At the heart of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown; which has send
unemployment rate soaring to dizzying height of 90%, left 3/4 of the population
living in abject poverty, etc.; is the decades of gross mismanagement and
rampant corruptions. At the heart of the decades of corrupt and tyrannical
misrule is the Zanu PF dictatorship.
The nation has had many golden opportunities, notably during the 2008 to
2013 GNU, to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but they have all been wasted. The
people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on
the promise they will deliver the democratic changes necessary to stop Zanu PF
rigging elections. After nearly two decades on the political centre stage, MDC
leaders have failed to bring about even one democratic change. They are a
corrupt, incompetent and confused lot!
“For (inter-party) dialogue to take place, the convenor must be neutral
and must be seen to be neutral. What is at stake is a conflict mainly between
Mnangagwa and President Adv Nelson Chamisa. As a consequence, conflict
transcends to the supporters of the MDC and Zanu PF,” wrote Jacob Mafume, MDC
Alliance spokesman.
“It was clear from the ZEC processes that the numbers kept changing.
Observer missions made the point that results were unverifiable and
untraceable.
“What concerns the MDC is that illegitimacy issues around Mnangagwa are
holding the country back.
“The people of Zimbabwe are suffering, the wheels are coming off on the
economy, social service delivery is abandoned and lives of citizens are being
unnecessarily lost in hospitals that have been turned into death traps.”
MDC Alliance leaders are a confused lot alright and their confusion is
mudding the political waters making it hard for the nation to see the way
forward out of the mess. There a number of points Nelson Chamisa and his MDC
Alliance are failing to grasp:
1.
first and foremost,
national elections are, as the name implies, national matters going beyond the
individual contestants and their respective political parties and supporters.
Last year’s election process had so many flaws and illegalities it is clear
that many ordinary Zimbabwean voters were denied a meaningful free, fair and
credible vote. A flawed and illegal election process cannot produce a
legitimate result and so neither Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF nor Chamisa and his
MDC Alliance can ever claim to have the people’s mandate to govern.
2.
It is not a matter
of last year’s elections failed to produce a clear winner but, worse than that,
it failed to produce a legitimate winner and loser. Whilst the former is easily
resolved by formation of a coalition or a minority government. In the latter case
none of the contestant have any legal basis to claim power.
3.
Whilst everyone
would agree to the need for dialogue to chart the way out of the constitutional
dead-end the country finds itself in as a result of the rigged July 2018
elections. Still, only some one who is politically naive would accept those
responsible for the rigged elections and thus landing the nation into the mess
playing a role, much less a leading role, in the proposed dialogue. Both Zanu
PF and MDC landed us in this mess and they must play no part, especially since
they failed to deliver any meaningful reforms last time the nation had a
similar political impasse in 2008.
4.
Sure enough,
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown causing untold human suffering and deaths in
Zimbabwe. However there will be no meaningful economic recovery as long as the
country remains a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs. It is very
presumptuous of MDC to think they can wave away Mnangagwa’s illegitimacy
problems and fool the world into believing Chamisa’s inclusion in the Zanu PF
regime transformed the pariah state into a democratic one. Everyone remembers
how utterly useless MDC was in the last GNU and know this is one leopard that
will never lose its spots. The economic situation in Zimbabwe demands a solution
to the country’s political and economic mess and not a gimmick!
“Mnangagwa stands to benefit from genuine dialogue. Sadly, he has chosen
to be the sole impediment to its convening. He has no right or authority to
declare how dialogue should happen, pretending to be conducting dialogue to
save face,” concluded Mafume.
She said Cowdray Park has more than 23 000 registered voters and 36 polling stations but by 1pm only 2 524 people had cast their votes. Mrs Khupe said some people were turned away for failing to produce correct identity documentation.
ReplyDeleteThere are reports of Zanu PF donating 60 tonnes of maize meal and 30 tonnes of rice. So if the party polled 3 000 vote this will mean the party paid 20 kg of maize meal plus 10 kg of rice for each vote! Talk of the elections being free, fair and credible when only Zanu PF can afford to contest in these elections!
Vote buying coming to its own in the rural areas where the people are often totally dependent on state handouts!
What Chamisa has clearly failed to understand is that the EU had election observers in Zimbabwe and they have dismissed the whole election process as a sham because of the flaws and illegalities.
ReplyDelete“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” said the EU mission final report.
The EU’s position is an election process that has numerous errors, not traceable, etc. cannot produce a meaningful result and hence refused to accept Mnangagwa’s claim as the winner. It beggars belief that Chamisa expects the EU to accept him as the winner of the same flawed and illegal process.
Zanu PF is illegitimate and the party should step down to the nation to move on. The only dialogue is to ask Zanu PF to step down and the EU would help in that process. The EU will never support Chamisa's wild goose chase. Never!
Without first implementing the democratic reforms, Zanu PF will always win at least 2/3 of the seats. The party knows that as long as it gives away a few gravy train seats the opposition will participate regardless how flawed and illegal the process get. People like Chamisa, Biti and the rest in the opposition they are quite happy winning the scraps and do not care that elections are rigged or, worse still, the rigged elections means the country being stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime!
ReplyDeleteMDC and the rest in the opposition camp are paying lip service to calls for free, fair and credible elections, good governance and ending the suffering of the masses. MDC are hunting with the hounds and running with the hare; the day the people wake-up to this political reality will be the day Zimbabwe will finally see real democratic change.
"My brother ED (Emmerson Dambudzo) is bizarrely delusional and thoroughly mistaken," Chamisa said on Twitter, reacting to a picture of leaders of the minority parties at State House.
ReplyDeleteBut then so are you, Chamisa; so are you! You agree the elections were rigged and Mnangagwa is illegitimate and yet are calling for dialogue with the illegitimate Mnangagwa on the basis that you can end his illegitimacy. How?
By participating in flawed and illegal elections, you gave the process some modicum of legitimacy and credibility. And now by calling for these inter-party dialogues you are mudding the political waters. The illegitimate Zanu PF should just step down to allow for the appointment of an interim administration!
@ Gombe
ReplyDeleteA tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye and turn the country into a nation of toothless and blind zombies! For a nation with already 3/4 living in abject poverty with no regular job, whose basic services such as supply of clean water and health care have all but collapse, etc. one would have thought Zimbabweans have more than enough trouble without adding having to lose their teeth and eyes too! Tit for tat!
@ Kasuve
ReplyDeleteWhat we are asking President Ramaphosa to do is to be honest and call a spade a spade. We all know that Zanu PF rigged last year's elections and are shocked to hear him say the elections were fine! Zimbabwe's economic recovery is dependent on the country having a competent and accountable government and by supporting the vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship Ramaphosa is undermining our fight for a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe.
There would not be so many Zimbabwean economic and political refugees if Zimbabwe was a stable and prosperous nation. By supporting the voting rigging Mnangagwa, Ramaphosa is denying us a chance to achieve meaningful economic recovery and thus forcing more Zimbabweans to be refugees. Having forced Zimbabweans to be refugees Ramaphosa is then encouraging South Africans to burn the refugees alive! That kind of duplicity and stupidity cannot be tolerated and must be condemned in no uncertain terms!
It is not the west who are demanding regime change but the ordinary Zimbabweans. How much longer do you think Zanu PF can continue to deny the people their fundamental right to a meaning vote under the pretext that all those demanding free, fair and credible elections are agents of the west?
ReplyDeleteMany ordinary Zimbabweans have condemn last year's elections but, as usual, their voices have been ignored. It is an insult that black Zimbabweans did not see that Zanu PF rigged elections and we are sick and tired of being ignored!