforms in 1978 has been the strict discipline enforced by that Government and zero tolerance to corruption. There is absolutely no room for lethargy in the Chinese bureaucracy and corruption is frowned upon to the extent that many top ex-officials in Government are serving lengthy prison terms for graft while some have been executed,” argued the Chronicle.

“Slothfulness is not tolerated and the efficiency of the Chinese system of governance is marvelled at by the entire world. China opened its economy to the rest of the world but has maintained its communist ideology - successfully merging Western capitalism with its own brand of communism.

“It is by no coincidence that it is the world's second biggest economy and Zimbabwe - China's all-weather friend - can learn a lot from the Chinese economic model.”

In short, the Chronicle is proposing that Zimbabweans should accept giving up all their freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life and simple accept the de facto Zanu PF dictatorship as now a fait accompli de jure one-party dictatorship. The trade-off is that Zanu PF will drag the nation out of the economic hell-hole, it must be emphasized here that it was the party that landed us in this hell-hole in the first place.

It must be pointed out too, that as far as this year’s elections are concerned Zanu PF is set to rig the elections, as before, and will take the election result as proof the people of Zimbabwe want a de facto one-party state to continue. They do not care that the elections were not free, fair and credible.

No Zimbabwean with any common sense would ever ACCEPT giving up their fundamental freedoms and human rights. Being denied one’s freedoms and rights, as we have been denied by Zanu PF and the white colonialists before them, is bad enough; accepting the reality of being treated as a second citizen or worse to whom the freedoms and rights others take for granted can be denied at the whim of a tyrant is something no human being will ever accept.

Mr Chronicle Editor, did the Chinese ever have a free, fair and democratic say in who ruled China or was it that Chairman Mao imposed the Communist Party of China on the people?

Even if there had been a free, fair and democratic vote and the nation elected to have a one-party dictatorship in China. Chairman Mao’s generation had no right to deny future generation the inalienable freedoms and rights including the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the nation.

What evidence is there that China would not have merged into a prosperous nation long before 1978 if the country had granted all its citizens their fundamental freedoms and rights?

As you, Mr Editor, rightly admitted China has remained an impoverished nation until 1978 when it “launched sweeping economic reforms”. Until then millions of Chinese people have lived in abject poverty and many have died; they know the dumb anguish of being stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and oppressive one-party dictatorship. Zimbabweans know that too; we are in this economic and political hell-hole because for the last 38 years and counting the nation is stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous regime.

It is not that a one-party dictatorship cannot do anything right, the CPC has shown that it can; the point is the dictatorship, like every other human system, will also fail. In a healthy and functional democracy, leaders are held to account every step of the way so that mistakes are often picked and corrected and, if need be, leaders and regimes removed from office. In a one-party dictatorship mistakes are swept under the carpet allowing them to grow and spread like a cancer.

The ordinary people who are at the coal face suffer in dumb anguish, stuck with leaders and regimes that no longer represent the nation’s commonwealth.  

Even with China now enjoying unparalleled economic prosperity and millions of ordinary Chinese being rescued from abject poverty; I will bet my bottom dollar, the Chinese people will vote to end the CPC dictatorship today, if they were ever granted a free vote. They know they will be back in hot soup if some brainless thug was to become leader! China very lucky to have the visionary Chairman Deng Xiaoping and there is no guarantee all future leaders will be like him!  

Comrade Chronicle Editor, you can compare President Mnangagwa with every other demagogue you wish but you cannot compare him to Chairman Deng Xiaoping. Chairman Xixian’s, as the Chinese leader was courteously known, “It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice!” was a visionary insight and a key to China’s successful acceptable of capitalism and China’s economic miracle.

It is nonsensical to compared it to ED’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” when he has done nothing to end the corruption, thuggery, vote-rigging, etc. that had caused the country’s economic meltdown in the first place! ED’s top draw priority is to maintain Zanu PF’s iron grip on power; any economic recovery is a bonus.

“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchingo hukura! Nohukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for free elections) bark! And bark!) was the first message Mnangagwa told his Zanu PF supporters on his return from exile after the 15 November 2017 coup.

What the Chronicle is asking Zimbabweans to do is to accept that these elections are not going to be free, fair and credible; Zimbabwe is now a de jure one-party dictatorship. We should just focus our effort on ED’s effort to replicate China’s 1978 economic miracle in Zimbabwe.

The Chinese people would reject the CPC one-party rule today because, whilst they celebrate the economic boom of the last decade, they cannot forget the nightmare decades that came before and know these nightmares will easily return should another thug become leader. We in Zimbabwe have a chance to stop Zimbabwe becoming a one-party dictatorship; all we must do is make sure this year’s flawed and illegal elections are declared null and void!

Zimbabwe is not China just as Mnangagwa is not Xiaoping. We do not want Zimbabwe to be a one-party state and be stuck ever again with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical dictatorship!

Since 1980 Mugabe has lacked legitimacy," admit Professor Moyo - cathartic effect of life in exile W Mukori

“I am back from College!” said one renowned Zimbabwean after serving time behind bars (name and committed crime withheld because there are not important). He may have said as a middle finger salute to the powers-that-be, but I believe he also meant “I sobered up and learnt a lot!” There is certainly some cathartic value with life’s experiences, particularly the challenging experiences.

It is now five months since Professor Jonathan Moyo, a long time Robert Mugabe’s self-proclaimed chief of propaganda and brainwasher, was forced to leave his ministerial post and all the comforts of wielding absolute power brings to go into exile. His nightmare is not over for him because there some in Zanu PF who tried to kill before and would do it. Still the five months has certainly had a sobering cathartic effect on the Professor.

“Since 2000, the country's constitutional, institutional and political edifice has been crumbling under the weight of the unfulfilled expectations based on the founding values and ideals of the country's liberation struggle, whose quintessential purpose was the restoration of the civil, political and socio-economic rights of the indigenous population,” wrote Professor Moyo in Bulawayo 24.

“At issue by 2000 was that the gains of Independence had not included the enjoyment of civil and political rights, notably the freedoms of assembly, association and expression; nor had they included socio-economic rights, particularly land redistribution and economic empowerment.

“The means for legitimately getting into, staying in and getting out of political office in Zimbabwe, in government and mainstream political parties, have remained contested since 1980. Just about all holders of elective public office in politics, especially but not only at the level of the presidency, are illegitimate. The problem has been so pervasive that it has found expression even in appointed offices in the civil and security services. It is notable that key members of the ZDF "command element" that staged the November coup had outlived their tenure and were thus in the command illegitimately.”

The five months in exile away from the distractions of absolute power and the comforts it brings are certainly helping the Professor to think straight again after all the years talking propaganda nonsense. It is gratifying to know that these ruling elite members KNOW and appreciate the critical importance of holding free, fair and credible elections as a way of resolving the nation’s illegitimacy problems and bad governance problems.

Now that he is out of office, Professor Moyo readily acknowledges Zanu PF has failed to hold free and fair elections since 1980. When Mai Mujuru was booted out of Zanu PF, she too acknowledged Zanu PF had rigged elections, that corruption was rampant, etc. Many others have done the same thing, proof that these leaders only pretend not to understand such fundamental problems as the denial of the people’s basic freedoms and human rights when they are in power as long as they are enjoying the benefits the lawlessness and oppression.

It is disappointing that people like Moyo acknowledge these serious political problems only when they are out of office and are thus powerless to make a difference. Still it is great to know their denial of these fundamental problems is out of selfish greed and expedience and not a sign of ossified brain.

 “Zimbabwe is in trouble. This is because, among the country's litany of woes, a particularly insidious malady is the dearth of intellectual practice. There's no scholarship in Zimbabwe today to talk about and this has worsened the country's political crisis,” continue Moyo.

“The Socratic presumption that an unexamined life is not worth living not only captures what is wrong with Zimbabwe today, but also explains why the country is in a cruel Machiavellian Moment and why — under this interregnum — the existential quandary of Zimbabweans is that they are living an unexamined life.”

When it comes to Zimbabweans being one of the brainwashed nations on earth Professor Moyo has a lot to answer for. He is one of Mugabe’s long serving and notorious Minister of Information who have done a lot to stifle public debate by muzzling the media and deny freedom of expression.

Of the raft of democratic reforms this country must implement to dismantle the Zanu PF autocracy freeing the media must be one of the first to be implemented. The need for the people to participate in the implementation of the rest of the reforms is important as their own individual political journey from slavery into the Promised Land.

The 15 November 2017 coup was about President Mnangagwa and his Lacoste faction wrestling power from Robert Mugabe who want to hand it over to his wife and her G40 factions and not about transforming Zanu PF from a dictatorship into a democracy. Professor Moyo confirms this.

“When Chiwenga met Mugabe the day after the coup on November 16, he presented a two-page list of grievances with seven talking points, six of which were about succession politics in Zanu PF in favour of Emmerson Mnangagwa and veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war who claim to be the country's stockholders; and one grievance was about security of tenure for the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) "command element" and their fear of future prosecution for treason.”

By extension the junta will not honour its promise to hold free, fair and credible elections because, should Zanu PF lose the elections, they will be back in trouble on all seven points! Given Zimbabwe’s serious economic situation; with unemployment a nauseating 90%, ¾ of the people living on US$1.00 a day, there is no question that the economic rot in the country cannot be allowed to continue. The only way to end the economic rot is to end the political rot that is causing it.

Zimbabwe must implement the democratic reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections. Five months out of power has help Professor Moyo to accept the need for free and fair elections. No doubt a similar cooling off period will allow President Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and the rest in the junta to see the wisdom of accepting democratic change because one way or the other political change must happen!