Without reforms Zanu PF will rig elections, SADC warned - now ignoring warning N Garikai

“Chawawana batisisa, medzimu hapi kaviri!” (Make the most of a given opportunity because you may not get another chance!) so goes the Shona adage. 

Zimbabwe had its golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms designed to end the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF  dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. We failed to get even one reform implemented in five years and the opportunity was lost and have lived to regret it.

Those Zimbabweans who have been hoping that SADC leaders will give us another chance to end the dictatorship following last July’s rigged elections and Zanu PF resorting to its default setting of using violence to impose its dictatorial rule have been disappointed. SADC leaders are not interested in helping us end the country’s political crisis.

Indeed, if anything, SADC leaders are fighting in Mnangagwa’s corner.

“The SADC Heads of State and Government noted that since coming to power, the new Government of Zimbabwe has continued with concerted efforts to address socioeconomic challenges and transform the economy, particularly through the Zimbabwe Transitional Stabilization Programme (2018-2020), and to consolidate unity and peace in the country,” reads the statement from Dr. Hage G. Geingob President of the Republic of Namibia, and Chairperson of SADC.

“This, notwithstanding, some internal groups, in particular NGOs, supported by external forces, have continued with efforts to destabilise the country.”

What? Are SADC leaders blind? Zanu PF rigged the elections and is now using wanton violence to hang on to power and SADC leaders are siding with the regime!

Following the 2008 to 2013 GNU’s failure to implement even one democratic reforms, it was none other than SADC leaders themselves who advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to postpone the 2013 elections until reforms were implemented. 

“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Violet Gonda in an interview in 2017.

“I went there. 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’.”

Sadly, MDC leaders ignored the SADC leaders’ warning, just as they had ignored the SADC leaders’ many reminders for MDC leaders to implement the reforms. As expected Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections. 

When President Mnangagwa seized power in the 2017 military coup, he promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. He has failed to implement even one reform and blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections. 

SADC leaders are ignoring that Mnangagwa rigged the elections and is therefore illegitimate. The regional leaders are, seemingly, ignoring that not even one reform was ever implemented since their June 2013 warning to MDC leaders on reforms and they are ignoring the reports of all the democratic nations who condemned the 2018 elections as flawed and illegal.

Worse still, Zanu PF is using wanton violence to silence those protesting the rigged elections and the worsening economic situation. It is disheartening that SADC leaders should be supporting the regime and not the masses the regime has terrorised all these years. 

“The SADC Heads of State and Government further noted that the Government's efforts to transform the economy and bring about prosperity to the people of Zimbabwe are negatively affected by the illegal sanctions that were imposed on the country since the early 2000,” continued President Geingob. 

Ever since 2016 when the then President Robert Mugabe confessed that Zimbabwe was being “swindled” of $15 billion in diamond revenue the Zanu PF regime has all but stopped blaming sanctions for the country’s economic decline . No nation could sustain that level of economic haemorrhage much less Zimbabwe with a GDP of $10 billion.

Both President Mnangagwa and Mugabe have never arrested even one swindler and there is nothing to suggest the wholesale looting has stopped. It is therefore a great shame that SADC leaders should be the ones peddling a discredited Zanu PF propaganda falsehood!

The targeted sanctions have served the purpose of highlighting Zanu PF leaders’ failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The Americans could not have explained the linkage more plainly than they did before the 2018 elections. All those who know that Zanu PF blatantly rigged last July’s elections and appreciates the importance of ending this curse of rigged elections as the pre-requisite to good governance in Zimbabwe will want the sanctions to remain. 

Indeed, sanctions must be extended to included individuals propping the Zanu PF dictatorship like Professor Mthuli Ncube, Minister Kirsty Coventry, the 24 President Advisory Council members. The West must also include the opposition members on the sanctions list; they have continued to participate in flawed and illegal elections against advice not to for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF throws away as bait. 

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. Indeed the economic meltdown will only get worse. With unemployment already a dizzying 90%, basic services such as supply of clean water and health care all but collapse, etc. Zimbabwe is sinking into the abyss.

The only way to save Zimbabwe from this man-made tragedy of economic chaos and political paralysis is to force Zanu PF to step down to create the political spare for the appointment of an interim administration. The administration will be entrusted with the task of implementing the democratic reforms to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and replace it with a democratic system of government.

It is a great pity that SADC leaders have clearly given up hope of Zimbabwe ever holding free, fair and credible elections after the 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement the necessary reforms. Yes SADC leaders have good reason to be angry with the MDC leaders for selling-out during the GNU but nothing will ever justify the regional leaders’ support of the Mnangagwa dictatorship. 

“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned. Of course SADC leaders know Zanu PF rigged not just the 2013 elections but the 2018 elections too. It is a crying shame that SADC leaders are propping this illegitimate Mnangagwa regime, giving it some modicum of credibility and legitimacy. That is totally unacceptable!