After the MDC failed to get even one democratic reform
implemented in five years of the GNU, the party’ s western donor deserted the
MDC in droves and SADC leaders ignore the lot in disgust. The entire MDC leadership
should have apologised to the nation and resigned from public office for good!
Sadly, they have all stayed on; largely because the Zimbabwe public have never
understood what happened during the GNU and how MDC leaders sold-out; but only
to gratify their insatiable greed for power and the wealth on Zimbabwe’s
infamous gravy train.
The MDC Alliance is in UK this week and they are trying their
best to sell themselves as Zimbabwe’s government in-waiting. A hard sell, given
the whole world know they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent!
“For all ZANU PF’s rhetoric about Zimbabwe being “open for
business” the one thing they have never learnt in 38 years of misrule is that
the single most important factor in any investor’s decision to invest in a
foreign country is security of the investment,” wrote David Coltart, former MDC
Senator and Minister of Education during the GNU, in Zimeye.
“If an investor feels that the rules will change, or that a
dispute will come before a biased, political judge, or that permits will have
to be obtained through bribery, the investor will simply look elsewhere. That
is why just this week SA President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Africa/Japan
Investment summit, stressed that South Africa’s judiciary is independent and
that his Government totally respects South Africa’s Constitution. He gets it.”
Full marks Senator! Zimbabwe is in this economic and political
mess because Zanu PF has failed to understand or, worse still, to disregard and/or
corrupt the country’s laws and democratic institution and ride roughshod over
the people basic human freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair
elections and even the right to life.
The primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was for MDC to
implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to restore the individual
freedoms and rights and the recreate democratic institutions to ensure a
healthy and functional democratic Zimbabwe. We are in this mess because MDC
leaders took their eyes off the ball and failed to get even one reform
implemented. NOT EVEN ONE!
“In contrast the MDC Alliance,
which after all has been the main driver of the new Constitution agreed to by
Zimbabweans in 2013, will respect and implement the Constitution in all its
fullness. And that is the one fundamental difference between the MDC Alliance
and not just ZANU PF, but all the other major parties contesting the election.
Without Morgan Tsvangirai, Nelson Chamisa, Jessie Fungayi Majome, Tendai Biti,
Welshman Ncube, Douglas Mwonzora and many other MDC leaders there would never
have been a new democratic Constitution. That is a hard fact.”
The taste of the pudding is in the eating, as the old cliché
goes. The new constitution failed it first test; it failed to deliver free,
fair and credible elections, contrary to all the hot air from MDC leaders
saying it would.
Paul Mangwana, who was the Zanu PF co-chair on the committee
that drafted the new constitution is on record boasting that it was Mugabe who “dictated”
the document. He is the last person who would dictate a democratic
constitution!
SADC leaders advised MDC leaders not to take part in the 2013
elections with no reforms in place. “If you go into next month’s elections, you
will lose; these elections are done!” they warned.
MDC leaders went on to participate in the 2013 elections out of
selfish greed, as Coltart admitted in his book.
“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.”
The MDC leaders have since kissed and made up to for the MDC
Alliance but only to improve their chances of winning the few gravy train seats
– not to boycott the elections!
“So we will be telling the British Government and investors that
British investment will be secure under an MDC Alliance government. We will
also remind them that when the MDC had just a small amount of influence in
government between 2009 and 2013 the economy grew dramatically, hospitals
reopened, children went back to school and a new democratic Constitution was
written and accepted by millions of Zimbabweans,” concluded Coltart.
“In other words these are not empty promises, or mere rhetoric –
we have a demonstrable track record. If we grasp the full reins of government
Zimbabwe will boom.
“God bless Zimbabwe!”
Of course, these are just empty words! What the British or
anyone with their thinking cap on would ask Chamisa and his entourage is; Are
these elections going to be free, fair and credible?
If the answer is yes, it cannot be anything else given that not
even one reform was implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections, then the
follow up question is: What then are you doing participating in flawed and
illegal elections just to give the process credibility?
It is true that Zimbabwe has failed to attract foreign investors because they will never feel secure in a nation ruled by thugs. There is no free media, independent judiciary, etc., it is impossible to see how there can be free, fair and credible elections. There are two points that stand out here:
ReplyDelete1) It was these same MDC leaders, Chamisa, Coltart, Biti, Ncube, etc. who landed us into this mess by failing to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU. Senator Coltart is wittering here about MDC leaders' "demonstrated track record" what is there to boost about when they failed to get even one reform implemented.
2) SADC leaders have tried to talk these MDC leaders into going into these elections without reforms but they will not listen. Coltart has himself admitted they participated out of sheer greed. Zanu PF has been giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to take part in the flawed elections.
Like it or not Zimbabwe is locked into these utterly meaningless elections because of the selfish of Zanu PF and the opposition. Zanu PF has spent the last 38 years systematically undermining the people's freedoms and human rights including the right to a free vote and even the right to life for the sole purpose of creating the de facto one-party dictatorship. Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest in the Zanu PF dictatorship are not going to give up absolute power, not now, not ever.
If the MDC leaders had any intention of pushing the democratic change agenda, they certainly forgot all about it during the GNU. President Mugabe offered them the trappings of high office. they were bonafide members of the ruling elite, and they kicked reforms into the prickly pear thicket. The MDC leaders were shocked by the 2013 election results, they had expected Zanu PF to rig the vote but not to the extend giving Zanu PF a landslide victory. Still the MDC leaders have now settled for what ever Zanu PF throws at them
To get out of the hell-hole Zanu PF has landed the nation, Zimbabwe needs to hold free, fair and credible elections and as a matter of great urgency - of that there can be no debate. The only sure way to achieve this now is for these flawed and illegal elections to be declared null and void.
The British and the whole international community must now show their disapproval of these MDC cowboys and their selfish agenda of betraying the ordinary people for selfish gain. These MDC leaders believe they can win rigged elections, we must not join them in the madness!
@ Naome
ReplyDeleteWhy are you refusing to talk about Zanu PF's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and thus denying the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans their basic right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country which is what we are talking about here? Are these people's rights and suffering not important?
It is true that by seizing power Chamisa has divided MDC-T unnecessarily. The damage is done and can never be repaired. He could have gone on to win the leadership in a democratic vote but that is all water under the bridge. Khupe has every right to dismiss Chamisa's claim as leader of the party!
ReplyDeleteED promise to increase war veterans' pension.
ReplyDeleteThis is just another vote buying gimmick no different from Mugabe's $50 000 in the late 1990s to buy war veterans' blind support of the regime. The only real hope for economic prosperity is through reviving the economy.
@ Chiremba
ReplyDeleteAnd after saying all that, you still have to admit that MDC leaders had five years in the GNU and yet they failed to get the reforms in place to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!
SADC leaders, the Americans and many others have been arguing that elections should not be taking place without the reforms and MDC leaders are the ones who are not listening. As David Coltart has already admitted, by taking part in flawed elections MDC are giving the flawed elections credibility.
“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,” admitted Coltart.
You are impressed by quantity, MDC leaders and their supporters are numbering in their thousands but that has not stopped them blundering from pillar to post. There was but a handful of people who have called for democratic reforms to be implemented during the GNU and time has proven them right!